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Street LID “special benefits”
The Street LID construction and financing cost is $40 million, with another 10 percent for bonding costs, bringing the total to approximately $44 million. How much will your property be assessed? There is a “Final Assessment Report” folder in the Street LID section of the City’s web site, but it’s empty, as of Monday afternoon. Based on the “SUMMARY OF SPECIAL BENEFIT ANALYSIS for the Street LID” that was provided to the North Coast News on Friday afternoon (corrected from original post), the “special benefit” ranges from $3,000 to $6,000, depending on the neighborhood. *The report notes the figures are still “estimates.”* Based on the information, an oceanfront home will have a benefit of $6,000, or 70 percent more than the $3,500 benefit of many lake and canal front homes. (Parts of Duck Lake will be paying $4,500.)
Correction from original posting: The report does not necessarily translate to billing. As noted at the end of the report, “The figures listed above are special benefit estimates; recommended final assessments due to the project are obtained by multiplying each of the individual special benefit estimates by the project’s cost (assessment)/benefit ratio of 0.9295.”
Much of the City’s southwest area has a “special benefit” $5,000, or 43 percent higher than many properties east of Point Brown Avenue.
From the report: ”Below is a summary of the various special benefit estimates encompassing most of the land area in the city. . .
R-1 Zoned Lots West of Point Brown Avenue
Estimated Special Benefit* Brief Lot Type/Location Description
$6,000 All oceanfront
$4,500 Canalfront west of Point Brown and Lake Minard
$5,000 Division 10 – Fronting on east side of Sand Dune to end of Sand Dune
$5,000 All parcels east of Sand Dune Ave & west of Ocean Shores Blvd in Divs. 2, 4, 11, 16 & 17
$5,000 Southwest ½ of Div. 17 & south (Divs. 18, 19 & 19A)
$4,000 Interior west of Point Brown
$4,000 East & west fronting on O. Shores Blvd, south to north side of Hoko St.
$5,000 South of Hoko Street fronting on both sides of Ocean Shores Blvd.
$3,000 Fronting on Point Brown
R-1 Zoned Lots East of Point Brown Avenue
Estimated Special Benefit* Brief Lot Type/Location Description
$4,500 Duck Lake frontage - except Div. 5, 5A, 24 & 24A
$3,500 Duck Lake frontage in Div. 5, 5A, 24A & 24
$4,000 Canal frontage – except Bass Canal
$3,500 Golf course frontage
$3,500 Bass Canal frontage
$3,500 Interior east of Point Brown
$3,500 West side of Grand Canal fronting on Point Brown
Multi-family Zoned Lots
Depending on location and potential development density (which is based on specific zoning designations), special benefit estimates range from $3,000 to $6,000 per lot.
Commercially Zoned lots
Estimated Special Benefit* Brief Lot Type/Location Description
$6,000-$7,000 Division 1 ocean frontage
$4,000-$5,000 Division 1 interior
$4,000 Division 3
$4,000 Division 7
$5,000 Division 12
$3,000 Division 15
$3,000 Division 20
BLRs combining lots:
1st lot– $3,000 (or $4,000, etc.)
2nd lot– typically adds $1,000
More than two–typically adds $500 for each extra lot
If contiguous ownership of multiple lots but no BLR, treated as individual lots based on highest and best use as individual homesites (ie., $3,000 + $3,000, etc.) unless house straddles lot lines, then treated as BLR (above). For Grays Harbor County courtesy combinations, unless house straddles lot lines, they are viewed as separate lots.
Parks & lots with no zoning:
No special benefit due to the project and therefore no special benefit.
* The figures listed above are special benefit estimates; recommended final assessments due to the project are obtained by multiplying each of the individual special benefit estimates by the project’s cost (assessment)/benefit ratio of 0.9295.
It would have been nice to have the consultant attend a few townhalls to explain his process and formulas. I know that that will not happen. When the original hearings were held there were presentations on road quality and area issues. That data may still be on FilePro under the LID area in Public Works. Then people could see what roads looked like or were evaluated by name. It was stated then that there were areas that were worse than others. The Bell Canal areas were specifically mentioned. Other interior roads were mentioned also. Ocean Shores Blvd was just one of many bad roads. LOST does watch the blog. However, the bill is still $4.4 million and has to be divided based upon whatever the consultant found. Lanfear has stated different evaluation methods. Once he stated it was citywide and other times he said there were areas identified. I guess we will never know until the consultant is interviewed and brought before a council meeting or townhall to explain the process.
Overall, I find the assessment based on waterways odd and possibly a reason to protest the entire assessment process. I do understand higher assessments for Ocean Shores Blvd since it was the worst road in the city, but that doesn’t seem to be a criteria for the rest of the city.
Specifically, I find the southwest end of town interesting enough for a protest, of course because I live there. According to the descriptions above, the “southwest half of Division 17″ is grouped at $5000 with the Jetty area (Divisions 18,19,19A.) First, southwest implies a 1/4 not a 1/2 area. Second, there are no street names indicated to define the borders of said area like there are in all other areas. Third, Division 17, with the exception of Ocean Shores Blvd, which is fully defined, is a section of curvy residential streets with interior lots. We are being singled out for no reason that I can determine.
Is anybody on this blog a member of LOST? It seems to me they would be a logical group to organize protests into similar assessment complaints that fit into the restrictions of the RCW. I’m not advocating a lawsuit.
Remember, if you sue you pay. That means you will pay the taxes to defend the suit. Look at Carrillo and even the Banks suit. The reason the lakes are not getting weed treatments is because we are paying an attorney. Even if these guys win, we will all pay for it in either city taxes or a revised Storm Drain Utility or some other entity. Also realize that the laws are designed to protect the city from overruns and screw-ups. The only question here is if your property was assessed properly. Many areas really had bad roads. Logic, which has nothing to do with this process, would call for them to pay more because their roads got better. Others got basically what they had before, just thicker. Wait for the road and building maintenance utility fee or levy soon. They are $1.08 per $1000 away from the limit. Since they missed the August 10th deadline for November, expect to see it next year in the spring.
Hey Mark, if you find out of any group….please post and try to get the word out. There are probably lots of people like our family that own property, waiting to build, hoping for a place to retire. We still run a business and I tell you, if we had cost overruns like this, we would NOT get the extra money, would be told to finish the project under budget or we wouldn’t have a business for long. How could this have happened? So, please if anyone knows of any group taking action, please sign me up.
I read all the great comments about what is wrong with the LID, but how many of these taxpayers will actually dedicate the time and energy to research the RCW’s, case law, and documentation and take the time to prepare a protest to be reviewed and possibly be willing to appeal a decision to the courts? Has anyone out there actually started an organized movement to gather funding to hire an attorney to assemble these purported injustices in the LID, to have their attorney legally present these arguments? Absolutely nothing will be done to rectify the situation until such a movement is started.
I looked up what all this means in the FAQ and according to that the special benefit is what they project each property will increase in value and each property will be assessed that amount times the multiplier.
The multiplier is 0.9295 so for oceanfront you take $6000 times 0.9295 and get $5577. I think that is the amount they will pay.
$3,000 Fronting on Point Brown pays $2788, etc.
So, I guess if you live on an ‘ocean front’, you use the roads more than the rest of us. How much is the Dictatorship of the C. C. going to pay? Perhaps I should be able to deduct the dues from two properties (we NEVER use the C. C.)and put that towards my bill. Actually, I would like to put that money towards the skate park, which is a much better deal than being FORCED to belong to a ‘Country Club’ that we DO NOT USE. (Get so tired of paying that BENEFIT for an ‘elite’ few.) Based on the listings above, we are trying to figure out where we fit in geographically. OH…Found it! Evidently my husband and I use the road more than the folks ‘east of Pt. Brown.’ Nah, nah nah nah nah…hah. Our new pavement is better than yours! We get to pay more!!!! HA HA HA…eat your heart out!
No wonder no one is buying real estate down here.
I can’t wait to move back to the city.
I am a little confused as to why different areas have a different rate. It seems like some areas that had really bad roads are paying less than those some whose roads were better than most. I also would like to see an audit of the actual expenses that total the $44 million dollars. I think it is time to call in the State Auditor and ask for total accounting of all financial expenses for the City of Ocean Shores. Maybe we could actually gain some confidence in how the LID fees are billed, collected and spent.
Let’s face it boys and girls, we are going to be nailed by the desire to have roads that actually are what anyone else expect as a given! Sadly, even these expectations are going to cost us more because of the mistakes made over these past couple of years! It’s a sorry coincidence that the finance director ended his job with the city just days before the final numbers come out for all of us property owners! I hope that the public works director can sleep well, the whole process has been a mess from the start, and it’s going to affect us for many days down the road…