See our 4/22/22 announcement, “Select Board to Revisit Kendall Lane Betterment Assessment”
When the Little Pond Sewer Service Area betterment assessments were announced, there was a total betterment set at $13,054.02 per SEU. See our post of 10/3/2017 regarding this number.
In 2015, from the Enterprise: “The estimated $41 million project that will connect close to 1,500 homes and businesses to town sewer will take place over the next two years. Town Meeting voted to recommend that 70 percent of the project will be paid by property owners. Assuming a 30-year interest free loan, this amounts to about $600 a year for the average home.” See our post of 6/30/15, “Sewer Equivalent Units Set Standards for Betterments”.
After the total assessment was calculated, what is now called Kendall Lane, a 40B project on Helmis Circle, came into being and divided 7 existing lots into 28 lots with homes to be built on each, increasing the number of possible betterment cost assessments by 21.
After the 4/22/22 Select Board meeting, the Town attorney compiled some information finding that State regulations require that once the betterment cost is set, it cannot be changed. So, the possibility of income to the town from an additional 21 betterments is not possible.
Although it seems unfair that 28 lots are paying only the equivalent of 7 assessments, there is nothing which can be done. The cost of recalculating all the assessments in order to make the individual assessments more fair and equitable, by adding 21 to the total of about 1500, is prohibitive. The total amount of income back to the town will remain exactly the same as set in 2017.