The Natives Get Restless, Finally
By Greg L | 9 April 2008 | Manassas Park | 31 Comments
In a rather dramatic reversal of the usual absence of citizens at meetings of the Manassas Park Governing Board, about fifty residents showed up for a public hearing about Manassas Park’s proposed tax rate of $1.24 per hundred dollars of assessed value. The reaction of several speakers to this was their announced intention to leave the city as soon as the residential real estate market recovers. Perhaps the residents of Manassas Park are finally waking up, and realizing that engaging with their local government is the only way to start affecting much-needed change. If not, at least it’s an opportunity to vent some pent-up frustration.
I’d suggest that instead of hoping that the residential real estate market is going to provide Manassas Park residents with an opportunity to flee, these citizens might be better served to take their local government back from the rather pathetic group of elected officials who now run it. Replacing these elected officials and then keeping close tabs on the activities of their replacements by exercising some level of citizen oversight is critical to the effective operation of a local government. With municipal elections coming up in the park this November, it’s more likely that citizens can change their government before they can enjoy a recovery of their local economy and be able to bail out.
A change in the leadership of the park will give citizens a great opportunity to affect some much needed changes. The profligate spending of the current board can be halted, the effort to harass local businesses out of their current leases in order to make it easier for Frank Jones to pursue his grandiose dreams of massive commercial redevelopment can be stopped, and effective zoning enforcement could restore the quality of life in the community that has been the root cause of many of the significant problems experienced during the past several years. In place of these ill-advised and counterproductive efforts, citizens and government would have an opportunity to work together to find responsible ways to improve the city’s tax base and bring spending under control in order to restore fiscal stability in Manassas Park.
Taxing residents into this kind of steadily-growing rage will only result in an eventual retrocession of Manassas Park back into Prince William County. When residents have the alternative of lowering their property tax rate by 24% simply by casting off this ineffective city government, the appeal of Manassas Park as an independent political entity rapidly starts to evaporate. For those interested in what autonomy can offer, they have a small window here to re-make their local government into something that will serve the citizens more than prey upon them.
The first step in realizing that opportunity is for citizens to get more involved, however. Fifty residents at a public hearing is a great start, and hopefully that will continue. When the citizens neglect their duty to provide oversight of their local government however, they end up getting something that looks a whole lot like what Manassas Park resembles right now. The only thing that can save Manassas Park are the residents of Manassas Park.
I hope they’re up to it.
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31 Comments
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First off, the residential real estate market will not recover in this town. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for two years and it gets worse by the day. I completely screwed the pooch and have been so out of it that I didn’t even know this meeting was taking place or I would have been there. I’ve been waiting for this meeting too and am very bummed today to find this out. My appraisal this year was a good 100k overvalued from what I can sell it for and I haven’t even had a chance to submit my papers to refute yet (got to take care of that ASAP). This town is running a scam right now and I would have been happy to see all of those people out there. How did the council compose themselves? Did anything come of this?
Folks this town is swirling down the crapper fast. My neighborhood is a hotbed of foreclosures and section 8 housing is taking over. Nobody wants to live here anymore and the people that are here all want to escape ASAP. Greg’s opinion is also shared by me that it’s up to the people to fix this town. The only problem with that is nobody wants to take on the problems that Jones and his cronies have created so good luck finding someone intelligent that will run for office.
***Greg, what would you say about creating threads that let those of us in the park know when a city council meeting is taking place? I see you do it for PWC all the time and I know that it would help me not to forget since I tend to check this blog every other day or so***
I remember 2 years ago Adam Larson told Jones we don’t need a new city hall, Jones said there aren’t any plans for one, “try again”, and here we are 2 years later and surprise, they plan to build a new city hall.
Kind of difficult to dispute my appraisal given that there are no sales that aren’t “forced” and that you can’t use homes placed on the market for 6+ months and then pulled off and rented as a “high water mark”.
They’re projecting that assessments will only go down 3.5% next year.
They need to start doing some drug testing, because I think someone would need to be stoned out of their mind to believe that.
I intend on disputing my assessment. I actually got an appraisal to back it up, and my home is over-assessed by $80K.
Park’d… You make me laugh. You didn’t see the huge highway sign on Manassas Drive?
I am in the process of qualifying for a refi now through my credit union and am just waiting for the appraiser to give me the news. I’m not holding my breath on being able to qualify with the extreme drop in values and the amount of foreclosures in my neighborhood though. I need 15% equity to qualify with them in this tight credit market and there is no way my house will be appraised for that. I too will use that number as a basis to refute, although once again I won’t hold my breath for the city to actually acknowledge that. With the absurd and limited methodology that the city uses to base their appraisals on, the homes probably are valued at the amount they say. Rob: we should work together on this and then get the rest of the town to go in on it. Did you make it to the council meeting lastnight?
What sign? I rarely go down manassas drive except to turn off cabbell to get to centreville rd. Where on manassas drive? Hell I just discovered the new gas station next to the police station a few weeks ago. I just mostly work and come home these days. My social life is nil until spring.
Park’d - I missed the meeting last night as I wasn’t feeling well. Have seen the number of people who went, however, I wish now I had sucked it up and attended as well.
I actually got a letter from a realtor who lives in Belmont Station who said he is protesting his assessment. He prepared a report he is willing to share with other homeowners in Belmont Station and Blooms Crossing for that purpose. I sent it in my email to get a copy of the report; if it’s legit I’ll pass it on to you as well. If you want to email me, I’m at robsmalls@yahoo.com.
I watched it last night on Ch 23 of Comcast. They usually replay them through the week, but don’t know on what schedule. Very interesting that almost all folks were extremely upset at this. I too saw that the appraisal for the house went down, but the land didn’t. I know for sure that a house similar to mine just sold for $100K less where mine is appraised for much higher. What the heck does the city council expect when they keep spending like a sailor and just keep jacking up the taxes. We don’t need a new City Hall OR a new indoor pool facility. These things can wait until/if the economy stabilizes some.
Yeah houses in my neighborhood now are going for what I paid for it about 5 years ago and they send me this assessment for like 80k more than current values. The problem is that they don’t take into effect foreclosures and sales from this year, only sales from 2007 before the market really tanked. It’s weird how fast these homes lost value. From January until now my house has lost 60k in value. The assessment really isn’t far off taking that data into effect. It’s just not fair to ask your citizens to pay 80k more value in taxes on a house for an entire year when they are already suffering greatly by losing all of the equity in their homes, with a great deal of that reason being due to Jones and his cronies’ support for illegal aliens and what they did to this town. What thanks do we get for putting up with this invasion for the past 5 years? They abandon their homes to the rest of us and leave us to pick up the economic pieces. Thanks Frank, Thanks Fran, Thanks Bryan! …..
Rob: I’ll send you out an email, but I’m just not sure what good this will do since the majority of our losses have occurred AFTER the cutoff for valuation. Looks like the city will squeak by for another year but I don’t see wtf they are going to do next year unless they raise the rate to $1.75-$2.00 per $100 assessed.
P.S. one thing I did notice is that the land valuation is the same as last year for me. Only the house value dropped. Seems to me that the land is not worth the same amount if nobody wants to live on it due to all the problems in the town?? Supply and demand has to have some effect here I would think.
It is hard for politicians to slow spending. It is easy to spend, very hard to curtail. That is no excuse, just the facts. They should hold city hall meetings in the one of the new school auditoriums if they need more room. Everyone is right - stop the spending and I strongly urge a steep pull back on the school budget (they get 56% !).
The police department building was necessary and I guess the fire department building was fine but the continuous expansion plans and now the “new” city hall as well as the required land purchases (the city does not own all the land necessary for the new city hall yet) will sink the taxpayers. By my last count, 27 houses are for sale or abandoned from the corner of Lomond and Manassas Drive to Mathis Ave. The Park Boys and Girls on the city council had better wake up, take a big dose of “stop leak” and save the city, if they can. Manassas Park is in a recession; too many homes people are running from. We cannot take the extra weight. If the MP city council can’t do it, let’s go back to PWC.
Park’d - It might not do any good to send the dispute out, but we already know what happens if we do nothing. We’ll stay put, right over that barrel the town council has us on.
I really doubt the council will ever stop spending. Once they do the new City Hall and Parks and Rec building, then the public works dept will demand a new place.
In addition to the building spree the city also has seemed to be on a vehicle purchase spree the last several years, noticed more than a few new public works trucks, street sweeper replaced, and the leaf vacum machine seemed new this past fall.
Speaking of the foreclosures, on the 5 streets I travel daily to leave the park there are 32 foreclosures, 4 on my street, the 3 behind me have been empty for over a year now, and 2 of those were tear downs and then rebuilt.
I’ve been trying to leave this place for almost a year now. I like my house, and the location is extremely convient for my commute to Fairfax, and the neighbors i have are great. But with the foreclosures I am giving up and staying for a while yet, I just can’t compete with them. Luckily i bought 15 years ago so i am still ahead of the game, but with the way the values keep dropping i’m not sure for how long.
“I really doubt the council will ever stop spending.”
Sure they will. I’m just afraid it make take something pretty serious for that to happen, such as a total dissolution of the Park (from city to town to dissolved status; hence no more Park, it’ll be PWC then).
Bryan Polk in particular seems to have never met a tax or a spending project he didn’t like.
I can’t recall if this has ever been asked in the past or not. What does it take to have the status of City removed, and if the city were to loose it status, would anyone really want us.
We are the redheaded step child of PWC so they would have to take us in. Either that or it’s wild wild west in this town with no police or rescue services, no school, and mass anarchy on the streets.
Hundreds of people in the council meeting demanding answers from Frank and Bryan and Fran (the three trouble makers) would do wonders for this town. 50 is a good start (should have been 51 if I had been paying more attention to home matters) but 100+ would be much better.
“What does it take to have the status of City removed”
The first step is to transition from a city to a town as provided in chapter 41 of title 15.2:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+TOC15020000041000000000000
In particular:
§ 15.2-4102. Citizen petition for town status.
Voters equal in number to fifteen percent or more of the registered voters of the city as of January 1 of the year in which the petition is filed may petition the circuit court for the city, stating that it is desirable that such city make the transition to town status. All of the signatures on the petition shall have been made and filed within a twelve-month period. A copy of the petition shall be served on the city attorney and the county attorney, or if there is none, on the attorney for the Commonwealth for the county and on the mayor of the city and the chairman of the board of supervisors of the adjoining counties. A copy of the petition shall be published at least once a week for four successive weeks in a newspaper having general circulation in the city and the adjoining county. The case shall proceed in all respects as though instituted in the manner prescribed in § 15.2-4101, and the court shall forthwith refer the petition to the Commission on Local Government for review pursuant to Chapter 29 (§ 15.2-2900 et seq.).
(1988, c. 881, § 15.1-965.10; 1997, cc. 178, 587.)
The city council can also do it:
§ 15.2-4101. Ordinance petitioning court for town status; notice of motion.
A. Any city in this Commonwealth with a population at the time of the latest United States decennial census of less than 50,000 people, after fulfilling the requirements of Chapter 29 (§ 15.2-2900 et seq.), may by ordinance passed by a recorded majority vote of all the members thereof, petition the circuit court for the city, alleging that the city meets the criteria set out in § 15.2-4106 for an order granting town status to the city. The circuit court with which the petition is filed shall notify the Supreme Court, which shall appoint a special court to hear the case as prescribed by Chapter 30 (§ 15.2-3000 et seq.) of this title.
B. Before instituting a proceeding under this chapter for a grant of town status, a city shall serve notice on the county attorney, or if there is none, on the attorney for the Commonwealth, and on the chairman of the board of supervisors of the adjoining county that it will, on a given day, petition the circuit court for a grant of town status. The notice served on each official shall include a certified copy of the ordinance. A copy of the notice and ordinance, or a descriptive summary of the notice and ordinance and a reference to the place within the city or adjoining county where copies of the notice and ordinance may be examined, shall be published at least once a week for four successive weeks in some newspaper having general circulation in the city and adjoining county. The notice and ordinance shall be returned after service to the clerk of the circuit court. Certification by the owner, editor or manager of the newspaper publishing the notice and ordinance shall be proof of publication.
(1988, c. 881, §§ 15.1-965.10, 15.1-965.11; 1997, c. 587.)
The next step (if it needs to go that far) is for the town to anul it’s charter:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+TOC15020000037000000000000
Bryan thinks because he’s lived in MP all his life he answers to nobody.
It might be interesting to check the online real estate assesments for the council members and see if their values are in line with the rest of their neighbors. From all the shaddy things they seem to be into I wouldn’t be suprised to see a variance there.
Park’d, sign was right by the train tracks. I cross them everyday to pick up my kid from Cougar. Plus, the hearing was mentioned on a little thing called the city’s website. I know you have access to a computer…
Well that explains it. I live on the west side of town with the po’ people. We don’t get notified of the comings and goings of government over here. Only you east enders rate enough for a sign.
I’ve been so busy lately that I just forgot, to tell the honest truth. Would have been nice to see a reminder here or God forbid a sign on the west end of town…
Also in the Park: It might be interesting to see if any of them actually even still live here at all and aren’t just renting one of their homes out to someone so they can keep their Lord status over the rest of us. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if one or more of them were slumlording it.
Park’d - use your head. If I cross the train track to pick up my kid from Cougar, which side of town do I live on?
Well my point was that I don’t get down that way to see said sign. Looks like we are both on the po’ side of town then. Viv la revolucion
Park’d - I’m sure they all still live in their little kingdom, none of them would ever do anything unethical like move out and still be on the council.
I’m pretty sure on that side of town the neigborhoods have HOA’s and i’d be willing to bet that at least 1 or 2 of the royalty has something the HOA could cite them for, and who knows maybe even something that the city code enforcement could find wrong, that is if they would be allowed to cite the them with fear of being fired.
If you want to check on assessments, go to www.manassasparkva.gov/ and cliick on e-assessments at the bottom of the screen.
For those of you considering appealing your tax assesment- the deadline is April 15th to file it.
I’m sure they’ll be thrilled with the amount of mail they get this week. They deserve it!
I think this about sums it up:
http://www.cityofmanassaspark.us/Public_Documents/ManassasParkVA_WebDocs/Actions%20Taken
Looks like a blank slate to me…..
Losers, again.. It appears the council has already set their minds on 1.24 and not even going to table it as was planned for 4/15 meeting.
Screwed again!
I think it is time that petition to change to town status is enacted.
I will be going to start this by June and hopefully have submitted to city atttorney by September..
Time to go back to PWC and get some relief.
WE tried to make them listen but they did not, well now .. They are going to be gone because I know people are fed up and they momentum will be there to get the 15% of signatures needed to to further this action.
Am I up to it?? You bet your @ss I am!
Good bye Manssas Park City Government, your days are few.
I just bought a house on the po’ side of town. I just sent my appeal in we paid half of the assessed value. We will see how they respond, I sent a copy of the appraisal we got before we closed on the property. I think the city is missing a good opportunity. They need to lower the property taxes to make the city as attractive to new residents as possible and retain the residents it has. Once more people move in and start pushing home prices back up or at least stabilize the market the revenue flow to the government will work itself out. Of course like all levels of government they only take take take and can never wait for the market to work itself out.