Opinion ID: 2600008
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Special assessments

Text: ¶ 24 A special assessment is a charge imposed on property owners within a limited area to help pay the cost of a local improvement which specially benefits property within that area. Covell v. City of Seattle, 127 Wash.2d 874, 889, 905 P.2d 324 (1995). When the government constructs a public improvement, such as a road, a waterworks, or a park, the real properties nearest to the improvement can derive a benefit greater than the general public. Correspondingly, these properties increase in value. If the property receives a special benefit, the government may levy an assessment. If the property does not, an assessment would be a deprivation of property without due process of law. Heavens v. King County Rural Library Dist., 66 Wash.2d 558, 564, 404 P.2d 453 (1965). Because a special benefit is the linchpin of an assessment's constitutionality, the owner of property subject to an assessment has the right to a hearing addressing whether the improvement resulted, or will result, in a special benefit to the property. See Parosa, 52 Wash.2d at 193, 324 P.2d 438. There is a concomitant right to notice of the hearing. Id.