City Considers Forming Lighting District

A week after city voters turned down a revenue-producing parcel tax, Rancho Palos Verdes officials are scrambling to find new ways of raising money.

Meeting Tuesday night, the City Council moved toward establishing a lighting and landscaping district to pay for the maintenance of park landscaping, median strips and traffic signals.

Officials expect the plan, which would cost property owners about $50 per parcel, to raise between $500,000 and $800,000 each year. The proposed parcel tax, which voters rejected on April 14, would have assessed $200 per parcel and raised the $3 million the city needs to erase its deficit.

Officials reported that BSI Consultants, a Santa Ana firm, has already done some work on forming the district, although the city does not yet have a formal contract with the company. In order for the city to have the assessment district included on the tax rolls for fiscal year 1992-93, public hearings would have to be scheduled for early August.

The council intends to hold several Town Hall meetings in the hope that a well-informed public will support creating the district.

In related matters, the council agreed to scrub the swimming program at Miraleste Intermediate School unless the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, from which the city leases the pool during the summer, agrees to waive $5,000 in costs and the community raises enough money to reduce another $23,500 in city costs.

“We’re trying to send a message that we don’t want to close it, but we may have to,” Mayor John McTaggart said.

The council also will cancel the city’s annual July 4 celebration unless a private vendor can be found to pull the party together. The council agreed to subsidize at most $2,500 of the party’s $7,500 cost.