Turn out the lights, pocket party is over
By Nathan R. Huff
County pocket residents who don't feel like paying the lighting service assessment district may find themselves in the dark starting in July.
Approximately 12,000 pocket residents, including some in Los Gatos and Redwood Estates, will choose to either put more money into the County Lighting Service Area (CLSA) District, or pull the plug on their streetlights. Only a small percentage of county residents have streetlights, mostly residents of the unincorporated urban pockets.
Santa Clara County mailed notification to pocket residents within the CLSA district, asking them to approve an increase in the assessed lighting cost. Each of the 13 separate geographical "benefit zones" will vote on the assessment, which varies according to the level of lighting service.
For years, the county has subsidized the lighting costs using a PG&E refund it was awarded for years of PG&E overcharging. The county passed the refund on to its residents, and when the fund ran out in 1999, residents were asked to pay the difference. By less than one percent, they voted the assessment down.
"The Board [of Supervisors] has never picked up the cost, since it was started in 1964," Bob Van Etten, Santa Clara County Manager of Land Development Services said.
Never until last year. The county, unsure on how to proceed following the failed assessment drive, agreed to pick up the extra lighting cost for one year while the Department of Roads and Aviation contracted with the civil engineering firm Berryman and Henigar to work on a new assessment campaign.
They have broken the pockets into 13 different zones, and within each zone there are various levels of lighting service. The three levels of service are determined by how close together streetlights are, and the rates are adjusted accordingly. In Redwood Estates, Van Etten said residents will pay $8.33 annually, while in Los Gatos, pocket residents with streetlights would pay between $22.90 and $55.90 annually, depending on the level of service.
According to Joe Francisco, vice-president of Berryman and Henigar, the company and county had 15 well-attended meetings with county residents to explain the need for an increase. Francisco said the average increase for single family homes countywide is around $7 a year. The assessment rate will be printed on each card the county mails out.
"It's not that we're saying, 'you must have this,' " Van Etten said. "It's a service people want."
A public hearing will be held on June 27, at 2 p.m. at the County Government Center in San Jose.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
