Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-26
Protesting Benefit" Assessments.

The reason so many property owners
test so-called benefit assessments in
street widening projects is that they
, cannot sec any sense In the assessments.
The amount of the assessment Is often
so small that it would pay the pro-
tcStant, in the end, to wife his check
and forget about it. But the pr nciple
involved is SO contrary to that neces-
sary element of any law, which is COM
mon sense, that the citizen will fight
to the last ditch TO escape payment OF
a tax that may not exceed ten dollars.
The Burleith Citizens Association has
decided to protest assessments levied
against residents of that community
for the widening of Reservoir road,
highway that runs from Wisconsin
avenue to Conduit road. This highway
is the southern boundary of a block of
Burleith lying to the west Of Thirty
seventh street. 1t is the main traffic
artery serving Foxall Village and the
Conduit read section TO the west an6 is
used by many persons who live in Vir-
ginia, across Chain Bridge, or beyond
the District line on Conduit road. 1t is
seldom used by residents of Burleith.
AS far as they are individually con-
cerned, the road might be abandoned
altogether. But they have been assessed
for a part of the widening job, and the
method of assessment is, in the belief
of the citizens, discriminatory For IN
stance, some residents on r street. a
block north of Reservoir road who live
west of Thirty-sixth street have been
assessed $50 each. Those who live to
the east of Thirty-sixth street have eS-
capped any assessment. Those who live
on street and on T street have been
assessed. for the most part, ten dollars
each. Some residents on Thirty-seventh
street have been assessed, while their
neighbors across the street have not
been assessed, and assessments on
Thirty-seventh street run as low as 81,
dents who live block away from the
street to be widened are benefited 100
per cent more than those who live two
blocks away from the street, and that
while one resident has received two dol
lars worth Of special benefit for a
treet-widening project three and half
blocks away, his neXt-door neighbor has
not been benefited penny'S worth.
These assessments we're fixed by a
jury of fair and impartial citizens, who
obviously sought to spread the burden
of special taxation as equitably as pos
sible. Yet the jury's findings are bring
ing protests not only from Burleith,
which does not use Reservoir road but
from Foxall Village, which must de-
pend upon Reservoir road to get in and
out of town.
The truth Of the matter is that Wild
ening a highway to accommodate more
and faster trafic has ceased to benefit
the surrounding property. Such traf-
fic highway often becomes a liability
instead of an asset to adjacent prop
erty. And the widening jobs are seldom
undertaken TO benefit adjacent or sur
rounding property. They are initiated
because of the demands of through
traffic. They are benefits to the COM
munity as whole and not to the resi-
dents who happen to live nearby.
Protests of this sort have held up
the widening of Benning road for many
years. Clouds Of protests are lowering
over the Conduit road widening project.
The protests from Burleith and Foxan
Village are merely additional barriers
that may delay realization Of project
that modern traf1c and growth of the
city demand. Citizens do not protest
for the fun of the thing. They feel
they have a real grievance. Some sensi-
BILE scheme of financing these road i'm
provements should be developed 10 end
the grievances They seriously hamper
highway improvement.