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I I ' I II , That is what the public voted to do. They changed significantly how the vote will take place. If there was an assessment district with only ten parcels and one parcel was ten -- times the rest of them, that one parcel would dictate what happens in that area... I never agreed with it. I thought that was poor language. But that is exactly what people voted for when they voted for 218." In response to Councilman Ruskin's questions regarding why the election was scheduled at this time, City Manager Everett said, "I think there are two reasons: One, since 218 passed I told the developers they can't go forward on those landscaping plans, and both the Cove and the other one have been incredibly upset because the developer is building that landscaping in their backyards. That is part of what they look back on. They have been pushing the developer to get those things built as per the requirement of our plan. But I have been telling the developer I am not going to allow it, because when we cut the deal with the developer, and this is what happens when you have an Initiative it just can turn the apple cart upside down, we had a plan with the developer that is no different from what you have now. If 218 had not passed you already approved the Assessment District, and those assessments would have ratcheted up, and everybody we are talking about would have paid those assessments. You wouldn't have to have this election, but this has already been done. 218 says... you have to redo it. But if there was no 218 it is no different. The developer basically will put in all of that landscaping, and as they sell each home, that will be a charge on each home out there. The plan was to have intensive landscaping, and we said in our agreement with the developer, we can't afford that. The developer said we understand that. We will have an assessment district, and we will put that on the homes ~ out there. What happened was 218 passed and it said, if you have done anything back to January of 1995 you have to redo it. Now we either redo it and get our costs covered, or the Council has to eat $150,000 a year on maintenance that we had never planned to eat. Because that was never part of our agreement with the developer." Councilman Ruskin asked, "In order for the people who are already there to have their land areas landscaped we need to approve the entire thing?" City Manager Everett answered, "They bought their parcels knowing what the development behind them was going to be, and knowing that they were going to be in that Assessment District." He added that when the District was established there were about 170 homes already built, "and they were part of that vote." In response to the questions of dividing the area into two areas, occupied and unoccupied parcels, City Manager Everett said, "The Plan says you will do all of this... One of the homeowners requested to come into the District, we didn't have them in initially... and they have also requested that the landscaping be made more intense. We conceded to that and the District passed... Because of Proposition 218 we have to go back and redo that. You don't want to get into a position, repeat, you do not want to be in the position where you have an obligation of $150,000 and you are asking either on an annual basis or some other basis, people to approve that because they will vote 'no'. People generally do not like taxes, and yet have ~ approved landscaping in a legal contract, the development agreement, which we said we couldn't afford, and that we would put into an assessment district. We are trying to be ADJOURNED REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 55 JUNE9,I997 MINUTES Page No. 399 PAGE 13