Lisa Volpe presents on revaluation

Jamestown City Council members expressed concern over the timing for a proposed revaluation of properties in the City.

Council heard a presentation from City Assessor Lisa Volpe on hiring GAR Associates for $285,000 to do the revaluation. The city last did a reval in 2006, which cost $1 million. At that time, it was the first revaluation done in the city in 30 years. New York State recommends municipalities do a revaluation every 5 years.

Volpe said Appraiser Adam Zarczynski took new photos of all city properties in preparation for a new revalauation, however the property data is now 15 years old and may be deemed outdated enough to be unusable.

She said GAR Associates had originally planned to start the project in January and if the project is started later than March 1, it may not be able to be finished on time, “This would push the start of the project off until January 2023, with a finish date of July 2024. This would make the data we have 18 years old and the new pictures two years old. The further this is delayed we may find the cost is much higher due to the un-usability of the current data and pictures.”

Council members asked if the revaluation could be done in-house versus paying an outside group, but Volpe said that wasn’t possible, “Because New York State has a very narrow amount of time that you can do all 15,000 parcels. And in my department now it’s just me, Adam [Zarczynski], and a part-time secretary, so we couldn’t do all 15,000 parcels in that four month period of time. It’s just impossible. We wouldn’t have the staff to do it.”

Council Member at Large Jeff Russell said he’s heard concerns from residents who in the last couple years have bought houses for well over the assessed value of the property, “Those people are concerned that the City is going to come in and reassess their properties and kind of penalize them, I guess, for overpaying for the properties because of the hot housing market and they’re going to be taxed accordingly.”

Volpe said the tax rate could come down, “The levy would stay the same. And then we’d have more assessed value, so the tax rate would come down. So even if you’re assessed higher, your bill could still be the same or less depending on what the tax rate ends up being.”

Council President Tony Dolce said he was on Council the last time a revaluation was done and said it’s difficult to do it at any time. He said with the concerns by people about doing a revaluation during the Pandemic, he’d like to see the process pushed back six months to a year. Dolce requested Volpe to put together information on how much the cost would change if the city waited a year to do the revaluation.

Jamestown City Council

The resolution to be presented would hire GAR Associates of Williamsville, New York for $285,000 to do the revaluation. This is the same company used when the City last did a revaluation 16 years ago in 2006. A staff report by the city said the state recommends a reval be done every 5 years. If approved, the contract states the estimated date of completion for the revaluation would be Summer 2023.

Council also will review a couple requests to use American Rescue Plan funds. One resolution would use $110,000 in ARP funds to replace a penthouse coil. The staff report said the existing chilled water coils are failing and have begun leaking, thus losing their ability to condition and dehumidify fresh air properly. Another resolution would use $35,450 in ARP funds to replace outdated and failing infrastructure and networking equipment in the Information Technology department.

Two resolutions to suspend the hiring freeze to hire 4 firefighters and one Parks Laborer will be presented. The new hires in the Fire department will fill a current vacancy due to retirement as well as three anticipated ones due to retirement this year. The new hire in the Parks department will fill a vacancy due to a retirement in March.

Council also will review a resolution to sell the former 402 Lakeview Avenue parcel to an adjacent property owner on Van Buren Street, Deborah Munroe, for $200. The Planning Commission had approved the property sale at its January meeting. Associate Corporation Counsel Ben Haskins said at the Planning meeting that the property was acquired using 19A in 2018 by the city. After severe issues with the structure were found, including foundation issues, an emergency demolition was ordered. Haskins said a request for proposal put out in July 2021 only gained interest from one buyer. The $200 offered will cover what the City paid the county in property taxes in 2021.

Several presentations are on tonight’s agenda including a presentation on the Neighborhood Revitalization Renaissance Block Challenge Program by the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, a presentation on potential American Rescue Plan economic development projects, and further discussion on DPW equipment priorities.

Committee meetings start at 6:45pm with the Housing Committee. The full work session will take place at 7:00 p.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room of City Hall. The meetings are open to the public.