Supervisors decrease street lighting district assessment

The assessment for Zone A of the San Diego County Street Lighting District will decrease from $13.50 to $10 per benefit unit.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Aug. 5 to approve the new assessment along with the engineer’s report. The most recent increase in 2016 addressed rising electricity costs but also allowed for the completion of a phased retrofit of high-pressure sodium street lights to light-emitting diode bulbs which will be more energy-efficient and the lower operating costs enabled the assessment to be reduced by 25.93% for fiscal year 2020-2021.

The San Diego County Street Lighting District was formed in September 1987. The district itself includes the entirety of unincorporated San Diego County; Zone A covers parcels which benefit from street lights in the district while Zone B consists of the remainder of the district. The district maintains and operates 10,416 street lights, including approximately 3,780 which are owned by San Diego Gas & Electric, in residential areas and along major roadways.

Zone A covers nearly 100,000 parcels and more than 120,000 benefit units. In 1987, voters approved an assessment rate of up to $25 per year per benefit unit, with a single-family home equating to one benefit unit. The other maximum approved assessments are $850 per acre for commercial property, $150 per acre for institutional buildings, $50 per acre for industrial land, $25 per acre for recreational parcels, and $2.50 per acre for farm land.

The assessment was reduced from $23 to $2.50 per benefit unit in 1990 and stayed at $2.50 until 2004, when rising energy costs and a state budget shift from special districts did not allow efficiency to offset the additional expenses. The assessment per benefit unit was increased to $5.33 for fiscal year 2004-2005, $5.60 for 2005-2006, $5.88 for 2006-2007, $6.17 for 2007-2008 and $6.48 for 2008-2009. Stabilized energy, labor and material costs had allowed the assessment to remain unchanged at $6.48 per equivalent dwelling unit between 2008 and 2015.

The increased energy prices caused the 2016 assessment increase and that also allowed for the retrofit to the light-emitting diode bulbs. In 2015, the street lighting district obtained a California Energy Commission loan to convert approximately 2,000 high-pressure sodium lights to LED bulbs to create an estimated savings of 1.8 megawatt-hours of energy use each year, but that loan only allowed for the conversion of approximately one-third of the county’s high-pressure sodium bulbs. The increased rate allowed for a phased retrofit over several years of the remaining high-pressure sodium bulbs. The conversion to LED bulbs was implemented in 2017 and is expected to be complete this calendar year.

The San Diego County Street Lighting District receives revenue from the base property tax and from interest on reserves as well as from the benefit assessment. The total fiscal year 2020-2021 operating budget for the district is $2,715,403 including $1,324,445 for utility payments to SDG&E. The district will utilize $192,738 of reserves for fiscal year 2020-2021 but will retain approximately $3.5 million in its reserve fund.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected]