Borough to share cost of revaluation

By: Cara Latham
   FIELDSBORO — As part of an agreement with the Stepan Co. chemical plant, the Borough Council introduced an ordinance last week to hire a revaluation company to revalue all property within the borough.
   The revaluation will cost about $16,000, and Stepan Co., an international manufacturer of surfactants for the soap and shampoo industry located in the borough, has agreed to pay half the cost, Mayor Ed "Buddy" Tyler said Monday in a phone interview.
   The borough last had a reassessment of property in the 1980s, Mayor Tyler said. The current average assessed home is $86,600. The difference between a reassessment and a revaluation is that a reassessment of properties is largely done by local officials, but a revaluation is done entirely by an independent firm. Revaluations often cost twice as much as reassessments.
   At the Borough Council’s Oct. 11 meeting, the borough introduced an ordinance to hire a professional revaluation company to do the job. Three companies have submitted bids, but none has been selected yet. The borough hopes to hire a company by the end of the year, Mayor Tyler added.
   The agreement between the borough and Stepan Co. came as a result of tax appeal filed by the company in 2005, and then again in 2006. The chemical company said its commercial property was assessed at too high a value compared to residential properties and that it was paying too much in taxes, Mayor Tyler said.
   Stepan Co. pays a third of the total property taxes collected in the borough, he added.
   The company withdrew the 2005 appeal, but refiled it in 2006 before it withdrew it again, Mayor Tyler said. This is because the borough had already purchased 3.5 acres of land from Stepan Co. along with the White Hill Mansion through condemnation proceedings, and the borough was pursuing another 3.5 acres in front of the property through condemnation, he said.
   "They withdrew that appeal as part of the agreement I reached with them in that the town’s assessed valuation has gone down to 57 percent, which is extremely low," he said. "So basically, this was the fairest thing to do, and it will save us potentially a lot of money."
   The borough dropped its action for condemnation on the second 3.5-acre parcel as part of the overall agreement that was reached. Instead, Stepan Co. agreed to put a conservation easement on the ground, deed-restrict it, and place a first right of refusal on the property — meaning that the borough would have the first rights to the property if the chemical plant were to close — so that it cannot be developed in the future, Mayor Tyler said.
   In addition, the borough could use the land however it wishes. The chemical plant wanted to use the ground as a buffer, and the borough wanted it as open space, which is "basically the same thing, but calling it another name," Mayor Tyler said.
   The land will remain as open space at no cost to taxpayers and Stepan Co. will maintain ownership of the property, Mayor Tyler said.
   "It’s a win-win all around," he said. "We get the ground we want, we don’t pay anything for it, and we don’t have to maintain it. Everyone came away happy."
   Mayor Tyler also said the agreement worked out for both parties because if the tax appeal reached court, the borough would have had to spend money to defend itself, and if Stepan Co. did not win, the company would incur a large cost in fighting the appeal.
   "I don’t believe it’s wise to fight if it’s unnecessary," said Mayor Tyler.
   It would have cost the company more than $8,000 in legal fees for the tax appeal, he said.
   All of the borough’s properties will be revaluated, because "there’s a possibility that other areas in the town were overassessed," if such is the case with Stepan Co.
   "I thought the fairest thing was to revaluate the whole town, so that now we know that everybody’s assessed properly," he said.
   Mayor Tyler said even though the borough assessor would be able to handle it, a revaluation by an outside company would provide a "more accurate" and "fairer" number for every party, he said.
   A public hearing on the ordinance will be held at the next Borough Council meeting, he said.