That particular property will be redeveloped by a builder and sold for 1.5 mil or more. You can't deny it. There is only so much waterfront property and it will continue to be the most valuable and prized property. The free market takes care of itself. The mandated reappraisal and the tax appeal process is already in place to protect and insure equity. I do have a problem with any elected official or officials using the office for their own personal agenda, in this case to reduce their own property taxes, by circumventing a legal process that is already in place. Our officials must recuse themselves and appeal their taxes just like everybody else. The realty appraisal company is a professional, independent appraisal company. That is what they do and all that they do. Lets say that we don't trust an independent, professional appraisal company...to do an appraisal, do we then trust an elected official instead to tell us what the correct appraisal value is?

Dentss, you usually have pretty good insight, but you can't see the forest through the trees on this proposal, unless you stand to benefit from it. When the council votes on freezing the re-evaluations for folks in the flood zone, the immediate impact will be multiplied for every other non flood zone home in LS. Not only will your property taxes go up, it will go up BIG! You will have to cover the loss of reevaluations for all waterfront properties. This is fundamentally a broad brush mass tax appeal for all flood zone properties in one fell swoop. You will see a very large increase in your property taxes, and it may be there for 10 years until the next reevaluation. They won't cut services. The multiplier will be much higher and the property taxes will be much higher for ALL non flood zone homeowners. MUCH HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES for everybody except those in the flood zone...by a vote from council??? Who gives council the power? This is a slippery slope. The majority of the council live in the zone that will potentially see a reduction in taxes. Where is your common sense? It is absolutely not a fair additional burden for non waterfront property owners. We need to show up to the February 4th meeting and be heard.

First, on the overall assessment topic, I think the re-assessment should be put off for the entire town, not a portion (flood areas) that just creates a different set of issues - the short and long term impacts from Sandy and NRIP rate changes need to shake out.

Second, The homes that were significantly damaged are going to have their assessments temporarily reduced from that damage. As such, the the multiplier will go up for the remainder of the town to reach the town budget.

1) Has the town provided any guidance in how much the multiplier will be affected? The town valuation last year was around $1.25 Billion is there an estimate of how much (5%, 10%, 20%) the multiplier will go up to offset this loss in assessment valuation?

2) Those assessment reductions are just on the home, not on the property - correct? They will still be paying taxes on their land which may be the bulk of their assessment, correct?

2) When these homes are repaired, the assessments will be updated to reflect the repaired value (not in 10 years) - so in the subsequent years, the multiplier should go back down, correct? So, this particular change is short term (affects 2013 tax)?

3) The longer terms affects of Sandy and NFIP rates are yet to be seen and I expect those may also be significant.

I am sure you would agree those with a significant loss to their homes would rather be paying taxes than dealing with the mess...

In the final analysis, it is likely that the council will not act in any material way: the appeal process will become the vehicle for flood-impacted properties to attain the appropriate assessment (in 2014, not this year). In the interim, temporary abatement might be put in place, but that is a short-term fix and not likely to have a material effect on the other 2,500 properties. Abatement is appropriate and simply the obverse of an increase after a remodel, which happens immediately following the remodel. You can't really argue for and support one, and not the other. The process is self-correcting over time because it is based upon market prices. My guess is that over the next 5 years, flood-impacted properties will see a drop in market value, but in the longer term, absent another event, the value will most likely move back towards pre-Sandy levels (all else being equal). If this happens, taxes may go down for flood-impacted properties, but eventually increase back to pre-Sandy levels. For those non-impacted property owners, who have an issue with the potential increase in their taxes, I can sympathize because nobody wants to pay more taxes, but it's patently unfair to ignore a drop in market value for flood-impacted properties. In terms of a potential conflict of interest for Council members, I suspect they will recuse themselves should an action or motion be put forward. I own flood-impacted property, but support letting the process work as it normally would.

This is not just about waterfront properties - I heard 400 properties were affected by Sandy. I think a lot of homes are now over assessed. I think the town should request/petition to put the assessment changes on pause for the entire town (not part of the town since that will just create another imbalance) and let this settle out for a while.

Look at the AFBE maps and see how much of the town is in a floodplain area and will face changes based on the Biggert-Waters Act; elevating and/or higher NFIP rates.

Any reductions in appraisals must be approved by the county ,just like any appeals must go thought the county .With that thought nobody wants to see anybody pay more they they should ,if someone loses 50% of the value of their home even seeing any reduction on their taxes is of little help for someone who could have sold that property for 1.5 million but now that same property only sells for 500K .seeing your taxes reduced from 22k to 15K is irrelevant when you just lost 1 million of value ...Hopefully the next person to build will raise the house so that can't happen again .Right now ,banks will not lend one penny on waterfront unless that home surpasses the hight requirement and then the buyer must come in with 40 to 50%.As for insurance you must carry the max ....so if anyone thinks this waterfront real estate will bounce back ,your wrong .And I'm not even discussing about the recession or economic times .Waterfront bubbles have burst and it will be many years before you see prices even close to last years .Towns that relied on the high taxes of waterfront will have to cut or raise taxes substantially for everybody ,who knows we may all be paying taxes like waterfront properties were .

They are the puppet masters to our town ,who would pull the strings then ?

Karl Rove should be made the benevolent despot of the US.

Go down to the meeting and be heard. Bring your neighbors and friends. This is the best group of council we have seen in a long time. The council has to listen and follow the will of the people. This is not a monarchy.