RECONVENED BOARD OF APPEAL AND EQUALIZATION MEETING Monday, April 23, 2018 Brooklyn Park Council Chambers 7:00 5200 85th Avenue North CALL TO ORDER Chair Jeffrey Lunde PRESENT: Chair Jeffrey Lunde; Board Members Rich Gates, Susan Pha, Terry Parks, Bob Mata, Mark Mata, and Lisa Jacobson; City Manager Jay Stroebel; City Assessor Marvin Anderson; City Attorney Jim Thomson; Police Chief Craig Enevoldsen; and City Clerk Devin Montero. ABSENT: None. B. ASSESSORS REPORT City Assessor Anderson stated in the last two weeks staff went to the houses who contested their valuations on April 9, 2018. He stated they put together a book showing their recommendations. He stated there were people in attendance who wanted to address the board regarding the recommendations made and their concerns on the recommendations. He asked the Board Members if they had any questions regarding the recommendations in the book. C. PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS The following individuals addressed the Board: 1. Valerie Holler, 8328 Fairfield Road. Contested the valuation recommendations. She objected to the assessed value of her property at $403,500 and sent three comps and focused on 5505 102 nd Avenue built in 2013. She checked the County records and her house was built in 2006. That property lot was 2/3 acres or.66 and the Hennepin County records called.51 acres, a half-acre. She stated the main square footage and additional square footage seemed to be flipped around. The forms were challenging and asked the assessment staff to send the definitions on what the terms mean. What was notable was that the physical depreciation on her property was taken into consideration but on the other house built 2013 was also a physical depreciation deduction. Her concern was the map factor, and looking at the map factor value at $117,000, her understanding was how the median percentage was calculated. Her house was looked at as far as values to compare in the assessment values with properties that were north of highway 610 in new developments and those property values did not increase as quickly as the neighborhood she lived in. The median values and the way assessments were done were estimates and thought her estimate was erroneous. At the bottom of the Comparable Search-Market Value-Sales had a total of $396,900 for her property which was different from the $403,500. She was concerned by the square footage, asked for a clarification, and was given
RECONVENED BOARD OF APPEAL AND EQUALIZATION MEETING; April 26, 2018 Page 2 an email listed with a lot of properties and calculated the square footage but still disagreed with assessment. She stated she had a unique property in the area, but was not unique as far as houses went for that area. Her value per square footage was $158 per square footage, where lower ones on the properties were $94. She stated her house compared to the list was over assessed and asked to have that assessed value brought down to $390,000 because it would sell for that in the open market today because of the location. 2. Emile Nguimfack, 3100 Brookdale drive. Contested the valuation recommendations. He asked if the Council was going to endorse what City Assessor Anderson gave to the Council or would they come back another day. Chair Lunde stated they had done both. The Board had accepted them in the past but they also made modifications based on what people said in front of the board. Mr. Nguimfack stated his request to the Council was not to make a decision on his property tonight but to take it back and look at the numbers. He stated he believed the Council would accept the values from the City Assessor tonight and also wanted to ask City Assessor Anderson a few questions. Chair Lunde stated his questions would be responded by the City Assessor. Mr. Nguimfack asked that looking at commercial properties if the city assessor used any ratios. If he used ratios, what ratios did he use for 3100 Brookdale Drive. He stated the last time he was there he had written concerns on why he didn t think his values were evenly assessed. He stated there was no uniformity in the assessment between his property and other properties. He stated it looked like the city assessor just answered the part about the assessment and not the uniformity and assessment with similar properties around the area. He asked the board if they could not make the decision tonight on his property but to look at the information and give a response later. Chair Lunde stated tonight was not the final step. It is one step and the assessed values they chose to accept or modify would get sent to the Hennepin County. He stated they would be able to appeal their valuations if they felt the values the Board arrived at tonight were not proper. Mr. Nguimfack stated he understood, but wanted the opportunity to resolve it with the City and not got to the courts to fight it. He stated he wanted the Board to take a second look at it before appealing to Hennepin County. City Assessor Anderson stated he provided information tonight on all gas stations in the city and gave a price per square foot on properties based on the total valuation of the property. He
RECONVENED BOARD OF APPEAL AND EQUALIZATION MEETING; April 26, 2018 Page 3 stated that when looking at both land and building price per square foot for 3100 Brookdale Drive, it was $209 per square foot which was basically the median of all the sales of gas stations in the city. He stated that property did go up from what it was last year, but it was not equalized with the other properties. He stated Mr. Nguimfack looked at the value of property based on the size of his property and got a different number, a higher number than they had. He stated he had a larger property and when just looking at the building value, property value and not including the land value, the numbers got skewed. He stated when they looked at the property, they looked at the price per square foot of the total valuation of the property based on the median value within the city. He stated they were going to go through and look at all gas stations next year with Hennepin County. He stated they looked at it differently if it had a car wash and pulled the car wash valuation out of value of the property to make it consistent with subject property. D. BOARD ACTION Chair Lunde stated he would put the motion on the table because it was best to amend each individual property and the board member could make amendments if needed. D. MOTION LUNDE, SECOND GATES TO ACCEPT THE REVISED CITY ASSESSOR S VALUATION RECOMMENDATIONS. D. MOTION PARKS, SECOND JACOBSON TO AMEND THE MOTION TO CHANGE 8328 FARIFIELD ROAD VALUATION FROM $403,500 TO $390,000. D. THE VOTE ON AMENDMENT TO THE MOTION PASSED UNANMOUSLY. D. MOTION MARK MATA, SECOND JACOBSON TO AMEND THE MOTION FOR ITEM #8, 4800 IMPATIENTS AVENUE NORTH FROM $315,100 TO $305,000. Board Member Gates asked why it was not brought up tonight by the resident and why was the valuation being changed. Board Member M. Mata stated that based on looking at the comps going over the houses in the area the first time the property was presented, they requested a $295,000 valuation. He stated he decided to go in middle of that based on what he thought the one value was a higher comp value because it was a desired house in the neighborhood and that was the one bringing up the value of the house. He stated the other ones, if he looked back at the actual value of the house City Assessor Anderson had on the last sheet, was $298,000 and that was his outlier. He stated that just because a house sold for a higher value when it was valued somewhere, they could use that as comp and didn t think what comps should be set on. He stated that was his reasoning for reducing it.
RECONVENED BOARD OF APPEAL AND EQUALIZATION MEETING; April 26, 2018 Page 4 D. THE VOTE ON THE AMENDMENT TO THE MOTION PASSED. (6 TO 1) GATES VOTED NO. Board Member M. Mata stated that on the list of properties, with the exception of the ones owned by multiple property owners, every single property for every person that came before the Board to argue values, their values had been reduced. He stated that told him that the values they were using were incorrect. He stated that part of him wanted to encourage residents to come forward next year for their individual properties as being incorrect. He stated that the other part that disturbed him was that he was going to pass something that anyone who didn t come to voice their concerns would be unjustly increased in taxes. He stated he was going to pass all those reductions and thanked the people who came before the Board and asked for help for where the valuation should be. He thanked assessing staff for reducing where they asked for it. He told Mr. Emile his property was an outlier and didn t know how to value this property. He stated he was going to end up passing all of those today based on what the board had and suggested to him to file an appeal with Hennepin County after today s date. He stated that was the appeal that mattered. Board Member Jacobson stated she too was concerned about the amount of taxes on a value of house paid in the city versus cities that surround the city. She stated she was not sure all the parts that made it up and understood how cities billed internal services differently where they needed to come up with those numbers. She stated it was not a cut and dry system that everyone used but had enough questions from residents, some that came before the board and some who did not. Everyone was starting to feel like they were a city where taxes were high and was not a reputation she wanted for the city. She stated she was voicing her concern for that as they looked ahead and to keep an eye on it. She stated that as Board Member M. Mata stated, did they have everyone come forward before they took a serious look at how they came up with the numbers in the first place, and didn t want to be there for that meeting because it would never end. She asked if they could look at something else for next year as a way to back up their answers. She stated she didn t have an answer to give to a resident who asked her that question on how the city arrived at the amount of taxation for a certain value of property that was taxed different from other cities to a much lesser degree. City Assessor Anderson stated the total valuation in the city was $7 billion for all properties, residential, commercial and vacant land. Because the city was a first, second, third ring suburb, it has older properties in southern eastern part of city, other properties in the middle part of city were built in 1980s and now had newer buildings now that were selling for a higher values. When looking at the overall value of the city compared to Plymouth or Maple Grove, most of their properties were larger and newer and the overall valuation of those cities were higher. What they did when they set the values on the properties were based on all of the values in the city. It gave the amount of value on the property and generated by the calculations of all different taxing jurisdictions that set the tax rate for the city. He stated the tax rate was higher than other cities because of the overall valuation was lower than some other cities too.
RECONVENED BOARD OF APPEAL AND EQUALIZATION MEETING; April 26, 2018 Page 5 D. MOTION PHA, SECOND BOB MATA TO AMEND THE MOTION ON APPEAL #15, AT 3100 BROOKDALE DRIVE NORTH TO LOWER THE VALUATION TO $1.1 MILLION. She stated she agreed the property was showing a lot higher in building price per square footage than the comparable buildings which she thought was too high. She stated she believed the value was actually lower and agreed with the property owner there had to be a lower value than what the city was proposing. She stated the property was a huge jump from the previous year s assessments in assessed value and thought $1.1 million was still a 10 percent jump. Chair Lunde agreed with Board Member Pha on lowering it. He stated staff had talked about looking at all gas stations as a group and felt much better going into that not having increased the 3100 Brookdale property knowing that they were going to do an across the board look at all of them. He stated he would rather keep the rate in line and wait on the valuations and would know more when the board took a deeper look at them. Council Member Gates stated he would not vote for it. He stated he was not a commercial or residential expert on it and could read all the documents on commercial properties but that was why they had people on staff who were trained on commercial property appraisals. He stated it was not correct and that was why they had staff to do it and hadn t seen anything that said it was wrong. He stated he would vote against it. D. THE VOTE ON THE AMENDMENT TO THE MOTION PASSED. (6 TO 1) GATES VOTED NO. Board Member Pha stated she would like to reflect for the record that she would be abstaining from the vote on Appeal #3 and Appeal #4, 7801 June Avenue North and 3908 Sunset Road North. She stated the property owners were close relatives and her vote would not reflect on those two properties. Chair Lunde asked if Board Member Pha could still vote if there was one motion with those amendments. City Attorney Thomson stated that it was a statement she made for the record to reflect that she was not participating in the decision on those two properties. Chair Lunde stated there was a main motion with three amendments plus the statement made by Board Member Pha on Appeals #3 and #4 that her vote would not reflect on those two properties. D. THE VOTE ON THE MAIN MOTION PASSED; (6 TO1) GATES VOTED NO. Mayor Lunde asked what would be next when the board made the decision and goes to the County. He asked if there was another step to appeal the valuations.
RECONVENED BOARD OF APPEAL AND EQUALIZATION MEETING; April 26, 2018 Page 3 City Assessor Anderson stated that anyone who came to meeting on April 9, 2018 to contest their valuations were eligible to go to the County Board. He stated tomorrow he would be sending all letters stating the decisions that were made on the properties tonight and also giving information about appealing to the County Board. E. ADJOURNMENT At 7:38 p.m., Chair Lunde adjourned the Board of Appeal and Equalization meeting and reconvened the regular Council meeting. DEVIN MONTERO, CITY CLERK JEFFREY JONEAL LUNDE, CHAIR