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Rappahannock’s latest reassessment for fair market value of real estate and structures is all over but for the shouting - and the equalizing. That second phase of the reappraisal program will start in January when the court-appointed Equalization Board begins hearing from unhappy landowners.
But Col. E. P. Luke, chairman of the local Board of Assessors who worked with the professional appraiser for the past year, reviewing the worth he set for land and buildings, doesn’t think the equalizers will have much to do. “What we have is about as equal and fair an assessment as I know of in this county,” the former chairman of the Board of Supervisors told his present-day counterparts on Monday. “We looked at ALL the standing structures,” he said, asking that appointments to the Equalization Board be made early enough that members of • that body can meet with the assessors and hear an explanation of how values were reached.
“We didn’t have anybody come in to say ‘My house is too low,”’ Col. Luke said. And that despite the fact that values, as judged by actual sales, climbed by as much as $20,000 and $30,000 between the time comparable sales figures were collected and when decisions on the new assessments were finalized, he added.
Col. Luke mentioned several misconceptions which turned up among the 225 landowners who appealed to the Board of Assessors. Several thought that the , zoning ordinance prohibits the sale of all lots - existing or newly subdivided - less than 25 acres in size and thus those smaller lots should be assessed at a lower rate.
Several believed that landlocked lots should show decreased value, even if the owner
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