Brownton City Council reviews sample assessments for project
The Brownton City Council reviewed sample assessments for its proposed 2016-17 street and utility project at its Tuesday, Nov. 3, meeting.
The city is proposing up to $8 million in improvements to its streets, water, storm sewer and sanitary sewer systems.
Justin Black of Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH), the city’s engineering consulting firm, said that the construction costs of the project are about twice that of a comprehensive project that was done by the city in 2000-2001. And the estimated assessments reflect that, Black said.
Black said that SEH was able to use assessment figures from the city of Glencoe’s recent Lincoln Park improvement project to help determine estimated assessments for Brownton. Glencoe, Black said, hired an appraiser to make sure that assessments were appropriate.
Black said that according to state statute, a minimum of 20 percent of a project’s costs must be assessed to benefitting properties. Another state statute stipulates that assessments to a property cannot exceed anticipated increases in the property value of the assessed property.
Those two statutes sometimes conflict, Black acknowledged, especially since residential property values have declined dramatically since the recession that set in 2007-08.
For more see the Nov. 11 print edition of The Chronicle.