Pelican Point assessments protested

• By JOHN MCMILLAN
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Nov 15, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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GONZALES — Assessments based on high home prices following Hurricane Katrina contrasted with the inability to sell those houses in the current economic slump has a phalanx of Pelican Point homeowners up in arms.

Among those homeowners unhappy about assessments in the Ascension Parish golf community is former Parish President Ronnie Hughes.

He said he was flabbergasted that all of the homes in The Greens, a section of the subdivision set aside for people over 55 years of age, were assessed at the same rate, $140 per square foot.

“When I learned that each house in The Greens was valued the same, I couldn’t believe it,” he told Ascension Parish Council members sitting as a board of review of the 2008 assessments.

“Some lots sell for $100,000 and our lot was $28,000 and it is now assessed at $85,000 and some lots on the golf course are assessed at $39,000. That’s grossly unfair to lump all homes together,” Hughes said.

Assessor Rene Mire Michel said she was mandated by state law to reassess all property in the parish between 2006 and 2007 based on sales and she responded by doing a uniform mass evaluation.

“Uniformity is fine, but Hitler had uniformity,” Hughes asserted.

“Politically, you are better off to go along with the assessor, but you know in your heart that’s not right,” Hughes told the council at its Thursday night hearing.

“You know those homes are not all the same. There are six types of houses in The Greens,” he said.

“Your job is to be fair and not to pass the buck to the State Tax Commission,” Hughes said.

The former parish president said the smaller homes in The Greens retirement neighborhood are assessed higher than all other areas of Pelican Point except River Winds, a section of the community reserved for expensive, upscale homes.

Some homes that are much larger than those in The Greens are valued at $115 a square foot, Hughes said. “A house on a golf course is worth more than one by a drainage ditch,” he said.

Michel said that after her initial assessment, she had Louisiana Tax Commission appraisers decide the value of residences in Pelican Point. She said the commission’s appraisers set the price of homes in The Greens at $145 per square foot, but she lowered the value to $140 a square foot.