Homeowners’ fees no longer cover basic maintenance
Morgan Hill – Folks in the neighborhood agree: Conte Gardens Park doesn’t look so hot these days. The grass is brownish-black, the sandbox is full of weeds and the basketball hoop is sans net.
Still, 11 homeowners living around the tiny park on Conte Way have to pay about $450-$500 a year to “maintain” it – even though the city has reduced maintenance services to periodic weed abatement only.
Meanwhile, the neighborhood “pocket park” remains open to anyone in the public who wants to use it. That goes for skaters, dog owners without “poop bags” and, according to one neighbor, the occasional pack of youthful derelicts looking for a good brawling spot.
“This is a detriment to my house,” said Jim Clayton, who lives next door to the neglected park. “It doesn’t seem fair to us homeowners to pay for something we’re not getting.”
So what happened?
The park belongs to one of 20 sub-areas in the city’s Fox Hollow/Murphy Springs Landscape and Lighting Assessment District. Comprised of 755 property owners, the district was created in 1991 as a method of providing maintenance to areas to be held in common by a group of property owners who benefit from the areas.
The district does not include parks maintained by private homeowners associations or large city parks, such as Community Park on Edmundson Avenue, which are paid for by general fund tax dollars.
As homes were sold within the district, it was disclosed to the buyers that the landscape and lighting district’s maintenance fee would be part of their ownership responsibilities. But over time, maintenance costs rose in excess of assessments, said Mori Struve, deputy director of public works operations. Some neighborhoods are as much as $3,000 in debt for landscaping costs, according to the city.
So, in May 2005, ballots were sent to 706 property owners in 16 sub-areas asking them to vote on raising their assessment and/or accepting an annual inflator on their assessment. Three areas voted in favor of the rate increase and the inflator; two voted in favor of just the inflator. All the rest of the sub-areas, including Conte Gardens, voted against a rate increase or inflator. For Conte Gardens residents, the increase would have cost them an extra $272 a year – bringing their total assessment to about $750 annually.
Because of the failed balloting, the city reduced landscaping to the bare minimum in four sub-areas, including Conte Gardens. The change went into effect July 1, the start of the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
But property owners still must pay preexisting yearly assessments with their property taxes to cover past landscaping costs.
Clayton said he doesn’t see why he and others in his neighborhood should have to support a public park by themselves.
Kenneth Mort, who lives nearby on Shafer Avenue, agrees. He thinks the city should have added the park to a new homeowners association that was created this year. That way, with more people paying to maintain it, the cost per person might go down, he said.
“I think (the city) could have told people what they were going to do,” Mort said, alluding to the sharp reduction in services.
Mort, who isn’t one of the 11 property owners in the Conte Gardens sub-area, but often walks his dog to the park (conscientiously taking plastic bags with him), also said residents should have been more informed of how the park would deteriorate without services.
A new tract of homes just went in by the park, but those property owners won’t pay an assessment fee to maintain the feature. Instead, the new property owners will pay for an island of grassy landscaping butting against Conte Way that is technically private property.
Asked whether the city could sell the weedy park to a developer, so a new home might be added to the neighborhood, Struve said it would be impossible under the state law providing for the park’s existence.
Also, he said the park serves as a storm drain for rain run-off during the winter months.
Clayton said the park – a sunken parcel of land – becomes a mud pit during the winter with water rising to the top of the picnic tables.
He doesn’t think just the local residents should have to pay for it.
“In all the cities I’ve lived in, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Saratoga, every one had a small fee (for all residents) to pay for parks,” Clayton said. “It’s a ridiculous set-up (Morgan Hill) has.”
Struve said by vote of all property owners in the city, a city-wide lighting and landscape district could be formed that could include the current Fox Hollow/Murphy Springs district. It may also include such maintenance activities as public parks, street medians and public building grounds.
Shelly Conway, who takes morning walks through the park, said it’s a shame more can’t be done to maintain the land.
“It’s too bad they can’t keep it up so it would be a more attractive feature of the neighborhood,” Conway said.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@*************es.com
