Memo Request for Relief From Assessment
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C I T y 0 F H 0 P K I N S
MEMO
Date: January 6, 1995
To: Hopkins City Council
From: Jerre Miller
Re: Dahlberg Request For Relief From Assessment
The presentation by Doug Dahlberg on January 3, 1995 sought relief
from a City Ordinance which required payment of a deferred
assessment for a sanitary sewer improvement until such time as the
private system serving the Dahlberg lot was hooked up to the
existing sanitary sewer line.
. The Ordinance provided for payment in the amount assessed at the
time the original improvement was constructed together with
interest at the rate of 7% per annum. In this case, the sanitary
sewer improvement was installed and assessed in 1959. The owner of
the property at that time elected to defer the hookup and retained
usage of the private system then serving the property. The
deferred amount was credited against the assessment project and the
cost incurred by the City.
The Ordinance provided that the City's recoupment would occur at
such time as the owner or successor in interest thereof elected to
disregard the private system and hookup to the City's system. The
cost would equal the original assessed amount allocable to the
property plus interest.
In 1992, the City was obliged by the Metro Waste Commission to
require elimination of private systems by October 1994 within the
City. For this reason, Dahlberg was required to tie into the City
system and discovered his obligation to pay the amount of the
original assessment plus interest.
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1010 rlrst Street South Hopkins, Minnesota 55343
Phone: 612-93)-H4 74 Fax: 5129J5-1834
An Equal Opportunity Employer
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. Dahlberg claims this is discriminatory because he should not be
bound by the election made by his predecessor in title. Secondly,
he objects to a lack of precise notice to him that he would be so
obliged to pay.
Minnesota Statute 429.051 allows the City to "reimbursement itself
for all or any of the portion of the cost of a sanitary sewer
improvement so paid by levying an additional assessment upon any
properties abutting on but not previously assessed for the
improvement, on notice and hearing as provided for the assessments
initially made."
The City has followed this procedure several times particularly
upon occasion of lot splits.
The statutory authority to defer assessments was recognized and
upheld in Quality Homes v. Village of New Brighton, 183 N.W.2d 555
and Hartle v. City of Glencoe, 226 N.W. 914.
In those cases, it was held the statute does not require the City
to assess for the full amount in the event it decides to defer
. until the property is later tied into the system. It was held the
City may determine the amount to be deferred at which later time it
may recover for the benefits not initially assessed. In both
instances, the City had credited the original assessment with the
amount of the deferment.
In this instance, the City is bound to follow the contents of its
ordinance in the collection of the deferment. It must further
recognize that adherance to payment of the deferred amount pursuant
to such ordinance has been imposed on several properties. To now
adjust the application of the ordinance would give rise to an
unfairness claim by the properties who have already paid the
deferment.
Secondly, to second guess the negotiations that occurred between
Dahlberg and his seller at the time he acquired the property would
be inappropriate. The deferment follows the property and it is not
the obligation of the City to inquire into the notice or lack
thereof between the buyer and the seller concerning the seller's
presumed disclosure that the property was served by a private sewer
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. system and whether the buyer bothered to review the ordinance then
in existence concerning the method by which the deferred amount
would be paid.
The only adjustment I recommend is that the interest rate imposed
at the time the Origina1~prOvement was assessed be continued
which I believe is at ,the,/ I te of 2- per annum.
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