Special assessment districts refunds okayed

By Dana Casadei

After a unanimous vote from the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees on Monday, March 9, residents from special assessment districts (SAD) 425, 426 and 427 will be receiving a sizable refund in the mail soon. 

Once a project is completed, the project accounting – which includes the construction, legal and financing costs – are looked at once again to determine how inline it was with the original assessment. In the cases of districts 425, 426 and 427, the assessment and estimated cost budget were far higher than what each project actually cost. 

“I always enjoy coming to the board witrustees meeting, the board approved a revised SAD policy that would allow them to authorize a refund to property owners, including those in districts 425, 426 and 427.

SAD 425 started in the summer of 2023, with repairs and restoration completed in 2024, and was for the Kirkway area road repaving. The approved assessment at the time was $34,522.34 per full unit of benefit and $17,261.17 per half unit of benefit. 

While the project was completed in 2024, the project accounting wasn’t finished until 2025. A large sum of the net savings for this project came from being nearly $514,000 under budget when it came to construction and engineering costs. Because of this – and other areas that came in below the assessment – the entire net savings for district 425 was $533,172.68. Residents of this district will receive $4,518.41 for each full unit of benefit and $2,259.20 for each half unit of benefit.  

Moving forward, the 2026 installment for a full unit of benefit will be $3,604.47 and fully covered by the refund, with $913.94 going towards the 2027 installment. The 2026 installment for a half unit of benefit will be fully covered by the $1,802.23 refund, and have $456.97 applied to the 2027 installment. 

“These projects are very expensive so any time we can get that money back to residents, under budget, and making sure we do it right, but also saving money… this is a great thing,” said trustee Chris Kolinski.

The Village Blue area road repaving from the spring of 2024 – also known as district 426 – had an original approved assessment of $42,270.12 per unit of benefit, and a budget of $8,073,593.28. Thanks to considerably lower costs than expected in construction and legal fees the project ended up totaling $6,316,678.95 instead, leaving a difference of $1,713,464.38 for residents. 

Those with fully paid assessments will receive $8,971.01 per unit of benefit. That refund will also fully cover the 2026 installment of $4,509.63 and the 2027 installment of $4,379.50 with a little under $100 for the 2028 payment for residents who are continuing to pay annually. 

While those refunds going to residents in districts 425 and 426 are considerable, those in district 427 will receive the biggest refund: $11,487.05 per unit of benefit. 

In 2024, the original projected project costs for the Bloomfield Township red/pink area road repaving were $10,691,917.38 with an assessment of $48,161.79 per unit of benefit. The actual budget spent for district 427 was nearly $2.4 million under the original cost just in the construction category. When legal fees and a township administrative fee were added, the total difference between the original cost and actual was $2,550,125.12.

For those still making annual installments on this assessment, the 2026 installment of $5,138.19 and the 2027 installment of $4,989.92 will be covered by the refund, and $1,358.94 will be credited towards the 2028 installment.

“This is a great day,” Schostak said. “It was certainly controversial to get these passed but we as in the board promised that we were going to watch these projects like a hawk and make sure that the residents' money was spent wisely and not unnecessarily. We’re not profiting, we’re just returning the money to the residents.”