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— Below is e-mail correspondence from Tim Houle and Paul Sandelin regarding this issue: � To Sandv Peine and Paul Sandelin - From Tim Houle: It is not unusual to have more negative than positive comments from notices / at a hearing. However, on any special assessment project, or, for that matter, any public improvement project, it comes down to whether the Council believes this project will, overall, be an asset for the City. The City Council can (should) gather input to help them make this decision. The State Statute mandated special assessment process gives the Council the opportunity for written and verbal input at the public (preliminary assessment) hearing we had Tuesday night. What they do with and how they interpret that input is up to each Council Member. I know I have mentioned this to the Council before, but unless you deal with special assessments frequently enough, it can be forgotten. Objectors to the amount proposed to be specially assessed can appeal their special assessment at the final hearing stage. Obviously, if the Council believes there will be appeals - or maybe I should say significant appeals - they may want to consider whether it is appropriate to proceed with the project. The test is whether the parcel will benefit by as much or more than the amount specially assessed. Especially on vacant parcels, for the value of the parcel to increase by at least the special assessment amount can be the crux of the issue. To Sandv Peine and Tim Houle — From Paul Sandelin: Sandy and Tim: I looked over my file on this along with the assessment statute. We started this project as a property owner petition assessment project. The city obtains a feasibility study/report to determine initially if the city thinks the project will be feasible which in large part is a financial analysis of the project albeit an estimate. Based upon that report and input from the affected property owners it is a policy decision for the city to order the project. The city does have 6 months from the date of the improvement hearing to adopt a resolution ordering the improvement. So if we think we need to consider whether or not we are going to actually order the improvement we do have time to consider that. In any event in this case the city has adopted the resolution ordering the improvement. That means we need to show the following which is taken from the league materials on special assessments: • The land receives a special benefit from the improvement. • The assessment does not exceed the special benefit measured by the increase in market value due to the improvement. � • The assessment is uniform as applied to the same class of '; property, in the assessed area.