03/29/1971 - Laserfiche WebLink

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W DEAR FELLOW PROPERTY OWNER: 26379 FREMONT ROAD. LOS ALTOS HILLS, CALIFORNIA 94022 March 19, 1971 The Town of Los Altos Hills is faced with a serious financial problem regarding its contract with Palo Alto fox sanitary sewer capacity rights. Our contract with Palo Alto for capacity in the sewage treatment plant, trunk lines and related facilities, as negotiated by a previous Council in 1968, provides for a total payment of $400,000 over the period 1968 to 1973 inclusive. The contract also provides for our participation in the cost of the new Tri -City secondary treatment plant now under construction. Our obligation for this facility is $270,000 to be paid for in installments over twelve years starting in 1970-71. Assuming that no new sewer assessment districts are formed in the Palo Alto Basin, we will be going in the red starting July 1, 1972. At the time the Palo Alto contract was initiated, two sewer assessment districts were formed consisting of a total of 520 units. Each unit in the districts was assessed and has paid $450 for capacity rights. In addition, each unit which has hooked up to the sewer system (163 in all), has paid and is obligated to pay *e $90 per year sewer service charge. These assessments and charges are the only sources of income to the sewer fund at the present time and are not sufficient to fulfill our future obligations to Palo Alto. Our contract with Palo Alto assures all the residents in the Palo Alto Basin that the Palo Alto sewer system has sufficient capacity to accommodate 2075 units of household sanitary sewage from that area of Los Altos Hills. However, only the 520 units in the existing assessment districts have paid for ^capacity rights". It appears that the equitable solution is to form a "Sewer Capacity Assessment District", assign capacity rights to all buildable sites in the Palo Alto Basin, excluding those who have already paid, and assess the remainder a reasonable amount to amortize our commitment to Palo Alto. Preliminary estimates indicate that an assessment of approximately $260 per unit of benefit would fulfill our obligations. It should be noted that the proposed assessment would pay only for the capacity right reserved for the property owner but would not involve construc- tion of sewer lines or connection to sewer lines and would not guarantee that sewer lines would be constructed in the future. Enclosed is a cash flow projection prepared by our City Manager, which underscores the deficit problem and a map of the area concerned. On Monday, March 29 at 7:45 P. M. in Town Hall a Public Hearing will be held to present background data on this financial problem, outline possible solutions and to listen to your thoughts on this subject. No Council action will be taken at this meeting since our purpose will be to gather ,deas and answer questions. I invite you to attend. It �Sine�/r// AV k WALTBR AVN}^ Mayor WAR/mam Town Of Los Altos Hills Encls. (2)