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A proposed revised policy would read: "Neighborhood City parks shall not be considered a benefitted property for the purpose of assessment*'. Unusual and Disproportionate Assessment Each year it seems we are confronted with a situation where application of the project assessment rules would result in an assessment which is out of proportion with typical assessments on similar properties. Typically, these projects involve MSA collector roadways where many of the lots have frontage on subdivision roads and remaining lots on large parcels. This results in relatively large project costs being distributed over few of parcels resulting in unusually high or disproportionate assessment. Several alternatives might be considered to remedy this problem. (a) Aggregate projects and assessments: Maintenance projects could be aggregated into one large project by type. For example, all scalcoat and overlay projects could be combined and one uniform assessment be applied to each property receiving that type of improvement. In addition to eliminating the disproportionate assessments, this would also reduce administrative effort and cost by reducing the number of public hearings and legal notices. Although it hasn't been a problem in recent years, larger street maintenance projects would be more difficult to defeat by petition. In the past on some projects having only a dozen or so properties, street maintenance projects have been defeated. The largest disadvantage of aggregating projects, is that small subdivisions subsidize larger subdivisions. Attached is an exhibit entitled "Financial Impact of Aggregating Assessments for Annual Street Maintenance Program". This is a compilation of the past three years street program assessments compared to what they would have been if projects were aggregated. The largest difference can be expected between the rural and urban subdivisions and this might be rectified by aggregating programs between urban and rural subdivisions, but the most significant assessment difference would have occurred for Traprock Commons which is a rural subdivision. (b) Establishing a policy of assessing as separate charge for unusual and disproportionate assessments: This alternative would simply acknowledge that particular cases may occur in which the application of the normal assessment rules would result in an assessment disproportionate with assessment for like improvement on similar properties. In such cases, we would assess the average cost for that type improvement in the current year's program for similar assessments. The disadvantage of this alternative may lie in defining what is an unusual or disproportionate assessment in borderline cases. This may be ctarified somewhat by adding guidelines. Perhaps where the assessment would typically exceed the average assessment by iiX) percent. We might also consider establishing a cap assessment in these cases, but I believe most cases would apply to MSA streets where there may be strong opposition to paying the highest assessments within the program for maintenance on a high traffic street which serves a higher percentage of.the general public. Recommendation: tt is my recommendation that the change in policy for comer lbts and parks be recommended to the Council for adoption. I believe a recommendation on dealing with disproportionate assessments should be made based on the weighing of the merits and disadvantages of the alternatives presented.