By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — It’s a fair question — how is land assessed in the village of Colfax?
Ricky Brockmiller, who owns the only house built to date in the East View residential development, asked that very question at the Colfax Village Board’s September 23 meeting.
Brockmiller said he owns .37 acres, and the lot is listed as $16,500. The fair market value of his house is $208,000.
Another house in Colfax with a fair market value of $210,00 has four acres, and the land is listed at $35,000, he said.
Four acres at $35,000 works out to be $8,750 per acre, while Brockmiller’s one-third of an acre is listed at nearly twice that amount.
Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, suggested Brockmiller contact Barb Zempel, the village’s assessor, to find out.
Brockmiller said it would seem to him that if there was more land, it should have a higher valuation.
Niggemann pointed out different criteria goes into determining valuation but that she did not want to speculate about it because assessing property is not her area of expertise.
It is possible that if the four acres is wooded, it could be in a program like forest cropland, she said.
Zempel has been the village’s assessor for 20 or 25 years and knows the properties in the village very well, said Scott Gunnufson, village president.
The “open book” meeting with the assessor is also a time when village residents can ask for about their assessments, he said.
The open book meeting is usually in May, and village residents should watch the Colfax Messenger because the notices are required to be published in the newspaper, Niggemann said.
Brockmiller also wanted to know if the village planned to buy more land south of his home for the Phase II part of East View.
The village already owns some of the land south of Brockmiller’s property, Gunnufson said.
Brockmiller wondered if any duplexes or multi-family units built in Phase II would be owner-occupied or strictly rental properties.
All options are on the table, Gunnufson said.
A street would separate the Brockmiller property and any development in Phase II, he noted.
If there were a proposal for Phase II, the developer would talk first to Niggemann, and then Niggemann would schedule a meeting of the Colfax Plan Commission to review the proposal.
Plan commission meetings, like village board meetings and committee meetings, are open to the public.
After the Colfax Plan Commission has reviewed the proposal and made recommendations, the proposal would come to the village board for consideration, Niggemann said.
“It’s not just an application anymore,” she said.
