Sewer Reassessments Back Before Hartland Township Board

Thorny issues over reassessing sewer taxes for a group of property owners return to the Hartland Township Board of Trustees during a special meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday at , 2655 Clark Road.

The board is expected to vote to correct assessments for about dozen parcels in a special tax district called SAD 4. It also will hold a public hearing on reassessing more than $700,000 from deliquent taxes connected to three parcels over all of SAD 4.

Both moves are required under state law, according to township officials.

SAD 4 was set up in 2005 to pay for $12 million in new sewer infrastructure to expand at three ends of the current system, according to Township Manager James Wickman.

The about 30 parcels include mostly undeveloped land zoned for commercial or mixed-use development at M-59 and Pleasant Valley Road, U.S. 23 and Clyde Road and M-59 near the township's western border, he said.

Since the sewer expansion project, only plans to bring mixed-use housing and a new Kroger to M-59 and Pleasant Valley Road and a new housing development at the reached the planning stage but both have been abandoned because of the recession.

Three of the parcels connected to the golf course development are what became delinquent. The reassessment would amount to about a 6 percent increase, Wickman said.

But so far the move to correct assessments is what has drawn public attention. Some property owners complained about the proposal, questioning the proposal's fairness and legality during a public hearing last week.

Marcos Michail, an attorney representing some of them, said at the meeting he was planning to go farther than the State Tax Tribunal to settle the dispute, including to circuit court.

"We will pursue whatever avenues to rectify the situation," he said.

But officials say the original calculations about the sewer capacity were discovered incorrect during a recent audit of the entire system. For example, one three-acre parcel that also has a pond was assigned too much capacity.

"There clearly is an error," Wickman said. "We have an obligation to correct."

The error means some parcels should have been charged more and some should have been charged less. The corrections, as mandated by law, however, only set the rate at what it should be going forward, Wickman said. The assessments are over 20 years.

In most cases, Wickman said, the correction doesn't change what was owed or paid because property owners owned the same set of parcels that would be adjusted under the correction.

But for those parcels that have gone into foreclosure for nonpayment of taxes, paying higher taxes was avoided although the property owner lost the land.

Wednesday's special meeting agenda also include discussing the purchase of real property, the township’s strategic plan and elected officials compensation.