Manassas Park staff recommends keeping annual property assessments; council agrees

City staff presented an analysis to the council on Nov. 18 examining whether Manassas Park should change property‑assessment intervals from annual to two‑ or four‑year cycles, an option available to some smaller Virginia jurisdictions.

Staff outlined tradeoffs: multi‑year intervals could reduce some ongoing administrative work but risk locking in values during market booms or busts; staff also reported that jurisdictions using four‑year cycles often contract out assessments at substantial cost (staff cited figures of $250,000–$300,000 per cycle). The presentation noted that doing less frequent assessments can make values less responsive to market swings, and staff cautioned that a single assessment taken before a market downturn or upturn can have outsized effects through the interval.

The staff recommendation was to retain annual assessments and to revisit tax‑relief eligibility thresholds and limits during the next budget cycle to address homeowner equity concerns. The presenter said newer valuation tools (referred to in the meeting as a C3 AI assessment tool) are expected to make assessments more accurate and to reduce bias in valuations.

Council members raised questions about appeals volume (staff said three appeals were filed this year), the administrative impact of new tools, and whether two‑year intervals would assist predictability for capital planning. Multiple council members said they supported keeping annual assessments; one member characterized multi‑year intervals as "smoke and mirrors" and urged transparency at the budget process. The council did not adopt a change in interval at the meeting; staff will proceed with outreach and the planned communications about the new assessment tooling and will revisit tax‑relief limits as part of the budget process.