Mayor tries to revive project

June Casagrande

The final phase of renovations in Balboa Village was planned around

the assumption that property owners would vote to move utilities

poles underground. But now that owners have voted down a plan to tax

themselves for the work, improvement plans are on the brink of death.

Mayor Tod Ridgeway, a longtime proponent of the renovations, said

he’s searching for ways to revisit the matter.

“We’re looking at re-designating the assessment district to bring

it back for another vote,” Ridgeway said.

How to do that is unclear. Laws governing assessment district

votes might not be flexible enough to allow the city to hold a new

vote within a year.

Ridgeway said he is talking with property owners in the village to

convince them to change their votes. He believes that the owners of

some large properties might be persuaded to change, he said.

Michel Pourmussa, owner of the Balboa Inn, voted against the tax

to move the utilities underground, but now says he regrets the vote

because he misunderstood the terms for paying his property’s $17,000

assessment.

“I didn’t understand that it’s paid over years; I couldn’t have

afforded that all at once, but because it’s paid over time, it’s

something I would like to see happen,” Pourmussa said, adding that he

supports the idea of moving the utilities underground and would like

a chance to vote in favor of the work.

With owners of a few of the larger properties changing their

minds, the previous vote could be overturned, Ridgeway said. That is

because the taxes and the votes are weighted differently for each

property depending on parcel size and the types of utilities each

property uses.

The owners of 93 properties in the area were asked to pay between

$965 and $53,626 over a 15-year period to finance the work. Of the 66

property owners who cast ballots last week, 33 voted no. But because

of the complicated formula used to measure the burden each would

carry, the 33 no votes were weighted as 54% opposed.

“I hope they do bring it back,” said Catalina Flyer co-owner Bob

Black, who voted to pay more than $53,000 to move the utilities

underground. “The area needs it. When you put the utilities

underground, it makes your area look so much better.”

The third phase of the improvements for Balboa Village would have

included work on the street, sidewalks and gutters in the assessment

district area, which is between. The work was not yet funded -- city

officials were seeking grant money -- so a date to start the work had

not been set. Their plan was to do the renovation work at the same

time as the utilities work to save the expense of tearing up

sidewalks and streets twice.