Ordinance No. 20053 - Laserfiche WebLink

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purchase the surplus right-of-way. The attorney for one of the property owners involved who raised this issue did not provide examples of when such sales had occurred, and the City Attorney also was not aware of any such circumstances. While the City Engineer's staff did report that some discussions may have occurred with adjacent property owners, they too were not aware of any sales to third parties in circumstances such as these. If the intervening right-of-way were sold to a different party, the assessed property owner could claim that some of the benefit previously assigned to his or her property had been transferred to the new property owner. Aside from the unlikelihood of such a sale, however, not all of the benefit would be transferred. The assessed property owner would have been the primary beneficiary of the improvement prior to the sale and would also retain a special benefit after the sale. The assessed property owner would always retain a right of access across the property, and thus would always have the benefits of the entrances provided as a part of the improvement, as well as a continued benefit from the drainage control and boundary division that any such sidewalk improvement provides property close to the improvement. The City Council has authority to define what is a benefited property in a reasonable way, and to then assess .the benefited property. It is possible for the Council to define benefited property to include property that is not contiguous to property where the improvements are located! It is theoretically possible that some of the properties within this LID might someday be separated and non-contiguous to the property on which the improvements are located. In the event that the second possibility occurs, then the first possibility will also have occurred. Under the circumstances of this LID, where the right-of-way which might be sold is of such questionable marketability to any party except the owner of the adjacent right-of-way, and where the prospect of such a sale is entirely theoretical, the Hearings Official recommends that the Council proceed to assess the parcels within the LID in the same manner as is done for all parcels within a similar local improvement district. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION Nature of the Assessment The Hearings Official finds that the project is one for which the assessments are for local improvements as set forth in ORS 310.410 because 1. The assessments do not exceed actual costs; 2. The assessments are imposed for a capital construction project which provides a specific benefit for a specific property or rectifies a problem caused by a specific property 3. The assessments are imposed in a single assessment upon completion of the project; and 4. The assessments allow the property owners to elect to pay the assessment with interest over at least ten (10) years. 1 While the City Attorney has not reviewed these findings and recommendations, the City Attorney did agree to the correctness of this assertion in discussions prior to the completion of these findings and recommendations. INSTALLA TION OF CURBS AND GUTTERS, SIDEWALKS AND ACCESS DRIVES FOR HIGHW A Y 99 FROM BARGER DRIVE TO ROSSEVEL T BOULEVARD FINAL ASSESSMENT PAGE 3