Paying for Parks

City parks take water, and upkeep. Who pays for that? This issue was touched upon at the meeting last week of the Sonoma City Council, and it is due to be discussed at greater length at a subsequent council meeting.
Jerome Neal, a resident at the new Wildflower affordable housing development on Napa Road near Fifth Street East, addressed the council during the public comment opportunity, first thanking the council for helping to fund the sweat-equity project, and then chiding the council for requiring the residents to pay over $100 a year toward maintenance of the city park already existing in the housing development north of Wildflower.
The council could not comment, since the item was not on its agenda, but two other agenda items considered later in the meeting did concern park landscaping assessments on homes in two developments: the 1963 El Prado subdivision and the 1994 Fryer Creek subdivision.
Council member Steve Barbose requested that consideration of renewal of those assessments be postponed to a later meeting, in order for city staff to develop information on all such arrangements in Sonoma, so that the assessment levels might be made more consistent. Other council members concurred.