May 22, 2020 Update:
The 2nd survey for the Neptune Drive Shoreline Flood Protection project is now closed!
Background
As reported previously by CivicMic, the City of San Leandro has proposed the formation of the Neptune Drive Assessment District to fund the construction of a levee near the intersection of Neptune Drive and Marina Boulevard.
Important: Formation of the proposed assessment district must be approved by the affected property owners. The City can’t form an assessment district without property owner participation.
The Neptune Drive assessment would impact approximately 1,055 parcels that benefit from the construction of the levee because these parcels were recently re-designated by FEMA as being in the flood zone. The new flood zone designation has resulted in an update of the Flood Insurance Rate Maps and in most cases mortgage companies requiring property owners to pay for flood insurance.
The construction of the levee would cause FEMA to re-designate the parcels as no longer being in the flood zone resulting in another update of the Flood Insurance Rate Maps reflecting the parcels off the flood zone and mortgage companies no longer requiring flood insurance.
Recent Events
The City has hosted two community meetings and released helpful information about the project and proposed the formation of the assessment district through CivicMic's platform (website, posts, emails, YouTube channel, and podcast). Since the most recent community meeting, held November 13, 2019, CivicMic has released a series of posts compiling all of the key information and most importantly the preliminary assessment amount for each affected property. Click on the text below to read a key post that compiles the recent posts and learn about how the formation of the assessment district affects your property before taking the new survey for the Neptune Drive Shoreline Flood Protection project. Please read the post (link below) and return here to learn about the next steps and how to take the survey. (Important: There is a link, towards the bottom of the post, to a web map where you can click on your property and see the applicable preliminary assessment amounts).
Next Steps
The formation of an assessment district requires the City to take certain steps, required by law, specifically designed to protect the taxpayers. Specifically, the City Council must initiate formation proceedings and mail a Notice and Ballot to the record owner of each property subject to the proposed assessment charge. The assessment district must be approved by the record owners.
Who then is the record owner that will receive the Notice and Ballot? The record owner is defined by the applicable laws as the owner of a parcel whose name and address appears on the last equalized secured property tax assessment roll, or in the case of any public entity, means the representative of that public entity at the address known to the agency.
What is the last equalized secured property tax assessment roll? This refers to the once a year (every July) release of parcel characteristics data by the County Assessor's Office. The parcel data includes ownership, mailing address, site address, land use, acreage, building square footage, and County assessed values.
How current is the ownership information in this equalized roll? Not very current. The last equalized roll was released in July 2019 generally reflecting real estate transactions through possible as old as of January 2019. We will augment our information with the most recent available data but that too will be months old.
Important: If you have purchased a property subject to the assessment since January 1, 2019, please email proof of ownership to pperez@civicmic.com so that you may receive a Notice and Ballot. Find out if your property is subject by reading the post referenced above and finding your property on the included web map. Proof of ownership may include a current utility bill or the top portion of the Final Closing/Settlement Statement showing the property address and escrow closing date.
The next steps for the City include evaluating the results of the new survey (5/22/2020 update - survey is now closed), finalizing cost estimates and the assessment engineer's report with final assessment amounts, and initiating proceedings for the formation of the assessment district through Council action. Click here to view a timeline indicating when the formation proceedings will commence by Council action. If you have not signed up, please use the form below and sign up to receive updates via email with exact dates and additional information as it becomes available.
Your participation and that of your neighbors in the process is very important! Please use the “Share this:” buttons at the bottom to share this post with your neighbors.