The Miami Conservancy District’s board will have a special meeting at Hamilton City Hall next Friday, where general manager MaryLynn Lodor will recommend the pause to the reappraisal of properties that pay flood protection assessments.
This follows pushback from the community, especially in Hamilton where one business was among the properties seeing the biggest increase.
“I think it’s extremely encouraging,” said Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dan Bates of the potential pause. “It’s kind of what we really had asked for. I know there are legalities with state law that they can’t flip the switch and change, but to put a pause on this and take a look at it, I think that’s what everybody was asking for.”
Under state law, conservancy districts cannot reappraise flood protection more frequently than every 6 years. This reappraisal is what the MCD is considering pausing.
Additionally, the Miami Conservancy District board of directors annually assigns the rate at which assessments are charged. These rates are approved by the Conservancy Court.
More than 43,000 properties pay annual assessments. Nearly 84% of these properties would have ended up paying $250 or less under the proposed assessments.
The impact for some of the properties in the top 2%, however, could be substantial.
Dayton Children’s Hospital, the University of Dayton, Miami Valley Hospital and CareSource were among the properties with the highest proposed charges. Dayton Children’s estimated assessment total was $294,956, up more than $230,000 from its previous charge of $56,499 annually.
Other Montgomery County properties, like Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley in Dayton, would have seen charges of $33,341 annually for its main campus, significantly up from its current charges of $4,991 per year.
The Dayton Daily News reached out to more than a dozen Montgomery County-based property owners who were listed among the top 24 highest assessment totals.
None returned a request for comment.
The MCD provides flood protection in Butler, Hamilton, Montgomery, Miami and Warren counties.
The Miami Conservancy District has proposed a new 1% capital assessment and a 0.59% increase to the 2.19% maintenance assessment thousands of residents are already paying. The assessments would cover costs related to the upkeep and rehabilitation of the levee and dam system.
The new assessment and increased rates would be applied to updated property values. Rates are currently based on values from 12 years ago. So combined with recent, historic increases in property values, the charge increase on some properties is substantial.
According to the Miami Conservancy District, the region’s flood protection system is seeing more frequent and intense rainfall now than in the system’s history.
Storage events occur when heavy rainfall is held back by dams in the system — the conservancy district has seen a 228% increase in the number of storage events over the past 80 years.
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