Castaic residents in the Hillcrest Parkway area who have long sought improvements to their landscaping will have to wait until early next year for their vote, officials said Friday.

More than 300 residents of the Hillcrest Parkway area — part of a county-run Landscape Maintenance District with 900 parcels — are in a Facebook group called “Keep Hillcrest Green,” which has sought support for yes votes on a ballot for higher landscaping fees.

That neighborhood’s common areas, hillsides and medians are overgrown, and no longer maintained, due to two previously unsuccessful county ballots for residents, which have sought to raise fees (which haven’t been adjusted for cost about 30 years), according to county officials.

Related story: Hillcrest Residents Talk Landscaping Options For Castaic Neighborhoods

Many residents of the area feel there’s now the support to garner a yes vote to increase cost — and drastically improve the area’s upkeep.

Residents in favor of the assessment increase — which the county has said is necessary if there’s going to be any increase in the landscaping efforts for that area — noted that a no vote would decrease property values, affect home insurance rates and make it difficult for residents to sell their home.

At the previous county meeting, some residents said since fewer than 200 parcels have an easement of the approximately 900 parcels in Zone 37, only those with an easement would be the ones who would see the greatest benefit.

Regardless, after several community meetings, county officials created a Request For Proposals, that it put out for bids from landscaping companies that would look at a third chance for residents to approve an increase in fees for a resulting increase in service.

However, the feedback for county officials from the bidders led county officials to believe “the language could have been tighter” in the proposal, according to spokesman Kerjon Lee, and at leastone of the bids was disqualified due to a technicality.

County officials with the Public Works Department decided it would be best to re-do the process altogether, Lee said, and with the holidays approaching, the earliest a meeting would be held is in January.

“We were originally looking at November,” Lee said, “but after talking to the community and Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office, we realize the holidays were not the best time to have a vote-by-mail ballot.”

As a result, a community meeting regarding the new bids, as well as a ballot, are likely to be sent out in January, with the votes collected and tallied in February, he said.

The county has thoroughly reviewed the estimated costs and service levels, so it expects to have the assessment back in the voters’ hands by late winter or early spring, he added.

From a previous story: County Working On Options For Hillcrest Parkway Landscape In Castaic

Zone 37 was established in 1990, and at the time, the assessment for the zone was $240. At the time the zone was formed, there was no mechanism in place to increase the assessment with regards to inflation, and the consumer price index (CPI), county officials said Thursday.

Since then, there have been two votes to increase the assessment, one in 2007, and another in 2014.

After the vote in 2007 was turned down, the county began to incrementally decrease service to the 897 parcels in Zone 37 based on the $240 assessment.

In 2014, the issue was approached again, but was voted down by homeowners.

“In 2017, we came to the conclusion that maybe we need to approach this in a different way,” said Lani Alfonso, who oversees about 150,000 trees in the county’s unincorporated area, as the supervisor of a team who manages 30 Landscape Maintenance Districts throughout Los Angeles County. “Our previous plan would’ve kept the assessment at $240, added an increase per year based on inflation, but would only maintained the areas along Hillcrest Parkway.”

The Department of Public Works then held a meeting at Castaic Middle School in March to inform the community of what their plan was for Zone 37.

After the meeting, Los Angeles County Public Works officials received an immense amount of feedback.

“The feedback was a resounding ‘No,’” added Alfonso.

Homeowners also communicated with county officials that some of the balloting information from previous ballots was not totally clear.

“We want to make sure we’re working directly with the community,” she said, “that way no one makes an uninformed decision.”

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