Item 5: Ordinance Levying Assessments for West University Alleys

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limits set by the Charter. There is an established process regarding the development of any improvement undertaken by the City. Council initiation is always the first step. As discussed above, the first stage is to have the Council designate the project as appropriate for initial development. That allows the Engineer to begin design of the project. Only after the project is designed and the costs are estimated, does the question of its categorization as a public improvement subject to assessment come into play. Not all projects that involve public improvements are of a type where the Council chooses to make the project into one where assessments are levied. If the Engineer determines that the project is appropriate for the Council's consideration as a public improvement subject to assessment, the Engineer will initiate the process that will take the project to the Council for the Council's consideration and, if the Council approves, for Council authorization as a public improvement subject to assessment. It is at Engineer initiation, before Council authorization, that the particular processes called for in the Code for assessable public improvements begin. These processes include notice, a public hearing and an opportunity to remonstrate. The objection to the process for this alley project was raised as a due process violation. There is no evidence of a due process violation. The process is one that is well established, clear and affords property owners opportunities to be heard. Although assessments may include costs incurred prior to the Council's authorization of the improvement, property owners have several opportunities to be heard on the project, on the decision to proceed with it as an assessable improvement, and then also with regard to the amount of the assessment. In this case there was greater than usual opportunity for involvement, including observation or participation in the work of the West University Task Force. The Council had before it the process, including the degree of public involvement, when it considered the project in light of the Code changes to the assessment process, and again nearly a year later when they authorized the improvement as a project subject to assessment. There was ample process. Certainly, no property owner is eager to pay an assessment. The decision on the distribution of the costs of public improvements is a policy decision taken at the highest level. Local improvement district assessments are a traditional and commonly used process of sharing the cost of improvements. The decisions in this matter concerning the policy changes that set the assessment procedures to be followed, the initiation of the project, the creation of the district and the final assessments, were all made at the high policy level, or were made in accordance with those policy directives. No matter how they are articulated, the objections all ultimately are objections to the policies set by the Council and followed carefully in this proceeding. Because the Council's policy decisions were made while they were using the West University area as the model to illustrate the impacts of their policy choices, it is very clear that the requirements of the ordinances, as well as state law and the Oregon constitution, were followed exactly as the Council intended. LOCAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT ASSESSMENTS FOR ALLEY IMPROVEMENTS IN THE WEST UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD Page 8