Heading into the new year, the Chula Vista City Council voted unanimously to approve amendments to the 2020 Infrastructure, Facilities and Equipment Expenditure Plan and allocate more Measure P funds to replace fire station doors citywide, repair recreation and senior centers and remove dead or dying trees.
Measure P authorized a temporary half-cent sales tax to be put in place for 10 years to fund high priority infrastructure needs in Chula Vista.
Collection of the tax began in April 2017.
“Those enhancements are made possible because the projected income from the sales tax measure exceeded our expectations, so what we were actually able to do with that is enhance our projects and speed up repairs,” Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas said at the City Council meeting Dec. 3.
Initially, Measure P was expected to raise $16 million for the city of Chula Vista annually, according to the updated Infrastructure, Facilities and Equipment Expenditure Plan. Now the half-cent tax is projected to raise $19 million per year.
According to the updated plan, fire station doors will need to be enlarged to accommodate new fire apparatus. A total of $1.5 million will be allocated to replace fire station doors, with approximately $51.2 million being allocated to fire services overall.
The amendments also provide for an increase in funds to be used for recreation and senior center repairs, bringing the total cost to approximately $3.1 million. A total of 13 percent of Measure P funds, or approximately $24.3 million, will be used for public facilities, including recreation centers, senior centers, libraries, the Living Coast Discovery Center and the Public Works Center.
The Infrastructure, Facilities and Equipment Expenditure Plan specifies that Norman Park Senior Center, Loma Verde Recreation Center, and the Salt Creek and Montevalle recreation facilities are in need of repairs.
A total of $100,000 will be allocated to removing dead or dying trees with the approval of the amendments.
“Healthy trees provide many benefits to communities, such as reducing storm water runoff, removing air pollution, lowering summer temperatures and reducing energy use in buildings,” the plan reads.
Tree cleanup and public facility improvements fall into the infrastructure category, where 60 percent of Measure P funds are being allocated. Police services, including improvements to police response vehicles and public safety communication systems, make up 13 percent of Measure P fund allocations. The remaining 27 percent is dedicated to improvements to fire services.
“All of this is really good news or our community and I also want to thank the Citizens’ Oversight Committee because this was a unanimous vote by them to approve these plans,” Salas said at the city council meeting.
The Measure P COC is responsible for identifying the best practices for Measure P expenditures in addition to reviewing and commenting on the Finance Department Report every year and preparing an annual report regarding the Finance Department Report for presentation to city council.
