Some members have asked why the Notice of Public Hearing for the SSA and the Special Service Area includes all of the tax parcels located within the Heritage Lake Subdivision.  Members who own more than one lot may have received more than one Notice of the Public Hearing for the SSA.  Some members have raised a concern that because all of the tax parcels are listed in the notice that each lot that a member owns will be assessed for the SSA.

The Board of Directors and the Association members approved establishing the SSA on the basis that the SSA would be assessed per member rather than on each tax parcel in the SSA.  Even though the SSA will be assessed on a per member basis, all tax parcels within Heritage Lake Subdivision must be included in the SSA because actual ownership of the lots within the subdivision will change over time—probably each year.  All tax parcels within the Heritage Lake Subdivision must also be included because all parcels will benefit from the SSA improvements.

The SSA Development Agreement between the Association and the County provides that each year the Association is responsible for sending to the County an updated list of the tax identification numbers that will be included for the SSA assessment.  This list will be based on membership so that if a member owns more than one lot the member will only have the SSA assessment on only one of the member’s lots.

The Association has already prepared a master list of the lots and the ownership of each lot so that it will be ready to send the list to the County.  The list will be established as of January 1st of each year for consistency.  If a member purchases an additional lot during the year the list for the following year should reflect that the SSA charge should be only on one of the member’s lots. This list will be made available to the membership during December so that it can be checked and corrections made before it is sent into the County.

The SSA assessment should appear as a line item on the tax bills in the same manner as other taxing districts.  As a consequence, members can monitor their tax bills by looking up their taxes on the County Assessor’s page on the County web site. If an error or change in ownership is made that causes a member to have more than one of their tax parcels charged with the SSA, the Association can reimburse the member for the extra charge and the tax information can be corrected with the County.

If a lot or lots are sold during the year the taxes for those lots can be prorated as of the Closing date (or other agreed date) in the same manner as real estate taxes are currently prorated at the closing.  The information necessary to prepare the prorations, including the SSA charge, will appear on the tax bill and Assessor’s web page.