COUNTYWIDE : Trustees Consider Assessment District

The Huntington Beach Union High School District and three of its feeder elementary school districts are considering levying a fee on property owners to defray some maintenance and capital costs.

The high school district and the Huntington Beach City, Ocean View and Westminster school districts have proposed a joint Maintenance Assessment District. All residential and commercial property owners in the maintenance district would pay an additional fee to the school districts.

The districts would use the extra money for maintenance and improvements of tennis courts, baseball diamonds, recreation centers and other facilities used for community activities.

Each district now maintains facilities that are only partly used for school services. Imposing the fee would allow the districts to be compensated for the non-school portion of those costs.

Two consultants are studying the proposal to determine how much each district could save through the plan, said Dave Hagan, the high school district’s assistant superintendent for business services.

The state Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972 allows public agencies to form an assessment district to finance the maintenance, service and improvement of facilities and grounds used by the public.

The fee would be added to property tax bills throughout the assessment district. The additional cost to property owners would probably range from $35 to $55 per year, according to Marshall B. Krupp, president of Anaheim-based Community Systems Associates Inc., one of the consultants.

Unlike some other assessment districts, such as the Mello-Roos utilities and street improvement districts, a maintenance district does not require approval by the district’s voters.

The Fountain Valley School District’s board last week rejected a request to join the other school districts in the plan. Trustee Barbara Vogel decried it as “taxation without representation.”

The boards of the Huntington Beach City and Westminster school districts, however, agreed to form an assessment district as a means of easing the budget crunch that is affecting school districts statewide. The Huntington Beach Union High School District and Ocean View School District boards will consider the proposal later this month.

The districts agreeing to form an area to levy the fee would then schedule a joint public hearing in July, Hagan said. If the school boards approve the proposal, it would go into effect for the 1991-92 school year, he said.

At least six other high school districts in the county are considering assessment districts under the 20-year-old act. The Azusa Unified School District is the only district in the state that has formed a Maintenance Assessment District.