City May Seek Advisory Vote on Assessment for Park

MOORPARK — Residents of a small neighborhood in downtown Moorpark may become the first in Ventura County to vote in an election triggered by California’s most recent tax-cutting initiative.

City officials are considering asking residents in the Villa Campesina neighborhood to vote in a nonbinding advisory election on whether they would support an assessment to maintain a proposed neighborhood park long sought by the community. City Council members will discuss the plan Wednesday.

If the idea of voting on maintenance for a park that doesn’t yet exist seems premature, Moorpark officials insist it is a necessary precaution. Ever since California voters in November overwhelming approved Proposition 218--which limits the ability of local governments to raise taxes--cities have worried about how they would fund routine services like maintaining parks and street lights and landscaping city property.

Proposition 218 requires that after July 1 assessments be approved by voters. So before plans move forward on Campesina Park, the city wants to make sure residents would be willing to support such an assessment when the need arises.

“We want to make sure that the residents have made a commitment to maintaining the park,” said Councilman Chris Evans, “and we want that commitment before we go ahead with it.”

Bruce Bradley, the county’s elections chief, said the Villa Campesina election would be the first such vote in Ventura County.

Other California counties have already begun taking steps to deal with the fiscal realities created by Proposition 218. Los Angeles County voters went to the polls today to vote on an assessment supporting the county’s Fire Department.

Bradley said many other counties rely more than Ventura County on assessment districts, which charge property owners for specific services. Some counties, for example, pay for ambulance or library services through assessments, he said.

“Our county does not have the exposure that other counties have,” he said. “Prop. 218 was not written with Ventura County in mind.”

If Moorpark’s council decides to hold the advisory election, it would take place sometime in the next few months and would probably cost from $800 to $1,000, said Ken Gilbert, the city’s public works director. The money would come from the Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., the nonprofit organization that built the “sweat-equity” Villa Campesina neighborhood with the help of the neighborhood’s residents.

Karen Flock, Cabrillo’s manager of the project, said she would welcome the vote if it would help get plans for the park moving again. For years, those plans have been delayed by funding problems and the need to secure easement rights to some of the property.

The thin triangle of land along the Arroyo Simi that residents hope will one day hold a basketball court is still just a tangle of weeds and mud.

Flock said the vote should give council members the assurance they need that someone will pay for maintaining the park.

“They could have said, ‘Let’s just sit on this a few years and see what happens [with Proposition 218],’ so I’m glad they didn’t do that,” she said.

However, even if neighborhood residents indicate they would support the assessment, Cabrillo still needs to find the money to build the park. Cabrillo has asked the city to contribute more than $60,000 to the project, which the developer estimates will cost $105,506. But so far, city officials have declined, saying that construction of the park is Cabrillo’s responsibility.