Sherburne County has completed a major step to insure property owners are paying their fair share to cover the cost of maintaining the county ditch system.

 

Last week, the Sherburne County Board approved a redetermination of ditch benefits report for County Ditch 32, which consists of 2.956 miles of open ditch and 1.494 miles of tiled ditch covering 1,231.22 acres in the eastern part of the county. It is the first time a ditch re-determination has been done in the county.

 

Re-determination is a way to divide the cost of ditch maintenance in an equitable manner based on the actual benefit to a property.

 

At a workshop last May, ditch viewer Ron Ringquist gave a presentation about how the existing benefit process has become outdated.

 

He said when Ditch 32 was ordered in 1898, the goal was to increase the amount of farmable land by draining wetlands, which were then considered unproductive swampland. Property owners were assessed accordingly for benefiting from the ditch.

 

That worked fine as long as the property remained farmland. But over the years as land was split up and developed into other uses, the original assessment process remained in effect. Residential development took place. Streets were added. Yet, the process didn’t change to reflect the changes. 

 

The result was, property owners still paid ditch assessment even if part of their land didn’t benefit. Other parcels that did benefit were not assessed, or were under assessed.

 

Last June, the county hired three ditch viewers to investigate all the land affected by Ditch 32. It was their assignment to determine how much benefit or damage each parcel received from the ditch. Their research included soil survey manuals and maps of Sherburne County; aerial photos, LiDAR, and GIS data; USGS topographical maps; sales data from the assessor’s offices; technical manuals on hydrology and hydraulics and visual inspection of the parcels in the watershed.

 

Last week, Ringquist presented the 282-page final report to the county commissioners as part of a public hearing.

 

He said the ditch viewers compared what the conditions were in 1898 and brought them up to the current usage and current market analysis.

 

He said although Ditch 32 was built to benefit farmland, today it mostly serves as a rural storm sewer system. So they had to calculate the runoff from development.

 

“It accelerated the volumes of water, and the original benefiting properties do not benefit to the same extent that they did during the original construction,” said Ringquist.

 

He said some properties  no longer benefit because of the  outlet of the ditch system. The viewers had to apply an economic value to all the properties in the watershed area. They did that by establishing four general classifications:

 

 A -  Seasonally ponded land restricted from improved drainage with a highest and best use of hay and pasture;

 

B -  Occasionally flooded agricultural ground. Medium cropland productivity;

 

C - Wet subsoil. Medium high productivity with proper management and private pattern tile as recommended;

 

D - Upland areas not needing artificial drainage that have been altered to development or developable as rural residential. Altered uplands with a highest and best use as a commercial use.

 

Ringquist said there are also classifications for woodlands and other areas that have had no change. They also calculated the benefit for roads.

 

“A” lands now benefit $412 an acre.  For “B” lands, the ditch provides only 50% of its potential agricultural benefit; For “C”lands, the ditch provides 80% of their potential benefit ($570 per acre)   and the upland areas have a benefit of $140 per acre for residential and $350 per acre for commercial.

 

“We’ve applied that to each of the acres in the watershed,” he said.

 

The total estimated benefit for Ditch 32 is $159,576.86, compared to between $7,000 and $9,000 when it was built, said Ringquist.

 

Because of the research, 54 parcels were added as benefiting from the ditch. Another 33 were deleted, bringing the total to 219 parcels.

 

No one from the public spoke during the hearing.

 

Auditor/Treasurer Diane Arnold said the report was sent to all benefiting property owners. An informational meeting was held June 3 to answer any questions property owners had.

 

After the hearing, the board approved the report. Property owners have 30 days to file an appeal if they don’t agree with the report.

 

If there are no appeals, the board can pass a final resolution to approve the re-determination.