Carrying out the city plan

by Flavel Shurtleff

The significant thing about the Kansas City method of financing its park system is that 85 per cent of the total cost was distributed over the district which received the benefit, and that the entire cost of acquiring the land was assessed strictly on the land found to be specially benefited.

Denver. By the charter adopted March 29, 1904, Denver was divided into four park districts administered by an appointed commission of five, one from each district in addition to the chairman. The cost of acquiring land for parks is met, as in Kansas City, by a special assessment based entirely on the benefit theory, and the cost of improving the park areas is covered by a uniform park tax not to exceed two mills. Occasionally the park fund is increased by the revenue from other sources of taxation. Compared with Kansas City, Denver is at a disadvantage in choosing one commissioner from each district, since this method is too much like that of electing representatives to the city council from each ward and is apt to result in the same difficulties. Where the make-up of the commission emphasizes separate localities rather than the whole city, the distribution of park areas and the distribution of appropriations for improvements over these areas may present troublesome questions.

The second important difference is in the procedure for acquiring land and assessing the cost on specially benefited property. The board of park commissioners in Denver prepares a preliminary estimate of the cost of acquiring the land for each improvement. This report, which contains a full description of the property to be taken and the estimated special assessment on each lot in the entire park district, is formally served by publication on all owners whose property is affected either by being taken or by being assessed to pay for the improvement. If the owners of 25 per cent of the area thus affected object, in writing, to the report, the project may be defeated for at least a year. Upon the certification to the city council by the board of park commissioners that the objections are insufficient in number, the council proceeds to pass the ordinance of condemnation. The ordinance of council has been held to be a finding of fact conclusive on every other tribunal that the land is acquired for a public purpose and that the protests of land owners are insufficient.[53]

It is noteworthy that the park commissioners are the judges of the amount of assessment to be levied against each parcel of property. No assessment in excess of those fixed in the preliminary report can be levied, and if the estimate of cost proves too low the difference must be assumed by the city or the project abandoned. After the petition for the land taking is in court, three appraisers are appointed, corresponding to the jury of six in Kansas City, except that their duty is merely to appraise the damages caused by the taking. Their report is reviewed by the court, which may modify their awards for damages and at the same time may declare inequitable the rule of assessments as fixed by the park commission.

Instead of issuing park certificates as in Kansas City, the park commissioners in Denver are authorized to issue bonds for the cost of land. The cost of construction is met by appropriations from the park fund, and in Denver the proceeds of taxation for park purposes in one district may be used in any other; which again is unlike the rule in Kansas City, where the funds of each district are kept separate for that district’s needs.[54]

In 1911 Denver finished the condemnation of land for the completion of its park system. All the land included in the petition lies in the East Denver Park District, and consists of park areas, playgrounds, parkways and boulevards, and a civic center site. In August, 1909, the board of park commissioners reported an estimated cost of land for the whole project of $2,780,000, and assessed this entire amount over the East Denver Park District. The district was for this purpose subdivided into 38 parts, each assessed a varying amount depending on its distance from the various improvements, the unit of assessment being a standard Denver lot of 25 feet by 125 feet. For instance. District No. 1, being the nearest to the civic center site, was assessed a maximum of $96 each year for ten years on some lots, and from this amount the sums varied down to $10 a year for ten years on lots least benefited. In District No. 36, on the other hand, which is most remote from any of the proposed improvements, the average assessment was 30 cents a lot each year for ten years.[55] The first instalment of the assessment was made payable five years after the passage of the assessing ordinance. On November 23, 1909, the park commissioners certified to the city council that protests of the property owners were insufficient, and on December 23 the council passed the ordinance of condemnation. Meantime an action had been brought in the district court to restrain the city council from passing the ordinance on the ground that the charter provisions under which the land for park purposes was acquired were unconstitutional, and further, that the commissioners’ apportionment of the cost was inequitable. The city demurred to this action and the demurrer was sustained in the district court, from which decision the property owners appealed to the supreme court of the state. In November, 1910, appraisers were appointed by the district court, and on March 2, 1911, they made their report, estimating the total damages for the acquisition for lands in the East Park District at $2,523,463. Of this sum $1,814,539 was for the civic center site.

Considering the size of the undertaking, there were very few protesting owners and those for the most part owners of property involved in the taking for the civic center. Out of a total of 50 owners whose lands were taken for any of the purposes set forth in the council’s ordinances, only 18, representing $527,428, protested against the awards and one of these alone represented $265,000. In May, 1911, the first protest was heard by a common law jury, which found against the petitioner. All the other protesting owners then withdrew their petitions. In November, 1911, the state supreme court sustained the decision of the lower court above referred to[56] and on March 2, 1912, “civic center bonds” for $2,696,600, which amount included the cost of appraisement, the cost of survey, and other incidentals, were offered for sale.

In spite of the bitterness of opposition from some interested land owners, the time from the initiation of the proceedings to the advertising of the bond issue was short, but this was not so much because of the simplicity of the procedure, which suffers in this respect by comparison with that in Kansas City, as because the civic center project and the plans for the completion of the park system had the backing of public opinion and of the strongest organization in the city of Denver.

Indianapolis. The most recent park law which provides for payment of land acquirement by the special assessment method was passed by the legislature of Indiana in 1911 for cities of 100,000 or over. Under the provisions of this act the entire area of Indianapolis is divided into four districts administered by a commission of four appointed by the mayor. Only such features of practice as are peculiar to Indiana are here noted.

The park commissioners have the duties which in Kansas City were given to a jury of six and in Denver to three appraisers. Without action on the part of the city council the board of park commissioners may adopt a resolution for the condemnation of land and the assessment of its cost on private property.[57] Opportunity is given to land owners to defeat the undertaking by the written remonstrance of a majority of the resident land owners in the proposed benefit district.[58] If the commissioners find the protest insufficient they prepare a roll in which are included the estimated damages for land taking, the estimated cost of construction, and other miscellaneous items. To this amount 5 per cent is added to cover any delinquency in the collection of assessment. This entire amount is then spread as a special assessment over the area which in the judgment of the park commissioners is specially benefited by the improvement. This may be an entire park district or may be limited to a few blocks. The act provides that no assessment of benefits may be made in excess of 15 per cent of the value of the land so assessed, exclusive of the improvement conferred upon it.[59] The roll must show in separate amounts the damages awarded and the benefits assessed in the case of each parcel of land.