by Eric Hagen
Staff writer

Eight months after residents packed Andover City Hall to raise concerns about assessments they faced for the 157th Avenue reconstruction project, the Andover City Council approved the assessment roll.

The impacted residents at a March 3 public hearing during the council meeting pointed out that a lot more people than them benefit from this project because it is a route to and from Highway 65.

Property owners with larger rural lots questioned why they were being charged for more than one parcel just because their lot could potentially split and be developed.

The council heeded these concerns and changed its assessment policy for the 157th Avenue project, which was completed this summer between Prairie Road/Crosstown Boulevard in Andover and Lions Park in Ham Lake.

Jackie Lipski thanked the council for its consideration during the Nov. 4 public hearing and said the road needed to be reconstructed and the city did a nice job.

The assessments

The current Andover road assessment policy is for the city to cover 75 percent of the project, while the property owners adjacent to the project would pay 25 percent. The council will only require the 157th Avenue property owners to contribute 20 percent.

Some residents in the project area were in the Municipal Urban Service Area (MUSA), which is a city comprehensive plan term for a city sewer area. Other residents in the project area live outside the MUSA, which means they can have larger lots.

City staff reviewed these lots and determined some owners had the potential to split their property into multiple lots that could be developed.

The city was originally going to assess the property owners for all potential lots, but the council instructed staff to set up a deferred assessment policy.

What happens is the owner of one of these larger properties would only be assessed for one parcel. If the property is not subdivided or developed in the next 25 years, the property owner will never pay the deferred assessment.

If something happens within the next 25 years, the deferred assessment must be paid. A property sale closing would not require deferred assessment payment.

The maximum interest rate would be 4.5 percent, which is the same rate for every other property owner in the project area.

Interest on the deferred assessments would accrue over the next 16 years and then the amount would decrease until it vanishes at the 25-year mark.

The council also agreed to extend the pay-off period from eight years to 10 years, which it also did for the residents in the north half of the Woodland Meadows addition when they were assessed for a 2009 road reconstruction project.

Andover and Ham Lake worked together on the project and paid for their own portions of 157th Avenue. Andover’s total share was $432,330.06. Ham Lake covered $490,346.31.

Andover assessed $72,376.04. Property owners with parcels in the MUSA have a principal amount of $896.32. Properties outside the MUSA have an amount of $3,074.78 per parcel.

When the feasibility report was crafted the project was estimated to cost more and the normal assessment policy was in place.

In this report, property owners in the MUSA were slated to pay $1,490. Those outside the MUSA were estimated to pay $5,110 per parcel.

The city of Ham Lake covered all of its costs because it does not assess residents for road projects.

Eric Hagen is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it