HARRISON — At their meeting last week, assessors denied a tax abatement request after looking at neighboring properties and saying the overall neighborhood is assessed lower than it should be.

At the Thursday, Feb. 25 Harrison assessors meeting, the board met with Code Enforcement Officer John Wentworth and property owner Connie Bosold. She made a $68,000 abatement request for her property at 17 Harrison Pines.

“I noticed recently that the lot right next to my lot in Harrison Pines is in equal size and equal proximity to the lake as mine and has a significant[ly] lower assessment value,” Bosold told assessors.

After discovering this, she did a comparison of her property value to other lots in Harrison Pines, which she said were valued less than hers. Bosold also looked at another development, Little Cove, and used the criteria of properties being within 250 feet from Long Lake and having deeded access to the body of water.

“They also had a lesser assessed value than mine,” she said.

In her information to assessors, she included three lots on Front Street, one of which has deeded access to Long Lake, Assessor Richard St. John pointed out.

“The lots on Front Street … all enjoy the same right and access to the lake,” he said. “If anything, I think we are low on the Front Street lots.”

Wentworth said Bosold purchased her property in 2010 for $187,000, which had an assessed value at $174,600. In 2011, the property’s value increased by $8,200 after a new deck was installed. The assessed value was adjusted to $166,100.

“In short, the applicant can purchase the property for 7 percent more than the assessed value in 2010,” he said. Wentworth added he thinks Bosold’s property is assessed lower than it should be, as are the three comparable properties on Front Street.

Bosold said her property is required to maintain the easement for the Front Street properties, which is a 10-by-120-foot space she needs “to keep clear for the others in the development.” She added she is on a private road and has to pay for her own plowing, sanding and maintenance of the road.

“There are cases were private, dead-end roads are more valuable than town-owned property because you get to say who can drive on your road,” St. John said, who also serves as Otisfield’s code enforcement officer.

“What I feel personally is it’s been proved to me that it’s not her lot or the one next to it or the one next to that that are overvalued. If anything in that neighborhood we’re undervalued,” he said.

St. John then made a motion to deny her abatement “as it appears to be valued very close to what we have it assessed at.”

Assessor Bill Winslow agreed with St. John.

“It looks to me the properties on Front Street are being valued too low,” Assessor Matt Frank said. “I would be comfortable giving her a small abatement and possibly moving the others up after April 1, which is the next valuation.”

Winslow disagreed, saying if they grant Bosold an abatement they would have to give other abatements.

“I think it’s fair the way it is,” he said.

Assessors voted 3-1 to deny Bosold’s abatement request. Winslow, St. John and Assessor Kathy Laplante voted for the motion and Frank voted against. Assessor Archie Belanger was absent from the meeting.

Bosold told assessors she wanted to look at tax records and was familiar with the appeals process.

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