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Oak Tree Farm District ($316) due to the City's ownership of parcels of land within <br /> these districts. These parcels contain public facilities such as water tanks and pump <br /> stations. Staff costs to administer these districts will continue to be funded by the <br /> assessments. <br /> BACKGROUND <br /> GHAD - Purposes and Description <br /> Geologic Hazard Abatement Districts (GHADs) are state-authorized districts which can <br /> be formed for the purpose of prevention, mitigation, abatement or control of a geologic <br /> hazard. A "geologic hazard" is an actual or threatened landslide, land subsidence, soil <br /> erosion, or other natural or unnatural movement of land. Movement of land/damage due <br /> to an earthquake is specifically exempted from coverage by the GHAD. <br /> GHADs are formed when a geotechnical investigation at the time of development <br /> reveals land areas within the development that are unsuitable for housing or other <br /> structures due to evidence of prior earth movement and/or the potential for future earth <br /> movement. These undevelopable areas in the project are set aside as open space. In <br /> these open spaces, based upon the findings of the geotechnical investigation, the <br /> developer constructs infrastructure designed to lessen the likelihood that earth <br /> movement will occur and damage the areas that are developed with roadways, utilities, <br /> housing, etc. The infrastructure includes slope stabilization measures such as drainage <br /> V-ditches, pipelines, rip rap armoring, etc. The GHAD is the funding mechanism to <br /> operate, monitor, maintain, repair, and eventually replace the slope stabilization <br /> infrastructure and repair soil movement or landslides, should they occur. <br /> A GHAD, like any special assessment district, is designed to assess property owners for <br /> a benefit they receive that is special to them. The developers, in conjunction with the <br /> City, created each of the GHADs to operate, monitor, maintain, repair and eventually <br /> replace the slope stabilization infrastructure they built as part of their respective housing <br /> developments. The developers also dedicated in fee title all the open space to the City <br /> or, in some cases, to the HOA, and established that the City Council would serve as the <br /> Board of Directors of each GHAD. The developers and the Board of Directors <br /> established the initial assessments based upon "Plan of Control" documents created for <br /> each district. The Plan of Control documents utilized each development's original <br /> construction plans as the basis for the repair and maintenance plan. The developers <br /> also deposited some funding into a reserve as "seed money" for the eventual capital <br /> replacement needs. After establishment of the GHAD, annual assessments have <br /> appropriately been collected from property owners at the same time and in the same <br /> manner as property taxes. <br /> Existing GHADs within the City of Pleasanton <br /> There are currently four GHADs within Pleasanton: Laurel Creek Estates (The <br /> Preserve, Oak Hill Estates and Kolb Ranch Estates), Lemoine Ranch Estates, Moller <br /> Ranch, and Oak Tree Farm. The Oak Hill Estates and the Kolb Ranch Estates <br /> subdivisions were both annexed into the Laurel Creek Estates GHAD after the formation <br /> of the original district, which included only The Preserve neighborhood; those <br /> annexations occurred on August 1, 2000, and July 20, 2004, respectively. All of the four <br /> Page 2 of 5 <br />