(A) General.
(1) The cost of any improvement, or any part thereof, may be assessed upon property benefitted by the improvement, based upon the benefits received, whether or not the property abuts on the improvement, and whether or not any part of the cost of the improvement is paid from the County-State Aid Highway Fund, the Municipal State Aid Street Fund or the Trunk Highway Fund. The area assessed may be less than, but may not exceed, the area proposed to be assessed as stated in the notice of hearing on the improvement, except as provided below. The municipality may pay the portion of the cost of the improvement as the Council may determine from general ad valorem tax levies or from other revenues or funds of the municipality available for the purpose, subject to the provisions of § 8.04(2) of the Charter. The city may subsequently reimburse itself for all or any of the portion of the cost of a water, storm sewer or sanitary sewer improvement so paid by levying additional assessments upon any properties abutting on but not previously assessed for the improvement, on notice and hearing as provided for the assessments initially made.
(2) To the extent that such an improvement benefits non-abutting properties which may be served by the improvement when one or more later extensions or improvements are made, but which are not initially assessed therefor, the city may also reimburse itself by adding all or any of the portion of the cost so paid to the assessments levied for any of the later extensions or improvements; provided that, notice that the additional amount will be assessed is included in the notice of hearing on the making of the extensions or improvements. The provisions of §§ 37.020 through 37.028 of this chapter shall apply to the extensions or improvements in the same manner as if they were new improvements.
(B) Methods of reconstruction.
(1) General. The following are methods of street reconstruction and rehabilitation, which will be utilized by the city in considering future projects and assessments. It will be noted that the design standard for either reconstruction or rehab will be the current design of the street section. Projects may be constructed to higher designs if warranted and/or approved by the City Council.
(2) Improvement type and apportionment of cost.
(a) Street reconstruction including curb and gutter. The cost of street reconstruction shall be recovered on a project-by-project basis, as determined by the City Council.
1. Non-collector street. Residential property owners may be assessed for the cost of the pavement and base for the front footage side of the property per direction of the City Council, which shall be determined on a project-by-project basis.
2. Residents requesting curb and gutter. Any required storm sewer and/or installation of sidewalks/trails on a construction project may be assessed up to 25% of the total cost of the project additions, which will include engineering, additional removals, base and all other associated expenses. All additional project requests may be assessed at 25% of the total costs associated with the improvements. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all assessments shall be subject to the special benefit limitation to the extent required by state law.
3. Application. One hundred percent of the turn back funds received from the county will be applied to the new construction or pavement cost of the road that was received. The remaining cost shall be recovered by means of the general ad valorem property tax paid by the entire community or by other funds that may become available to the city for infrastructure cost recovery.
(b) Street resurfacing. Street resurfacing is commonly known and referred to as street overlaying whereby a new bed of road material such as bituminous is installed over an existing paved road to a specific thickness. Assessments shall be determined by the adjusted front footage method at 100% to properties on both sides of the street. A mill and overlay to an existing paved road will be assessed by the adjusted front footage method at 100% to properties on both sides of the street. A recycle and overlay to an existing paved road will be assessed by the adjusted front footage method at 100% to properties on both sides of the street. Assessments will be based on physical project costs plus engineering, administration costs, ROW expenditures and other related project costs. The method of rehabilitation or resurfacing shall be determined by the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of the combined segments of the streets considered for the project. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all assessments shall be subject to the special benefit limitation to the extent required by state law.
(c) Sidewalk. Sidewalk improvements may be done in conjunction with a street reconstruction or as a separate project. In any event, sidewalks requested that are not included in the city’s sidewalk and trail plan may be recovered by assessing up to 25% to the affected property owners and the remainder paid by the general ad valorem property tax paid by the entire community or by other funds that may become available to the city for infrastructure cost recovery. Sidewalks are generally installed on the city’s major streets or in accordance with the city’s sidewalk and trail plan, which will connect several neighborhoods and community attractions in a logical pattern; these improvements will not be assessed to the abutting properties. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all assessments shall be subject to the special benefit limitation to the extent required by state law.
(d) Sealcoating. Sealcoating, patching and cracksealing are considered general maintenance activities and the expenses of the acts will be paid for by ad valorem property tax or any other funds available to the city at that time.
(e) Sanitary sewer and water mains. Repair and replacement of sewer or water mains is usually done in conjunction with a street reconstruction project and the cost of this work should be included as part of the total major street project cost and should also be considered to be included in the rate assessed for street reconstruction. If it is determined that the repair and replacement work results in a greater benefit to some properties and not to others, the Council should consider establishing a different assessment rate based on the benefits received.
(f) Sanitary sewer and water trunk improvements. Trunk sewer and water mains are usually designed to carry larger volumes of flow than are necessary within an immediate property area in order to serve additional properties beyond the area of their immediate placement. Therefore, 100% of the cost of trunk improvements may be assessed on a unit basis to all properties within a district deemed to be benefitted from the trunk improvements. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all assessments shall be subject to the special benefit limitation to the extent required by state law.
(g) Sewer and water services. Individual sewer and water services benefit only the properties they serve and 100% of their cost shall be assessed to the property for which they are installed. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all assessments shall be subject to the special benefit limitation to the extent required by state law.
(h) Drainage improvements. Storm drainage and ponding/basin systems are usually constructed to serve a specific drainage or “watershed” district. These drainage districts have trunk lines, which are large diameter pipes that transport large volumes of water from one or more drainage districts. Property within drainage districts that would receive benefit from a trunk storm sewer may be assessed per the direction of the City Council. The remaining cost will be paid for by the Storm Water Surface Utility and/or by an ad valorem property tax paid by the entire community or by other funds that may become available to the city for infrastructure cost recovery. Should a project be initiated on a particular street that requires storm sewer laterals which would be connected to the trunk lines, the Surface Water Utility would fund these expenses. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all assessments shall be subject to the special benefit limitation to the extent required by state law.
(i) Special conditions. Special consideration shall be given to the “age” of a street or utility system when determining the proportion of cost to be assessed to benefitted properties. If it is necessary to reconstruct or resurface a street or perform major repair/replacement work on sewer and water utilities, before a reasonable amount of time (ten to 12 years for resurfacing, 12 to 17 years for partial reconstruction and 17 to 25 years for total reconstruction) the assessment shall be calculated on a pro-rated basis. The remaining cost shall be recovered by means of the general ad valorem property tax paid by the entire community or by other funds that may become available to the city for infrastructure cost recovery.
(j) Mailboxes. In projects involving new street construction, and mill and overlays, mailboxes will be grouped on gang posts in numbers logical to the spacing required. This practice will ensure the proper placement of the mailboxes, reduce potential roadside hazards and generally clean up the edge of the street. The cost of the new posts and installation will be added to the project. Residents of overlays and mill and overlays may request the new posts and installation, which will be added to the cost of the project.
(C) Methods of assessment.
(1) Nature of improvement.
(a) The nature of an improvement determines the method of assessment. The objective is to choose an assessment method which will arrive at a reasonable, fair and equitable assessment which will be uniform upon the same class of property within the assessed area. The most frequently recognized assessment methods are: the unit assessment; the front footage assessment; and the area assessment. Depending upon the individual project, any one or a combination of these methods may be utilized to arrive at an appropriate cost distribution. City staff will consider all methods and weigh their applicability to the project and present a recommendation to the City Council in the form of a mock assessment roll (or rolls). A description of each assessment and its corresponding policy application is presented. A separate section (Section III) will identify the appropriate match up of method with a specific type of project and analyze why each is generally used.
(b) The purpose of assessment formulas is to allocate assessed costs among benefitted properties, the formula should result in an allocation of assessments which is reasonably related to the benefit received. Any one predetermined formula will not be appropriate in all cases because of circumstances unique to the relationship between the specific project and the specific properties benefitted. When considering an assessment method or formula for any given project, it may be necessary to combine assessment methods or to modify the methods described below. Therefore, the following description of methods of assessments should be regarded as guidelines, which may not be appropriate in all cases.
(2) Unit assessment. A unit assessment shall be derived by dividing the total project cost by the number of residential equivalent density (RED) units in the project area. A RED UNIT is defined as a single-family residential unit. All platted and unplatted property will be assigned RED unit values equivalent to the underlying zoning. When the existing land use is less than the highest and best permitted use, the Council may consider the current use as well as the full potential of land use in determining the appropriate number of RED units. Otherwise, the following RED chart will apply on a per unit basis, subject to adjustment by the Council for any inequities: the unit approach has proven to be the best method in those instances whereby the improvement largely benefits everyone to the same degree and the cost of the improvement is not generally affected by parcel size.
(3) Area assessment. The assessable area shall be expressed in terms of the number of acres or the number of square feet subject to assessment. When determining the assessable area, the following considerations will be given:
(a) Ponding assessment consideration. Lakes, ponds and swamps may be considered a part of the assessable area of a parcel.
(b) Road right-of-way assessment consideration.
1. Up to 20% of the gross acreage may be deducted for street right-of-way purposes within unplatted parcels of five acres or more depending upon the parcel configuration and is only applicable to single-family residential use.
2. Parcels of less than five acres may not qualify and may be assessed full acreage.
3. The reason for this size restriction is that, in most instances, parcels of less than five acres cannot support an internal public road system.
(c) Park dedication assessment consideration. When park land is dedicated as part of a residential development, as required by § 158.061 of this code of ordinances, the developer shall not be assessed an acreage charge on the portion of land dedicated.
Commercial | 2.00 RED |
Condominium | 0.80 RED |
Duplex | 1.00 RED |
Industrial | 2.00 RED |
Multi-family (3 units or more) | 0.80 RED |
Single-family | 1.00 RED |
Townhouse | 0.80 RED |
(4) Front footage assessment. The actual physical dimensions of a parcel abutting an improvement (such as, street, sewer, water and the like) will generally not be construed as the frontage utilized to calculate the assessment for a particular parcel. Rather, an “adjusted front footage” will be determined. The purpose of this method is to equalize assessment calculations for lots of similar size. Individual parcels, by their very nature, differ considerably in shape and area. The following procedures will apply when calculating adjusted front footage. The selection of the appropriate procedures will be determined by the specific configuration of the parcel. All measurements will be scaled from available plat and section maps and will be rounded down to the nearest one-half foot dimension with any excess fraction deleted.
(5) Categorical type descriptions. Categorical type descriptions are as follows: standard lots; rectangular variation lots; triangular lots; cul-de-sac lots; curved lots; irregularly shaped lots; corner lots; flag lots; and double frontage lots. The ultimate objective of these procedures is to arrive at a fair and equitable distribution of cost whereby consideration is given to lot size and parcels are comparably assessed.
(a) Standard lots. In this instance, the adjusted front footage for rectangular lots would be the actual front footage of the lot. The frontage measured shall be the lot width at the front lot line.
(b) Rectangular variation lots. For a lot which is approximately rectangular and uniform in shape, the adjusted front footage is computed by averaging the front and back sides of the lot. This method is used only where the divergence between front and rear lot lines is 20 feet or less.
(c) Triangular lots. For a triangular shaped lot, the adjusted front footage is computed by averaging the front and back lot lines. The measurement at the back lot line shall not exceed a maximum distance in depth of 150 feet.
(d) Cul-de-sac lots. The adjusted front footage for those lots that exist on cul-de-sacs will be calculated at the midsection of the lot at the most reasonably defined and determinable position. This line will be computed by connecting the midpoints of the two side lot lines. Or, if the lots are similar in nature and configuration, a common lot width, such as the standard setback of 30 feet may be assigned based upon an evaluation of typical lots within the subdivision.
(e) Curved lots. In certain situations such as those where lots are located along meandering trail system streets, read patterns create curvilineal frontages. In such instances, the adjusted front footage will be the width of the lot measured at the midpoint of the shortest side lot line.
(f) Irregularly shaped lots. In many cases, unplatted parcels that are legally described by a metes and bounds description are irregular and odd shaped. The adjusted front footage will be calculated by measuring the lot width at the 30-foot building setback line.
(g) Corner lots.
1. On a corner lot, 100% of the adjusted front footage of the short side will be assessed and 25% of the adjusted front footage of the long side will be assessed for improvements benefitting the respective sides. The length of the property sides and not the orientation of the principal building shall determine adjusted front footage in this case. A series of lots (two or more) under common ownership shall be considered as one parcel or lot for determining which is the short or long side of a property. However, this shall only apply to series of lots on which only one principal building is situated.
2. General commercial zoned corner lots: the adjusted front footage shall be the entire frontage of the side of the lot immediately abutting the improvement.
(h) Flag lots. Properties which utilize a narrow private easement or maintain ownership of access to their property exceeding a minimum length of 125 feet, thereby having a small frontage on a street, will be assigned an adjusted front footage of 75 feet. This dimension is consistent with Ch. 158 of this code of ordinances, which prescribes such length as the minimum lot frontage along a public roadway. The adjusted front footage for flag lots whose driveway access is under 125 feet will be measured at the building setback line from the access terminus.
(i) Double frontage lots. If a parcel, other than a corner lot, comprises frontage on two streets and is eligible for subdivision, then an adjusted front footage assessment will be charged along each street. For double frontage lots lacking the necessary depth for subdivision, only a single adjusted front footage will be computed. The frontage with driveway access to front of house, shall be assessed.
(Prior Code, § 202.09) (Ord. 567, passed 11-13-1995; Ord. 600, passed 05-12-1997; Ord. 654, passed 02-14-2000; Ord. 982, passed 11-08- 2021)