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March 14, 2011 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee March 14, 2011 Place and Time: Town Office Building, Room G15, 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; John Bartenstein, Vice-Chair and Secretary; Joe Pato, Vice Chair; Robert Cohen; Alan Levine; Mollie Garberg; Susan McLeish; Eric Michelson; Richard Neumeier Other Attendees: Patrick Mehr; Pat Goddard, Director of Facilities; Micah Niemy, Budget Officer; Joe Nugent, Assessor; Barry Orenstein The meeting was called to order at 7:36 p.m. Minutes 1.. Minutes from the 3/7/2011 meeting were approved as edited with a vote of 8-0-1. Article 37 Commercial Assessments (Patrick Mehr). 2. Mr. Mehr discussed his rationale for this article, i.e., that it appears the Assessors do not increase the assessment of a property after it has been up-zoned and before new construction has been completed. Mr. Mehrcontends that the Town should receive a benefit in terms of new growth tax revenue when a property is up-zoned at the request of the owner and the market value of the property increases. Mr. Mehr and the Committee discussed a number of aspects of the proposed motion. These included the regulations of the DOR and guidance that it has provided in an informational guideline release (IGR). In Mr. Mehr’s opinion, the IGR should be reevaluated and changed by the DOR to provide tax fairness in this regard. The Committee discussed whether up-zoning would be considered new growth, how up-zoning might be defined, and how rezoning impacts assessed value. Mr. Nugent explained that if there is a change in zoning,the assessment of the value of the land for the next year would be expected to change as a reflection of the change in permitted uses. He emphasized that assessments are based on the results of his office’s analysis and that cost does not necessarily equal value. Also, real estate markets can undergo dramatic changes, so that assessments do not always compare with expectations. The Committee briefly discussed the Planning Board’s involvement. Mr. Mehr has suggested that the Planning Boardprovide a fiscal impact analysis for each up-zoningbut he has not yet made a presentation to that Board. The Committee discussed what can be reasonably asked of DOR and other aspects of the assessment process. Committee members expressed diverse views about supporting or not supporting the motion. Mr. Neumeier moved to table the Committee vote in this regard in order to find out whether the Selectmen take a position or otherwise provide useful information, and to have moretime to think about and deliberate on the issue; his motion was approved 6-2-1. Article 38 Residential Assessments (Patrick Mehr) 3.. Mr. Mehr expressed concern about assessments of larger homes. Mr. Mehr presented statistics for the 333 houses that sold in Lexington in 2006 and a 4 "bucket" method for categorizing the sales by dollar amount. He stated that his analysis shows that, in FY 2010, the sale 1