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LAKE ELMO REVISES ASSESSMENTS AFTER FLOOD OF COMPLAINTS i The final hearing on assessments for 1976 flood control brought out a flood of those complaints from property owners who said the formula penalizedVwith small acreage on many lots. So, the Lake Elmo City Council instructed. the City staff. -to re- combine continguous lots for assessment purposee; and prepare a revised roster for action on October 3, 1978. The "formula" has two factors parcel size and. imperviousness (the degree to which a parcel "sheds" water). All parcels fall into rangest 0.5 acres to 2.5 acres, 2.5 acres to 10 acres, etc. However, any parcel less than 0.5 acres was assessed a minimum amount. And, owners of several small parcels were as- sessed the "minimum" several times - even if the total area they own fit into a lower range than several "minimum" lots might add. up to. The new assessment roster treats these many small parcels, which are under one ownership and.are a continguous part of one piece of property, as one parcel for purposes of assigning the "minimum" assessment. It reveals that there are only 11.71 properties to be assessed; and, using the formula, just 772.660 assess- ment units.; The effect of this adjustment is to increase the cost per assessment unit from $28.4.1 per unit to $33.61 per. unit. In other words, the total cost of the project remains the same; but, the shares of the cost are more fairly dis- tributed.. With these new numbers, a person with one acre of undeveloped property will pay $42.01. A person with a developed one -acre site will pay $63.52. Previously, a person with, say, three parcels that equal one acre would have paid, three "minimums"; which equaled $85.23 for undeveloped land. All property owners with standard, parcels will now, of course, pay a slightly higher assessment, as the cost is divided. over fewer total parcels. The assessment for that same one -acre parcel will go from $53„69 to $63,52 for developed land.