Jordan Independent - City Politics - Comments

The projects will save ten

Johnnie14 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:02:53 -0500

The projects will save ten times over your $5000 by being combined.

The project is in a different situation now than it has been in the past. The reason past councils delayed it was because they wanted more money from MNDOT. The past year hold up can be explained by issues with one property owner. The bonds have been issued already, the city can't back out now with out breaking the law.

Once this whole thing is done, people will wonder what all the controversy was about. We all pay for our upgrade in water/sewer services, just at different times. New home owners paid for it in their lot costs, and those residents in older Jordan are payng their portion through an assessment, which by the way is the only legal way to do it and be able to issue municipal tax-exempt bonds to pay for it.

I attended the meeting on

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:31:53 -0500

I attended the meeting on monday and I live on second street.I'm not happy about paying for the project but feel I would pay as much if not more to fight it.My fear is I pay the 5,000 and we go another year with nothing happening again,I lose in terest on my money and the use of it.I have been told for three years the project was going to happen and it hasn't whats different this year? After the meeting I was made aware the lawsuit is still not settled.The city made the mistake of making the two projects one,I beleive the lawsuit should be taken care of before anything happens.This being an election year the mayor's seat and three council seats up for grabs, could again delay or end this project.

I think the feelings of a

dart chucker — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:54:30 -0500

I think the feelings of a few people on 2nd street is why should they pay before work is started. This project has been talked about for 5 years. Delayed because of the hypocrites at the stop lights and tied up by MNDOT. Call us when you actually start.

Back in the early 1990's the

Ray Sandey — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:53:12 -0500

Back in the early 1990's the City put together a plan to reconstruct the streets of lower town Jordan and to rebuild the aging infrastructure beneathe it. The second street project is pretty much the end of the that reconstruction plan. It should have been done a couple of years ago but because it is also a state highway the city has had to wait for funding from the state. The assessments are less on these properties because of the portion paid by the state.

Because this project is done when the economy is down and home values are down does not mean that you don't get the value from the assessment.

With out the water and sewer service your land would hold very little value as it would not be buildable and because of zoning ordinances you could not use it for other purposes.

All of us business owners and homeowners in downtown and lowertown have gone through this reconstruction even though it sucks during construction, the finished project is well worth the assessment.

I thought the city wanted

swansonmej — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:35:44 -0500

I thought the city wanted this project because of the money coming from MNDot. Funny how the city also wants money from the residents who did not want the expansion in the first place.

All of the 40 property

dapa2 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:57:08 -0500

All of the 40 property owners should be objecting to the Highway 282 assessments, based on being asked to pay $5,000 each prior to the beginning of construction. This is not how the assessment process is supposed to work in Minnesota.

Minnesota Statutes Chapter 429 (Chapter 429) gives cities authority to levy special assessments. Court decisions and attorney general opinions have added to the complexity of the issue.

In short - the amount of the charge must bear a direct relationship to the value of the benefits the property receives. Special assessments must reflect the influence of a specific local improvement on the value of specific property. No matter what method the city uses to establish the amount of the assessment, the real measure of benefits is the increase in the market value of the land because of the improvement. I highly doubt that if all the property owners were assessed the same value that this can be true and thus the assessment if challenged in court would not stand.

The hearing on the assessments will require the city to present direct evidence of the benefit in the form of expert testimony by a person qualified to appraise real estate, and determine the increase in market value as a result of the improvement. The evidence presented by the city must fairly support a finding that the market value will increase at least as much as the amount of the proposed assessment. Again, I doubt this is the case.

A special assessment that exceeds the special benefit is a taking of the property without fair compensation in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Article X, Section 1 of the Minnesota Constitution reads, in part: “The Legislature may authorize municipal corporations to levy and collect assessments for local improvements upon property benefited thereby without regard to cash valuation.” As the courts have made clear, the special benefit is the increase in market value of the land as a result of the improvement. See: Buettner v. City of St. Cloud, 277 N.W.2d 199 (Minn. 1979), Southview County Club. v. City of Inver Grove Heights, 263 N.W. 2d 385 (Minn. 1978) and Minn. Const. art X, § 1.

A formula not based on an analysis of the increase in market value of each parcel may be invalid. A front-footage method of calculating assessments for street improvement projects based on costs of street improvement projects from previous years has been found arbitrary and prima facie invalid. A city may not combine assessments for an improvement made in one year with an improvement constructed in the following year. See: Bisbee v. City of Fairmont, 593 N.W.2d 714 (Minn. Ct. App. 1999) and Quality Homes, Inc. v. Village of New Brighton, 289 Minn. 274, 193 N.W.2d 555 (1971).

With greater frequency, courts find that the city’s determination of the special benefit was either invalid or more than the increase in market value as a result of the improvement. In recent unpublished opinions, the appellate courts have routinely upheld decisions that went against the city because the district court found a lack of adequate evidence of a market value increase equal to or exceeding the amount of the special assessment. Especially with regard to street improvements, it may be very difficult to demonstrate that there is any significant increase in market value as a result of the resurfacing or reconstruction.

Some cases to note: Shorma Family Trust v. Maine Township, 2002 WL 555323, C9-01-1548 (Minn. Ct. App. April 16, 2002); Belanger v. City of Long Lake, 2000 WL 563896, C1-99-1347 (Minn. Ct. App. May 9, 2000);Reiling v. City of Lino Lakes 2000 WL 369384, C7-99-1594 (Minn. Ct. App. Apr. 11, 2000);Anderson v. City of Buffalo, 2000 WL 31791, C7-99-641 (Minn. Ct. App. Jan. 18, 2000); Rohling v. City of Champlin, 1999 WL 71484, C3-98-1209 (Minn. Ct. App. Feb. 16, 1999) (unpublished decision); Gullard v. City of Lake Park, 1997 WL 457453, C8-97-207 (Minn. Ct. App. Aug. 12, 1997). In re Appeal by Eastside Development, 2001 WL 1035280, C4-01-582 (Minn. Ct. App. Sept. 11, 2001). Blomquist v. City of Eagan, 2001 WL 436187, C2-00-1591 (Minn. Ct. App. May 1, 2001).

I think all the 40 should be objecting as that is the only way you can get your appeal to stand up in court. If your neighbors object and you dont and they win... only they win - you dont!

The school board decided to

Mathias Baden — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:45:41 -0500

The school board decided to pursue a referendum last week.

To answer your question, gramps40, the agendas for those board meetings could be posted online. I am not a micro-manager, so as the editor of the paper, I've left that decision up to the schools reporter. Brandon Otte, who recently took an out-of-town job as a school librarian, chose not to post those events. When we hire a new reporter, I will suggest posting the board meetings online, possibly with the agendas. It will be her decision how she wants to spend her time to accomplish the job of reporting about the schools.

We only recently began publishing the dates of the city meetings as editorial material in the paper and on this Web site. That was my decision. And yes, I did have to ask for more information in order to get a list of meetings, et cetera.

The calendars in the paper and on the Web are reader driven, for the most part. Feel free to contribute.

(Mathias Baden is the editor of the Jordan Independent. He can be reached at editor@jordannews.com.)

We can live with that, want

Kyle Thill — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:08:59 -0500

We can live with that, want to adjust the population total on your way out?

i wont be living in

todd s. — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:49:06 -0500

i wont be living in jordan for my whole life because i found it to be to small and to many years behind bigger cities in carver and hennipen counties-however, i do beleive that jordan needs all new city council members replaced-in november-todd

Jordan needs to rethink

todd s. — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:24:54 -0500

Jordan needs to rethink their pet ordinance laws and get with the times. the leash law is in effect but the home owners dont get in trouble for barking dogs and persons dont walk there dogs and they let dogs outside without a leash-how do my neighbors think they can garden mow lawn and let dogs run arround no leash and i see dogs in street and five houses down-police drive by and c it-happening-a leash law would be first things first in gods eyes and mine the rules are not folllowed now-but what is a ordanince???? in chaska i knew when i lived there and in mpls-JORDAN nope------so leash law is first-then c what dogs dangerous or are they watched by owners or at large on 282-john and todd

Jordan needs to rethink

todd s. — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:14:52 -0500

Jordan needs to rethink their pet ordinance laws and get with the times. The police need to hold to a 2 minute & ticket someone when their dog is outside barking and barking. People who are good to their pets should be allowed to have as many pets as they want if they leash them and dont let them bark alot-todd s

Can you give me one example

Johnnie14 — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:44:08 -0500

Can you give me one example of when this happened?

The $500,000 was money that

Johnnie14 — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:42:47 -0500

The $500,000 was money that was matching money that was given from the state, which deemed it more worthy than numerous other projects that other cities tried to get funded. You couldn't just spend the money anywhere you want.

Attending the meetings is a

bluespruce — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:07:15 -0500

Attending the meetings is a good idea for any community member - not just the news staff. Show up, speak up or observe - whatever you are comfortable with!

I have not heard any talk

gramps40 — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:44:57 -0500

I have not heard any talk about a referendum so far. I am assuming there is a school board meeting this Monday, September 8th as it is the second Monday of the month, but again there is no agenda posted on the district website and I have seen nothing in the JI. Have I missed the agenda? There has not been one posted on the district website since June 23.
This past week there was a brief note in the JI about a city council meeting coming up. Why can't school board meeting agendas be put in the JI? Doesn't the school district get that information to the newpaper or doesn't the newspaper request it?