Pleasanton council OKs assessment increases for neighborhood landscaping districts

Property owners in the Ponderosa-Del Prado area will have to pay more than double in assessment fees after the Pleasanton City Council unanimously approved increases in that neighborhood’s landscape maintenance districts earlier this summer.

Homeowners affected by the fee change include those along Paseo Santa Cruz between Corte Santa Maria and Corte Pacifica.

Bonde Ranch property owners, located in the area east of downtown Pleasanton just off Bernal Avenue, will also see a change in their assessment fees. However, those property owners will either see a decrease in their fees, or an increase, depending on where their homes are located.

The July 27 vote came after the city conducted a Proposition 218 ballot process and public hearing where property owners in both districts had a chance to weigh in on the new assessment levels. 

“The public hearing is the conclusion of the ballot proceedings that allow property owners in the Ponderosa-Del Prado and the Bonde Ranch subdivisions to decide whether an assessment should be approved to provide funding for the proposed Ponderosa-Del Prado landscape maintenance district … and the Bonde Ranch landscape maintenance district,” Pleasanton Mayor Jack Balch said during the meeting.

According to Sharon Petrehn, a principal analyst at the City Manager’s Office, Pleasanton administers five landscape maintenance districts that provide “dedicated funding for landscaping, irrigation systems, trees, firebreaks, entry features, and other neighborhood infrastructure within specific residential subdivisions”.

Those five districts include the neighborhoods of Ponderosa-Del Prado, Bonde Ranch, Windsor, Oak Tree Farm and Moller Ranch.

But after the districts were first established in the 1980s and ’90s, Petrehn told the Pleasanton Weekly that assessment revenues have “not kept pace with rising maintenance, water, and infrastructure costs” – which is why the city decided to address those long-term funding challenges by increasing the assessment rates.

“The city has been proactively working with affected property owners to identify sustainable funding and service levels while maintaining transparency and complying with Proposition 218,” Petrehn said.

Proposition 218, Petrehn said, allows cities to increase property assessments by having the city undergo a property-owner ballot process.

“Ballots are weighted according to the proportional special benefit each property receives from the improvements and services funded by the district,” Petrehn said.

The city specifically sought to update the Ponderosa-Del Prado and Bonde Ranch assessment fees because, according to Petrehn, “these two districts faced the most significant funding shortfalls and lacked adequate resources for ongoing maintenance and long-term infrastructure needs.”

“Between November 2025 and April 2026, the city held three rounds of neighborhood meetings in each district to discuss financial conditions, maintenance priorities and potential service levels,” Petrehn said. “The city also provided dedicated informational websites, meeting materials and recordings, surveys and informational mailers to help property owners make an informed decision.”

During the July 27 council meeting, ballots were counted following an initial public hearing that night and were later presented to the council when considering approving the increases.

After staff tabulated the ballots, 54% of the weighted ballots in the Ponderosa-Del Prado area supported the increase. Over in Bonde Ranch, 63% of the ballots also supported its increase. 

According to the July presentation, the previous annual assessment per parcel in Ponderosa-Del Prado was just over $61. Now, thanks to the July vote, the district’s new assessment per year will range from about $241 to roughly $280, depending on what zone homeowners are located.

For Bonde Ranch, the assessment went from being nearly $400 per year, to now ranging from $278 to just over $633. 

These updated assessments will take effect in the current fiscal year and, according to Petrehn, will provide “more sustainable funding for maintenance and infrastructure within the two districts”.

The council also briefly discussed the three other landscape districts — Windsor, Oak Tree Farm, Moller Ranch — as part of a separate item. However, those assessments will remain unchanged for the current fiscal year as the dais only voted to approve the annual engineer’s reports and assessments necessary to continue operating those districts.

“The city continues to evaluate the long-term financial condition and infrastructure needs of all five districts,” Petrehn told the Weekly. “This approach allows the city to responsibly plan for aging infrastructure, maintain neighborhood assets and address funding needs in a transparent manner while ensuring that assessment revenues collected within each district are used exclusively for that district.”

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