After a third public hearing on April 19, 2011 during the regular county board meeting, the cost property owners will pay for the Judge Magney area survey was finally decided.
With some property owners splitting a four-acre plot and others in possession of over 40 acres, the assessment of $31.80 per acre that was originally proposed would have people paying widely differing amounts. Forty-four of the privately owned parcels are over 34 acres, and the other 20 are under 20 acres.
To address the fact that some property owners would pay less than $64 and others would pay more than $1,275 while they would all receive GPS coordinates of their properties’ corners, the county board proposed assessing a $650 minimum. At the first hearing, some owners of larger parcels protested the fact that they would pay so much more than the owners of the smaller parcels. Before this hearing, other property owners owning smaller parcels objected to being assessed a $650 minimum.
No public comments were made at the third hearing. The board decided to assess the $650 minimum with a couple of concessions for individual cases: two sets of owners who own property together but get billed separately will be assessed $325 per person, and one family that owns five parcels will be assessed per acre instead of the $650 minimum for the two parcels that would otherwise have been assessed the minimum.
“It’s a negotiated settlement,” surveyor Wayne Hensche said.
Commissioner Jan Hall said she had been getting calls from people who objected to the fact that the county was considering changing the assessed amounts after an initial letter had stated the parcels would be assessed by the acre. She suggested that the next time they conduct a land survey, they give themselves some options when notifying the public of the potential costs.
The assessments are tax deductible and if paid before property tax statements go out next March, no interest will be tacked on. Those who don’t pay up front can be assessed over 10 years at 1 percent interest, payable along with their property taxes.
“This is good government,” Hensche said. “I particularly have to thank Jan Hall for getting beaten up on the phone, and Braidy Powers has been a gentleman through all of this.”
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