The Saddle Creek CSD Board of Directors submitted an argument in favor of Measure A, which will be included in the May 2, 2017 voter information guide.  The Argument in Favor can be found on the District’s Measure A page.

ARGUMENT IN FAVOR
OF
MEASURE A
May 2, 2017
Saddle Creek Community Services District (CSD) is responsible for our community road and storm drain maintenance, entrance gate, street lighting, mosquito and weed control, trail/fire fuel break maintenance, monitoring and management of open space, wildlife and wetlands easements, and common area landscape maintenance. These services are funded by a special tax approved in 2000, which was set in expectation that the Saddle Creek community would include over 1100 lots by 2008; generating the $1.2 million necessary to fully fund the CSD provided services. Now in 2017, with only 560 lots created and paying the tax, the CSD is left $600,000 short of being able to fund expensive services including road maintenance, landscape improvements and reserves. Measure A was developed to fund this shortfall.

Our once excellent Saddle Creek roads are deteriorating rapidly and within five years (2021), the cost to repair them from a poor condition will be 500% more expensive than if we start improvements in 2017. Measure A provides funding to achieve immediate road improvements and allow for long term maintenance in a predictable condition of good-to-excellent. Drought and state water restrictions are inevitable; eliminating and reestablishing our road median irrigation and turf with every cycle is unsightly and expensive. Measure A provides funding for a well-planned, drought tolerant and beautiful landscape; unaffected by water restrictions and with lower maintenance costs. It also provides a critical source of funding for reserve accounts, restricted for equipment and infrastructure replacement.

Measure A will replace the existing $1,063 special tax with a $1,703 special tax; an increase of $53.33 per month ($640/year). The Measure A tax will also assign the tax to the golf course, fitness center, and large undeveloped lots owned by Castle & Cooke, who do not currently pay the existing tax for CSD services, maintenance, or improvements.

Filed under signature of the Saddle Creek CSD Board of Directors
February 3, 2017