June 19, 2023 – A vote was held on the Blackhorse assessment district, also known as the “Renaissance” area.
A vote for denial would keep the assessment reach the same as this fiscal year as well as keeping city government away from providing capital projects within the assessment district.
A vote for approval would bring change to the Blackhorse assessment district with city intervention.
A main point of contention appeared to be whether or not the Blackhorse assessment district would keep their community a gated community or not.
Members from the Blackhorse community were present at the meeting to present their dissatisfaction with intervention and were thereby told that the possibility of creation of a Homeowners Association was viable.
Mayor Lynne Ashbeck said “With our costs invested in this outweighs what we’re able to deliver to you….This is a 20-year problem. It’s a built-in dissatisfier and the only way out of that is to make that a public street.”
The vote, taken from residents of the Blackhorse assessment district, were counted live in a process taking place inside council chambers.
The results from the vote had 20 votes in opposition and 8 votes for approval. The proposed increase did not pass.
With this result, landscaping will now be on a monthly basis instead of a weekly basis. There will also be no street sweeping at all within the neighborhood.
In the next six months, the city council will work on how to proceed but recommends that the Blackhorse community works on creating an “HOA”, or a Homeowners Association.
This would work as an alternative if the council decides to “unwind” the assessment district in whole.
Mayor Ashbeck in summarizing the situation: “I don’t think we can keep doing this going forward because you don’t want your neighbor to fall apart, and that’s potentially what’s at risk here.”
Ashbeck then added that by “mid-year” they will try to come back to the situation in order to check in on the unwinding of the district.