St. Paul property owners suffering from sticker shock after receiving ample bills in the mail for roadwork are in for some relief, and roughly 100 property owners can even expect a modest refund.
On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council approved changes to the city’s mill-and-overlay program, which charges property owners along arterial streets for road improvements near their home.
Under the new approach, property owners will still foot half of the mill-and-overlay bill through assessments, and the rest will be covered by the city’s general fund, which is supported by citywide property taxes.
However, new handicapped-accessible curb cuts, or pedestrian ramps, will be covered through the general fund, which will reduce bills in some cases by thousands of dollars.
For homeowners, cost savings will vary by each project depending upon the number of curb cuts.
“No bills will go up, but some bills may go down,” said City Council President Amy Brendmoen.
Victoria Street residents Simon and Christina Taghioff, who continue to object to the city’s approach, said their charges will drop from $4,900 to $2,500 as a result, a savings of nearly half.
Under the street-maintenance system revised by the council in 2017, property owners immediately bordering roadwork had been charged directly for half the cost of a mill-and-overlay project, ranging in 2018 anywhere from $17 to $56 per linear foot of street frontage.
The results were striking.
A series of homeowners objected in April after being caught off-guard by bills ranging from $1,200 to $8,000, payable in up to 10 years. The 18 mill-and-overlay projects span different corners of the city, but the most organized opposition came from residents along Stryker, Arlington, Forest and Victoria streets, some of whom approached the council in tears.
“The bills were so huge, and the testimony was so dramatic, I asked the council to delay a vote at the time,” said Council Member Jane Prince. “We routinely tell people they don’t own the street in front of their house. But when we bill them for these large assessments, it’s inconsistent. It’s hard for us to have it both ways.”
After hearing objections to what homeowners described as eye-popping bills, the city council conferred with St. Paul Public Works on how other cities assess mill-and-overlay projects.
Some cities charge 100 percent of the cost to abutting properties. Other cities transfer all those costs to the general fund, effectively spreading out the burden citywide through property taxes.
Ramsey County, for instance, draws its mill-and-overlay funding from its general fund or other sources, as opposed to direct assessments.
“It was interesting to see how much charge 100 percent (to direct assessments) and then spread it out over 20 years,” Brendmoen said. “It was a good exercise, and worth knowing our program is generous by comparison. There was a lot of analyzing numbers and moving things around to make this work.”
Council Member Rebecca Noecker agreed. “We are shifting more of the cost of the street work to the general fund, so overall the cost to each property owner is likely to go down, and we are all shouldering the cost through property taxes,” she said. “Our 50/50 policy is more generous than the cities we looked at. Given the work about to take place in 2019, I think we reached a really good place.”
The council voted 6-0 on Wednesday to approve the revised assessments for mill-and-overlay projects along Stryker, Arlington, Forest and Victoria streets. Council Member Dai Thao was absent.
The council will vote on another 12 assessment rolls at a later date.
The Taghioffs, in an email, said they will continue to advocate for moving the entire mill-and-overlay bill over to the general fund.
“They are still charging properties individually to maintain a public road, rather than sharing the burden among everyone through property taxes,” they said. “Our position is the same that it was: properties city-wide should share the cost of maintaining the street network that everyone uses.”
