At a public hearing of Fargo’s Special Assessment Commission, business owner Ben, manager of Comfort King, formally protested a special assessment tied to street work on 40 Fifth Street, saying the summer project cost the store roughly 34%–40% of its customers over three months and that the business received no assistance from the city.

The protest was recorded for referral to the City Commission. City staff confirmed the City Commission is scheduled to consider the matter at its Sept. 29 meeting.

Why this matters: Special assessments add a property-based charge on top of regular property taxes. Small businesses said the added cost is burdensome after construction disruptions, and residents sought reassurance that notices they received referred to previously completed work.

At the hearing, Ben told commissioners that construction on 40 Fifth Street this summer led to “us lose 34 to 40% of our customers for 3 months straight with no assistance from the city.” He also said assessments “put a burden on local businesses at a time where we're seeing tremendous pressure from Internet sellers who do not contribute anything to the city of Fargo” and compared traffic use near his business to nearby buildings such as Sanford.

A Staff member from the Special Assessment Office described how the city calculates assessments for this project: properties are assessed in tiers by zone based on arterial and cross-arterial benefits; the city uses a capped cost to limit property owners’ share; and for a concrete spot repair or similar rehabilitation the assessment is set at 50% of that cap. The staff member said the capped approach is part of the infrastructure funding policy the City Commission approved to keep costs down for property owners.

A homeowner who said she lives at 1026 Bridal asked whether a notice she received was for a newly proposed assessment or for work already done. Staff replied that the notice was for a project completed in 2024 — a mill-and-overlay in which a couple of inches of asphalt were removed and the street repaved — and not for a new project.

Commission chairman Steve Bladholm, who opened the hearing and identified commissioners Randy Anglestead and Dylan Dunn as appointed members of the Special Assessment Commission, said the panel is not city staff but citizens appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Commission. He noted staff were available to answer questions and that the protest would be forwarded to the City Commission for action.

No vote on the assessment itself was taken by the Special Assessment Commission at the hearing. After hearing from two people, the commission recessed briefly and then adjourned following a motion that was seconded.

The City Commission will consider the recorded protest and the assessment policy details at its Sept. 29 meeting; the Special Assessment Commission did not adopt or change the assessment at the hearing.