14 Attachment 8 - Public CommentFrom: Lisa Petersen
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 3:57 PM
To: peuapeu@aol.com
Subject: Vasona Heights Benefit Zone
Dear Ms. Schumacher,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding your annual Lighting and Landscaping Assessment District (LLAD)
payment for the Vasona Heights Benefit Zone in your neighborhood. To provide you with some
background on the District, it was established in the early 1990‘s and was a requirement from the Town
at that time for the development of the Vasona Heights area. All residents who purchased a home
within the District are notified of the assessment through the escrow process.
The property owners within the Town’s LLAD areas pay an annual assessment for the Town’s
maintenance of these common areas. In the Vasona Heights District common area (shown in the
attached map), the Town maintains the trees, landscaping, irrigation, trails, emergency access road, and
retaining walls.
This year, in addition to paying for management of the maintenance, payment of a contract landscaper
and the water supplied by San Jose Water Company, the Town‘s maintenance staff completed additional
improvements totaling $25,079. These improvements included, renovation of the irrigation system with
water conservation measures added, replanting of the entry to the pathway at Blossom Hill Road,
planting of drought tolerant plants, repair of failed pavers on the pathway, and repair of the pathway
lighting. The maintenance staff worked directly with residents in the Vasona Heights District to identify
this added work.
Please note that due to state and federal environmental requirements around the creek and other
locations within your District, there are limits on allowable vegetation clearing. Also, since the Vasona
Heights development was approved through a public process based on having the District in place, the
Vasona Heights community would need to undertake a new public process through the Town to remove
the District. This process would include payment of processing and other associated fees and
development of a plan on how the community would collectively maintain and pay for the maintenance
of the common areas. Payment of these fees and development of the plan would not guarantee
approval of this request at the end of the process.
Sincerely,
Lisa Petersen
Assistant PPW Director/Town Engineer
ATTACHMENT 8
From: Cathy Schumacher <cschumacher56@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2020 11:19 AM
To: Clerk <Clerk@losgatosca.gov>
Cc: peuapeu@aol.com
Subject: Conditional written protest to levy annual assessments in landscaping and lighting
To: Linda Petersen, Town Engineer/Asst. Public Works Director
We live in the Vasona Heights benefit zone at 105 Ohlone Court. We are writing a written protest
against levying further property tax assessments for landscaping and lighting.
We already pay steep property taxes in our town. Our current property tax bill is $21,035/year. As we
are both retired, this is a large tax bill to put on seniors who live on fixed incomes. Additionally, we care
for a special needs son who lives with us in our home. We believe that Los Gatos needs to find ways to
balance the tax burden placed on its citizens while providing necessary services without adding annual
extra assessments.
We would feel differently about adding extra taxes IF they were used to clean out the dead trees and
overgrowth of foliage in the Los Gatos Creek bed. We have lived in the area for 7.5 years and have
never seen any substantial cleaning up on the overgrowth which we feel is a fire danger to all of those
living near the creek. Even with the fires in Napa, Santa Rosa and Paradise during recent years, we have
seen no change in the overgrowth in this area that puts us at an increased risk of fire. While we have
observed other local cities (i.e. Saratoga) do some extensive abatement of foliage overgrowth and tree
trimming, nothing has happened to the wonderful asset of our creek.
In conclusion, we protest further assessments to our property tax bill.
Sincerely,
Cathy Schumacher
(408)348-7189