Systems, Inc. Researchers compared the variance of assessed values

Systems, Inc. Researchers compared the variance of assessed values in “near-site” residential areas to that for comparable properties in more distant areas.

They concluded that solid waste disposal sites have no apparent negative effect on changes in property values for single-family dwellings. The study also found that the value of vacant lands adjacent to some sites was increased by post-closure development plans that included parks and other amenities.

Reliance on assessments faulted

However, this EPA study, never completed beyond the draft stage, was faulted for relying on assessed values. Critics pointed out that an assessment for tax purposes is not necessarily the same as actual worth, since more often than not, the property would sell for a greater amount than its assessed value.

Sales data are much more limited than assessment data. Every piece of property has an assessed worth, but sales may not be regular enough to provide an information base from which to draw conclusions. In addition, the sale of one or a dozen properties located next to a new landfill may say nothing about the facility’s impact on market values if there are no figures for the sale of comparable properties some distance away.

But despite the scarcity of existing sales data, studies using market figures have been conducted.

Pennsylvania State University’s Institute for Research on Land and Water Resources compiled one such survey in 1982, entitled Effects of Solid Waste Disposal Sites on Community Development and Residential Property.

Effect on actual sales

Penn State researchers attempted to isolate the effect that proximity to a disposal site has on actual sales. They first looked at the historical rate of property development that had occurred within a designated “impact zone” around