Opinion ID: 2026679
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application to Petitioners

Text: ¶ 24 The District's Resolution at issue here required that the availability charge of the special assessment be levied upon each lot, regardless of size, accessibility by public or private road or easement, corner location or other characteristics to which service is made available. [10] A lot is defined as either a lot of record or a parcel of record. [11] Accordingly, because each condominium is a parcel of record, even though all stand upon one lot of record, the condominiums were assessed 18 times an individual availability charge, even though their lot received only one four-inch stub. ¶ 25 The Petitioners contend that the District did not appropriately exercise its police power because it did not levy the assessments fairly and equitably among the property owners. The District responds that the assessment was levied uniformly against all single-family residential property owners of record. The Petitioners counter that the District applied the availability charge to each individual condominium owner, yet with other single-lot properties that contain multiple residences, the District levied the availability charge only once. For example, the District applied the availability charge only once to the Southshore Terrace Association, [12] a mobile home park, rather than levying an availability charge against each of its home sites. And, the Pilgrim Center Camp was levied only one availability charge, even though there are many structures on its lot. The District counters that because each condominium unit created by the condominium declaration and plat is a separate parcel of record, the assessment was reasonably applied. ¶ 26 We do not agree with the District for at least three reasons. First, there is no nexus between the charge to an owner of a parcel of record who shares access to the sewer main through one four-inch stub and the District's cost to provide that access. Second, other lots that have multiple habitable units and were provided access to the sewer main through one four-inch stub to the lot were charged only one availability charge. Yet the Petitioners' lot was assessed an availability charge 18 times higher for the same, single four-inch stub. Third, there is no showing that each condominium owner received a greater benefit than was provided to other properties that were affected by the sewer extension. Accordingly, we conclude that the Petitioners have provided prima facie evidence that the availability assessment was not levied uniformly. [13] Therefore, we also conclude that because the costs of extending the sewer were placed disproportionately on the Petitioners, the burden of proving that the assessment was reasonable shifted to the District. See Lac La Belle, 187 Wis.2d at 281, 522 N.W.2d 277. ¶ 27 However, the District's explanation that the condominium units are separate tax parcels does not explain why the purpose of the availability charge under Section III of the Resolution, which specifically refers to the cost for one stub to connect each lot to the sewer main, should not have been uniformly applied to all lots that received one access-stub. The Petitioners' lot received only one stub for all of the condominium units. Further, as we noted above, other single lots that have multiple habitable dwellings that were provided with a single stub, were assessed only a single availability charge. The District has not presented any argument as to why this disparate treatment is a fair or equitable distribution of the costs of making the sewer available, except to assert it applied the same method of assessment to every-one. However, as part of the District's method of assessment, it created a definition for the term, lot, that caused the method of assessment to have dissimilar effects on the properties within the District. ¶ 28 The District also contends that its method was reasonable because it employed the lump sum method, which was upheld in Village of Egg Harbor v. Mariner Group, Inc., 156 Wis.2d 568, 457 N.W.2d 519 (Ct.App.1990). In Village of Egg Harbor, the court of appeals determined that the Village's use of the lump sum method to levy assessments, which divided the cost of a waste water treatment plant and collection system among property owners without regard to use, was reasonable because: (1) all property owners were assessed in the same way and (2) while use is relevant in other types of assessments, it is not in determining the base rate of implementing the system. Id. at 573, 457 N.W.2d 519. However, the assessment at issue here has a use component, the connection charge, that has not been contested. Also in Village of Egg Harbor, shopping mall owners were no more burdened than any other owner. In contrast, the condominium owners who were provided with one four-inch stub to make the sewer available to their lot are burdened much more than are the inhabitants of Southshore Terrace, that also were provided with one four-inch stub to make the sewer available to their lot. ¶ 29 Wisconsin courts have established that the reasonableness of a particular assessment method depends on the application of its factual consequences to those properties assessed. The court in Peterson concluded that no method is per se reasonable, and that neither procedural fairness nor prolonged use can alone assure reasonableness. Peterson, 154 Wis.2d at 372-73, 453 N.W.2d 177. A particular method of assessment is neither reasonable nor unreasonable as a matter of law, but rather, the facts of the particular situation govern its reasonableness. Id. at 373, 453 N.W.2d 177; see also Dittberner v. Windsor Sanitary Dist. No. 1, 209 Wis.2d 478, 496, 564 N.W.2d 341 (Ct. App.1997). ¶ 30 While it is true that methods of assessment may involve many different alternatives, the requirement that the method fairly apportions the costs of the improvement and does not arbitrarily or capriciously burden any group of property owners remains a constant for any method chosen. See CIT Group, 163 Wis.2d at 436-37, 471 N.W.2d 610; see also Lac La Belle, 187 Wis.2d at 282, 522 N.W.2d 277. An assessment is unreasonable if it has an entirely disproportionate distribution on a group of property owners that can be avoided by the municipality's use of another assessment methodology. Peterson, 154 Wis.2d at 373, 453 N.W.2d 177. We conclude that is what occurred here. This assessment was unreasonable because the assessment charge required the Petitioners to bear a disproportionate amount of the costs of the sewer as compared with the benefit they received. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the court of appeals, and remand to the circuit court for the reinstatement of the circuit court order that was reversed by the court of appeals' decision. [14]