Second Method of Apportioning Assessments.
—A second method based upon a different definition has something in its favor. If the front-foot is defined as a lot 1 foot wide measured in the direction of the street extending directly back through all the zones to the limit of the assessed area it will have a weighed area of W1z1 + W2z2 + W3z3 ... and so on, where W1 represents the weight of the zone, whose width is z1, and W2 the weight of the zone, width z2, etc. If z1 = z2 = z3 ... etc., as is usually the case the weighted area of 1 front-foot is (W1 + W2 + W3 ... ) z = Wz = 100z, since W is always = 100. The total number of front-feet in the district, or in any lot, will be the number of weighted feet in the district or in the lot, divided by 100z. In the district represented on p. 320, the number of front-feet is the total frontage, 1,936,000 divided by 4000 = 484; and for each lot the amount shown in the table. The results obtained by the two methods are directly proportional, so that either may be used for making assessments. In fact they are proportional to the weighted areas, so that the weighted areas may be used instead of the front-feet if desired.