Mill Valley continues tree district parcel tax
Mill Valley will continue a special tree district and its associated parcel tax to help manage the vegetation.
The City Council held a public hearing Monday regarding the annual adoption of the parcel tax on the Tamalpais Park Street Tree Assessment District. The hearing was the last step in the process for the city to collect the taxes and proceed with the work needed in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. However, the funds will only cover about 21% of the work needed.
The assessment district was founded 40 years ago when residents agreed to help fund extra maintenance of the large, historic trees that line the streets. The main streets that comprise the district are Sycamore Avenue, Walnut Avenue, Catalpa Avenue, Locust Avenue and Fern Avenue. It has 275 parcels that can be assessed.
“The Tam Park Assessment District is a neighborhood, roughly a triangle between Sycamore, East Blithedale and Locust Street,” said Mark Neumann, the operations superintendent for the city.
The assessment is $50 per parcel with a city-planted tree in public property fronting such parcels or where the tree canopy extends over those parcels, and $35 per parcel on parcels that do not have trees fronting or extending over them.
The parcel tax will bring in an estimated $12,700 for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. The funds are used to pay for tree maintenance like pruning and replanting.
The work is managed by California Tree and Landscape Consulting Inc. The management plan is updated every five years, most recently in March.
“We got bids afterwards, and we proved that the annual cost of maintaining the district is about $60,000 a year,” Neumann said. “The sycamores, locusts and other trees are beginning to age out, which sort of proves the need for a medium-term continuation of that fee.”
The lowest bid for the recommended work was $57,000, according to a city staff report. While representatives from the Tamalpais Park Neighborhood Association support increasing the fees in the future to cover costs, they said they have not been able to discuss the issue with their neighbors in time to increase fees in the upcoming fiscal year.
The board of the neighborhood association wrote a letter of support to the City Council for the district. The letter also outlined plans to raise fees in the future.
“As noted in the Staff Report, the Board recognizes that the current assessments fall short of projected needs and associated costs,” the board members wrote. “The Board will work with Mark and the City to craft an appropriate community outreach/education plan to establish proposed assessment levels, and to develop a ballot initiative.”
No protests were filed against the district fees for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, and no members of the public spoke at the hearing. Mayor Urban Carmel said the district is mutually beneficial to the city and the residents, and that there has never been opposition to it.
“This is a great example of Mill Valley people being well organized and willing to take responsibility,” Carmel said. “Because of that we have, for a long time, had a collaborative process between the neighborhood and the city to take care of these trees. It’s just a wonderful thing.”
Neumann said the staff is planning a forum with the neighborhood association to discuss funding the tree maintenance. He said the goal is to have a ballot measure to increase the assessment.