City Council approves mayor’s plan for more streetpaving, other infrastructure projects

Mayor Jerry Sanders applauded the City Council on Monday for approving his plan to invest $75 million in another round of street resurfacing and a long list of other vital infrastructure projects, from sea-wall repairs to storm-drain upgrades.

Sanders’s plan calls for issuing $75 million in bonds, of which roughly $30 million will go toward another round of street resurfacing and the rest will be used for more than 50 other projects.

The proposal comes three years after the city issued $100 million in capital-improvement bonds to resurface more than 100 miles of streets and perform other infrastructure fixes. Taken together, these two bonds represent an unprecedented financial investment in maintaining San Diego’s existing infrastructure.

In addition to the $30 million for streets, the mayor’s plan calls for $15.5 million for storm-drain repairs; $16.3 million for fire-house, library and other facilities upgrades; $2.6 million for street-light upgrades; $1.5 million for park and recreation upgrades and $8.2 million in Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades.

Even after issuing these bonds, the city’s overall debt will remain in the low to moderate range. The city’s debt service as a percentage of general-fund revenues would rise from 4.41% to 4.69% in Fiscal Year ‘13, then is projected to steadily decrease to 3.52% by Fiscal Year ’17. These figures remain well below the caps set by the city’s Debt Policy, which recommends that debt-service levels remain below 10%.