Parkland outlines special-assessment plan for Pine Tree Estates roads; residents dispute legal basis

City staff on Oct. 8 presented a proposed method to apportion the costs of a full-depth roadway reclamation in the Pine Tree Estates subdivision and said the meeting included no formal vote. The estimated project cost is $4,560,000; staff and its consultants described two payment options for affected homeowners: a one-time prepayment or a 20-year tax-roll assessment backed by a note.

The presentation, delivered by Kelly Schwartz, the city’s finance director, and Richard (Rich) Hans of Governmental Management Services, outlined that about 783 parcels in the assessment area translate to 794 “buildable lots” for apportionment purposes, and that 96% of those lots would be assessed at a single-lot rate. Hans said dividing the construction cost by the 794 buildable lots yields a per-lot upfront cost of about $5,743.07. If the city issues a 20-year note under the consultants’ assumptions (5.5% interest, 12 months capitalized interest, a one-year debt-service reserve and a 7% gross-up for collection costs), the principal allocated per buildable lot would be about…