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will take new evidence and deter-
<br />mine the amount of benefit as if
<br />the council had never made a
<br />decision on that issue.
<br />In the past, special assessment
<br />proceedings have been a rapid,
<br />relatively certain, and inexpensive
<br />means of raising money to finance
<br />needed local improvements. How-
<br />ever, the Buettner decision now
<br />controls the action of district
<br />judges, and entices property
<br />owners to have a second go at the
<br />process in hopes of getting a
<br />reduced assessment. Special assess-
<br />ments in the future seem much less
<br />likely to be swift, inexpensive, and
<br />certain.
<br />Undoubtedly, cities will contin-
<br />ue to need the special assessment
<br />process as a means of financing
<br />local improvements, but a good
<br />deal more care should now go into
<br />the execution of such a proceed-
<br />ing. Certainly, before ordering an
<br />improvement, the council should
<br />now, as in the past, gather as much
<br />evidence as possible on the issue
<br />of whether or not the benefits to
<br />be derived from installation of a
<br />particular improvement are suf-
<br />ficient to justify the cost, and make
<br />specific findings as to, increases in
<br />market value. (See Ewert v. City of
<br />Winthrop, Minn. Sup. Ct., April 13,
<br />1979, summarized elsewhere in
<br />this issue.) Where an improvement
<br />has been petitioned for and the
<br />benefit does not substantially
<br />exceed the cost, a council might
<br />adopt different strategies depend-
<br />ing upon its objectives and what it
<br />sees as the potential for appeals.
<br />Where the council would not
<br />order in the improvement unless
<br />virtually all of the cost can be
<br />collected through special assess-
<br />ments, the council may want to
<br />obtain waivers of rights to appeal
<br />before entering the contract and
<br />ordering the improvement. That
<br />strategy probably works only if the
<br />area affected by the improvement
<br />is small. For larger projects of a
<br />similar nature, a council could
<br />consider making the improvement
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<br />contract itself conditional on the
<br />absence of any objections being
<br />filed for the period up to 30 days
<br />after the assessment hearing. If this
<br />plan were followed, a binding
<br />contract would not be entered nor
<br />would any of the improvement
<br />work start until after both the
<br />improvement and assessment hear-
<br />ings were concluded and the time
<br />for appeal had run. Of course, the
<br />city might be stuck for some
<br />unforeseen cost if this plan were
<br />used, but a council might deter-
<br />mine that avoidance of litigation
<br />costs are worth that chance.
<br />Another means of reducing the
<br />number of appeals on all special
<br />assessments is simply to pay some
<br />substantial portion of the cost of all
<br />improvements out of general
<br />funds. This would reduce the
<br />chance that any individual assess-
<br />ment would exceed the benefit
<br />from the improvement as mea-
<br />sured by the increased market
<br />value resulting from that im-
<br />provement.
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<br />31
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