Property assessment questions answered

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - A public meeting on the new way the county assesses property answered many owners' questions.

The Tippecanoe County Assessor's Office has received many questions and concerns from property owners about its new land value assessment.

Most of the property owners concerned about land value assessment live in the New Chauncey neighborhood in west Lafayette. They want to know why their land value saw such a dramatic increase.

Senior Deputy Eric Grossman in the county's assessor office said when they took over the New Chauncey land assessment duties, they subdivided the neighborhood and used different land value rates to calculate the worth of each property.

"When we looked at it, we found 3: multi-family, single family and the northeast area of national homes in the Kingston area. Based on those 3 markets, we just looked at the sales that had happened in those 3 areas and adjusted the sales values based on 3 different areas and the sales that happened in each of those areas," said Grossman.

Ralph Green lives in the New Chauncey neighborhood. He said he has spoken to his neighbors, and they all thought their land value took a dramatic increase.

"It was a disproportionate increase to what we thought the land values should have been. Most of this has been set on a particular characteristic lot of 55 foot frontage. They had chosen the price of the 1000 dollars per running foot because that was a typical lot. Our particular neighborhood area, our lots are almost twice that. It has put a disproportionate amount on the land value versus the house," said Green.

Green says he plans to file an appeal.

The deadline to file is November 30th.