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LAFCO extends protest hearing to June 14

Lucette Moramarco

Associate Editor

Due to an old address being given out for the mailing of protest letters, causing some of the letters to be returned to their senders, the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission is extending the deadline for the submission of protest forms on the commission’s earlier conditional approval to expand Fallbrook Public Utility District’s activated functions to include (a) parks and recreation, (b) street lighting, and (c) roads and streets.

While LAFCO is holding the originally scheduled protest hearing on May 31, at 10 a.m., in FPUD’s boardroom, protest forms may be mailed as late as May 31 as long as they have that date’s postmark. Protest forms may also be turned in at the beginning of that meeting or at the beginning of the continued hearing June 14, 10 a.m., at FPUD, 990 E. Mission Road.

According to a legal notice posted in today’s Village News (page D-6), “Extending the protest hearing is explicit to ensuring any written protests postmarked before May 31st – including those mailed to LAFCO using the previous mailing address – are received in a timely manner.”

Protest forms can be submitted to: San Diego LAFCO, Attn: Tamaron Luckett, 2550 Fifth Avenue, Suite 725, San Diego, CA 92103-6624. Protest forms for landowners and registered voters are available at https://www.sdlafco.org/. A copy of the notice is also available in Spanish on the San Diego LAFCO website, as listed above.

At the top of the form, after “Proposal”, ratepayers are requested to write in the name of the proposal as written on the notice, “FALLBROOK PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICT LATENT POWERS ACTIVATION” LAFCO FILE NO. LP(A)19-27.

LAFCO’s conditional approval of FPUD’s expansion of functions includes a requirement for FPUD setting water rates under Proposition 218 to sufficiently make available $0.546 million in property taxes to fund the three new service functions that otherwise have subsidized water services.

This means that FPUD would need to raise water rates to make up for the property tax revenue being diverted to the community benefits project, increasing rates by $5 per meter per month.

FPUD General Manager Jack Bebee has said that if FPUD and Rainbow Water are able to detach from the San Diego County Water Authority and join the Eastern Municipal Water District, the resulting reduction in the cost of water purchased, would make it unnecessary to raise water rates to pay for the community benefit project.

LAFCO’s decision on the detachment is expected later this year.

 

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