Golden Valley Among Cities Answering Questions on Street Assessments
It’s a common agenda item throughout local city halls right now: city councils deciding on street projects for the upcoming season.
As city councils open up discussion for public comment, a common complaint heard from residents: their street assessments cost too much.
“I’m going to be bearing the burden, my wife and I pushing 80, of having a $10,000, $12,000 assessment put on us near the end of our life when we may be needing the money for other things,” said David Gatts at the March 6 Golden Valley City Council meeting.
“The sudden imposition of a less than $10,000 payment to be paid with interest is not feasible for many homeowners,” said Andrew Kueng, another Golden Valley resident.
A Golden Valley road project approved last December will cost roughly 90 homeowners an assessment of $9,834. That project impacts residents along and north of Duluth Street and west of Winnetka Avenue.
Another project, the northwest quadrant of Highways 100 and 55, would have cost $11,300 per residential unit. The Golden Valley City Council voted 3-1 in favor Wednesday with council member Denise La Mere-Anderson recusing herself due to owning property in that area. The project, however, failed because it needed four votes to proceed. Mayor Roslyn Harmon was the lone no vote.
Switching from Assessments Not Easy Solution
Golden Valley has used assessments to pay for projects for many years. Officials say switching to another payment method is not necessarily a fair solution.
“Switching from not doing special assessments to something like funding via property taxes … the downfall there is you’ve assessed properties there last year,” said Kyle Sawyer, Golden Valley’s interim finance manager. “The projects this year will then be funded by property taxes, so the folks that will be assessed for their specific streets are now going to pay for everybody else’s streets on top of their own.”
Assessments make up 20 percent of a project’s funding. Sawyer says homeowners cannot be assessed a payment greater than the value a project would add to their property.
Golden Valley is nearly finished with completing reconstruction of all streets that haven’t seen improvements since the 1960s. Engineers say reconstruction will reduce potholes because the older roads were built on clay and thus more susceptible to moisture and winter’s freeze/thaw cycle. Newer roads are built over a sand and gravel base.
Also See: Osseo Council Postpones $1.5M Street Reconstruction Project
