Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Abatement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Select Board approves tax abatement after acreage corrected to 3.6 acres
Summary
The Westport Island Select Board voted to accept a property tax abatement that reduces a parcel’s assessed acreage from 4 acres to 3.6 acres after staff review; a homeowner said they were not notified of the agenda item in time to attend.
At its meeting, the Westport Island Select Board voted to accept a tax abatement for a parcel listed as 3.6 acres, down from 4 acres on the valuation roll. The motion, made by the Chair and seconded, passed by voice vote.
The board said the abatement was presented to them by town staff (Ashley). A resident who had filed the abatement said they had submitted the request about a month earlier and were surprised the homeowner had not been notified of the agenda listing. “I’ve not heard anything from the abatements request I put in about a month ago,” the resident said, adding they would have attended if they had been told.
Board members explained that the select board’s role in an abatement is limited to approving or rejecting the request; if a property owner disagrees with the outcome, they can pursue further review with the assessor’s office. The Chair said staff would follow up on improving notification and communications so homeowners know when an abatement appears on an agenda.
The board took the formal motion to accept the abatement as presented by staff and approved it by voice vote. The board did not record a roll-call tally in the meeting transcript.
The action ends the select board’s part of this abatement; any further disagreement by the property owner would proceed through the assessor’s appeal process.
