Evening star., 1930-12-02
new BORLAND ACT
DRAFT INTRODUCED
BY z|HLMAN TODAY
Measure Would Give Com
misSionerS Power to Reduce
or Adjust Assessments.
PROPERTY OWNERS MAY
PROTEST IN so DAYS
Proposal Would Prevent Levies
Greater Than 20 Per Cent
Of Assessed Value.

A new draft of the Commissioners
proposed amendment to the Borland act,
as sent up to Congress by the city heads
yesterday with request that 1t be
enacted into law, was introduced in the
House today by Representative zihlman.
The draft follows in most respects the
terms of the bill introduced at their re-
quest at the last session of Congress.
One important difference in the new
bill is that it proposes to give to the
Commissioners the power in their dis
cretion to 'abate, reduce or adjust"
assessments which aggrieved property
owners prove to their satisfaction are
inequitable.
This power is conferred in section 10
OF the proposed act, which reads as fol-
lows:
ANY property. owner, aggrieved by
any assessment levied hereunder, may,
within so days after receiving notice of
such assessment, file with the Commits
sioners of the District of Columbia a
protest in writing against such assess
ment, accompanied by affidavits If he so
desires, and II said Commissioners find
that the property of such owner so pro-
testing Is not benefited by the improve
ment for which such assessment Is
levied, or is benefited less than the
amount of such assessment, or is un-
equally or inequitably assessed with re-
lation to other property abutting such
improvement, said Commissioners shall
abate, reduce or adjust such assessment
in accordance with such finding"
Total Not to Exceed 20 Per Cent.
Other differences are that in no case
shall the total Of all assessments levied
against a particular property Under the
Borland act or its amendment amount
to more than 20 per cent of the assessed
value Of the property for purposes of
taxation. Another is that the assess
mentS against q property shall not ex-
coed, the number of square feet in the
property multiplied by one-tenth of
Per cent Of the assessment per linear
front foot
The other provisions follow those of
the former bill, all designed to eliminate
or reduce the inequities incident to as
Sessing by the front foot method lots.
Of irregular shape and size, such as are
found In city like Washington, which
Is trayersed by diagonal avenues. In
his letter transmitting the draft of the
bill to the Commissioners, Corporation
Counsel William w. Bride sadie
Triangular Lot Case Pending.
'"The present law has been held un-
constitutional by our Court of Appeals,
WAA~A 0PPtAOa W properly AIO1eAAl6
streets and avenues having a diagonal
course through the city, where the
course of such avenues results in the
property being divided into triangular
and irregularly shaped lots.
There is now pending in the Court
Of Appeals case involving q rectangu-
lar lot; the lower court Cancelled the
assessment. It Is improbable that the
Court Of Appeals will sustain the Dis
trict in this case. If the action of the
lower court is affirmed it would seem
that there could be no case in which a
valid assessment could be levied under
our present law. Should the Court of
Appeals hold the assessment valid, the
result would be that one whose prop
erty faced upon diagonal street would
not be required to pay any assessment,
whereas one whose property lay around
the corner upon a street running, for
example. north and south, would be
required to pay-a situation so unjust
and inequitable to the property owners
that 1t should not be allowed to exist"