HomeMy WebLinkAboutPotential Changes to Max. Assessment Street and Tree Maintenance Amounts_18 Commission Memorandum
REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission
FROM: Anna Rosenberry, Administrative Services Director
SUBJECT: Discussion and Direction regarding Potential Changes to the Maximum Assessment Square Footage for Street and Tree Maintenance Amounts.
MEETING DATE: July 28, 2014
AGENDA ITEM TYPE: Action
RECOMMENDATION: Listen to staff presentation, take public comment, and provide direction on how to proceed with notices for the annual Street & Tree Maintenance Assessment
Resolution hearings.
BACKGROUND: Over the course of the past year, staff from the Finance, Planning and Engineering departments have been meeting to discuss the details of our current Street & Tree Maintenance Assessment methods. We have been looking for a way to increase the fairness,
predictability, and accuracy of our assessment system. We recommend that you consider
incorporating these changes into the Assessment Resolution and hearings for this fall’s
assessments.
• This effort has not been in an attempt to gather more dollars for the Maintenance
Districts. These changes will not affect the total dollars collected by the City for our
Street and Tree Maintenance programs. The changes will affect the amount that is charged to individual property owners. The net effect, when we add more assessable square feet to the system, is that everyone’s assessment rate can go down.
• Approximately 16% (2,564) of the properties we assess would have a revised square
footage. The remaining 84% (13,700) properties would not see any change to their assessable square footage.
ISSUE: Currently, both of the assessments (Street & Tree maintenance) charge property owners
for the actual square footage of their lot, with differing maximum
amounts established for
residential zones. There is no established maximum amount (“cap”) for business or manufacturing zones.
We believe we should make the following changes to both our programs this year:
1. Establish a consistent maximum assessment cap across residential property zones. 2. Establish a policy for undeveloped, unimproved properties in all business or
manufacturing zones that charges a maximum that is the equivalent of 1 maximum
residential assessment, while the property remains undeveloped and unimproved.
355
We arrived at these recommendations after examining the details of our assessment parcel
database and consider the requests that frequently come to the Public Works Director for
assessment relief of undeveloped property. The following details lead us to make our
recommendations. (For all of the illustrations of the effect of these changes we have used our FY14 Street Maintenance assessment amounts.)
1. A considerable number of parcels in the R-2, R-3, and R-4 zoning designations are
being “capped” at 11,250 or 7,500 square feet. Their property’s actual square footage
is larger than what they are being assessed for because the cap is in place. The cap established for these districts has some historical zoning context, and is smaller than
the cap for the R-1 district.
Example: Four different residential properties in town each have an actual square footage of 13,000. Each are single residences. However, they are assessed for street
maintenance differently, based on the established caps for their current zoning. The
property in the R-1 zone will pay $89.10 more per year than the property in an R-3 or R-4
zone.
Zoning
Current Actual Sq.
Footage Current Sq Ft.
Assessed, Using
Caps
Assessment -
Financial Impact
of Caps
NEW!
Assessment
Square Footage
NEW! Financial
Impact
R-1
13,000 – Arnold Street 13,000 $ 210.60 13,000 $ 210.60
R-2
13,000 – N. Wallace 11,250 $ 182.25 13,000 $ 210.60
R-3
13,000 – S. 16th Ave 7,500 $ 121.50 13,000 $ 210.60
R-4
13,000 – N. 9th Ave 7,500 $ 121.50 13,000 $ 210.60
Our recommendation is to continue to charge residential properties for their actual square footage, with a maximum cap of 15,000 for all the residential districts.
Effect: Assessments for property owners in the R-2 district who were previously
capped at 11,250 maximum will now increase, up to a maximum of 15,000 square
feet. Assessments for property owners in the R-3 & R-4 districts who were previously capped at 7,500 maximum will now increase, up to a maximum of 15,000
square feet.
Total
Number
of
Parcels
Current
Maximum Sq
Footage
Number Parcels
Exceeding
Current Max
% of Parcels that
Exceed the
Maximum
R-1 3,799 15,000 295 7.8%
R-2 2,440 11,250 228 9.3%
R-3 4,876 7,500 1609 33.0%
R-4 1,985 7,500 441 22.2%
356
There are approximately 2,300 parcels that would be affected by the change,
representing 17.5% of the parcels in the R-1 through R-4 zones, and 14% of the total
parcels we assess. The maximum annual impact for parcels will depend on their
actual square footage. Changes will be limited by:
Zone Number Parcels
With New
Maximum.
% of Total Parcels Maximum Effect of
Assessment
Increase/year
R-1 None - -
R-2 228 9.3% $ 63.75
R-3 1609 33.0% $ 127.50
R-4 441 22.2% $ 127.50
2. We have difficulty assessing the Residential-Office (R-O) zone and the new Residential Emphasis Mixed Use (REMU) zone. Is it a residential zone? Or a
business zone? We have a small number of R-O properties (31 out of 772 total) that
would be effected, with an average increase of $223.71/year.
Our recommendation is to these charge properties that are not subdivided or developed a maximum of 15,000 sq feet. Once developed, there will be no cap; they will pay for total actual square footage.
3. We have a small number of parcels zoned Residential Suburban (RS) that are capped
at 63,450 square feet (1.5 acres). This cap greatly exceeds the majority of all other residential parcels. Lowering the cap in this zone would reduce assessable square
footage and reduce assessments for 164 properties. While the maximum possible
effect looks large, on average the properties would reduce by (12,800) square feet, or
($207.36) per year.
Zone Total
Number of
Parcels
Number Parcels
Exceeding
Current Max
% of Parcels that
Exceed the
Maximum
Maximum Effect
of Bill
Decrease/year
RS 287 164 57% $ (815.51)
Our recommendation is to continue to charge residential properties for their actual square footage, with a maximum cap of 15,000 in the RS zones.
4. Business and Manufacturing parcels that are undeveloped are currently not capped. However, exceptions to cap at the R-2 and R-3 levels were granted for individual
cases in the past that have left us with a handful of inconsistencies. We believe this
provides a disincentive to annex property into the City.
Our recommendation is to charge the properties that are not subdivided or developed a maximum of 15,000 sq feet. Once developed, there will be no cap; they will pay for total actual square footage.
Within the business and manufacturing zones, we estimate that approximately 40
parcels would see an average increase of 5,200 square feet, $84.75/year, as a result of
357
this change. In addition, new parcels that are annexed or subdivided and remain
undeveloped would be capped at 15,000 sq. feet.
Total Effect of these changes on the Assessment Districts as a whole.
In whole, these adjustments would add over 6.5 million assessable square feet to our assessment
districts, bringing total assessable area to over 200 million square feet. This is a 3.4% increase in
assessable area for the districts.
With this increase in area, the rate increases that were established in the FY15 budget could be
revised downward in each district:
• Street Maintenance District’s 10% rate increase could be lowered to 6.4% increase.
• Tree Maintenance District’s 2% rate increase could result in a (1.2%) reduction.
UNRESOLVED ISSUES: None.
ALTERNATIVES: Continue to assess based on our existing maximum assessment amounts. FISCAL EFFECTS: These changes will not
affect the total dollars collected by the City for
our Street and Tree Maintenance programs. They will affect the amount that is charged to each
individual property owner.
For approximately 2,400 owners of property, primarily in the R-2, R-3, and R-4 districts, assessments would increase as described above.
For approximately 164 owners of property zoned RS, assessments would decrease, as described
above. For the remaining 13,700 parcels, increases to Street Maintenance District assessments would be
6.4% above last year; and, Tree Maintenance Assessments would decrease by 1.2% from last
year.
Street Maintenance Assessment - Typical Lot
Sizes FY15 Proposed
FY15 Approved
Budget FY14
7,500 $ 129.26 $ 133.65 $ 121.50
15,000 $ 258.52 $ 267.30 $ 243.00
Tree Maintenance Assessment - Typical Lot
Sizes FY15 Revised
FY15 Approved
Budget FY14
7,500 $ 16.67 $ 17.21 $ 16.87
15,000 $ 33.33 $ 34.41 $ 33.74
Attachments: None
Report compiled on: July 15, 2014
358