The Town of Discovery Bay is not a city, but a type of municipal government known as a Community Services District, or CSD.
In unincorporated areas such as Discovery Bay, basic services such as water, sewer, security and fire protection are usually provided by the county. Since counties often consist of large and diverse geographical areas, providing a consistent and adequate service level across all areas can be difficult. Consequently, the Community Services District Law (Government Code §61000-61850) was created to provide an alternate method of providing services in unincorporated areas.
In most cases and due to the scope of their requirements, counties cannot provide tailored services to any one community. This leaves residents with little if any local control over services and no easy way to address problems or complaints. A CSD provides a method of offering local control on essential municipal services.
The Discovery Bay CSD was formed in 1998 by a vote of the residents. Before that, we were a Municipal Advisory Committee subject to oversight by Contra Costa County. Discovery Bay is an Independent Special District that provides domestic water supply, treatment and delivery as well as wastewater collection, treatment and disposal to the approximately 14,000 residents and businesses that call Discovery Bay home.
The town is also responsible for our parks and landscaping on many of our boulevards, streets and roads. You’ve probably seen the town vehicles around, as the staff is constantly improving the beauty of our community. Clipper Drive is our latest endeavor to improve the aesthetics of the town, and our parks have undergone incredible makeovers in the last two years. Additional park improvements are slated in the future as well.
From the standpoint of your local government, the CSD will operate on a combined operating and capital budget of $7.9 million for the Fiscal Year 2012-13. The budget is balanced and presents a spending plan in which revenues meet expenditures. Included in the Capital Improvement Program are projects that continue to address the long-term capital needs of the district.
While we provide water, sewer, and parks and landscape services at this time, we do keep our finger on the pulse of what is happening around us. We stay current on issues close to home, such as the egeria densa infestation, the proposed peripheral canal and other items that might concern our public and require attention and ongoing monitoring.
As Discovery Bay continues to mature, the board of directors and the entire staff are working diligently to provide a comfortable place where residents can live, work and play and where we can enjoy many of the qualities we all like in a small town. Please join us at one of our board of directors’ meetings, held the first and third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. Meetings are held at 1800 Willow Lake Road (behind the Delta Community Presbyterian Church).
If you have any questions regarding our services or are unsure where to turn for information, please feel free to call the Town of Discovery Bay CSD at 925-634-1131. For more information, you may also visit our web site, www.todb.ca.gov.
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