1,136 North Shore Homes On Floodplain Could See Lower Assessments

CHICAGO — Property tax assessments on some of the North Shore's most expensive homes have been slashed after the Cook County Assessor's Office began accounting for whether houses in New Trier Township are located on floodplains.

The assessor's office notified taxpayers that it would file for corrections with the Cook County Board of Review on behalf of more than 1,100 properties around the Skokie River in Glencoe, Northfield, Wilmette and Winnetka because floodplain data was not used in its assessment in the spring.

Since July, floodplain maps have been added to assessment models for all townships, according to a note to staff released by the office. All other factors being equal, it said, being on a floodplain makes a house about 30 percent less valuable.

"After examining the issue, [Cook County] Assessor [Fritz Kaegi] and Chief Deputy [Assessor Sarah Garza Resnick] decided to issue Certificates of Correction for these 1,136 New Trier properties due to the significant effects of floodplain data on the market value of homes there," the note said.

According Rob Ross, chief data officer at the assessor's office, the office decided to issue certificates of correction because there are so many properties on floodplains in New Trier Township and the model could be repeated the same way with only additional floodplain information included.

Plus, he said in a series of answers to anticipated questions, being on a floodplain had a major impact and re-running the model meant "large dollar differences" for taxpayers.

"We felt that this was an exceptional case," he said.

Ross said former County Assessor Joe Berrios' office never "consistently or systematically" accounted for which properties are on floodplains.

The adjustments were first reported by WMAQ-TV. It found the total decrease in assessed value among the corrected properties was nearly $32 million. The station calculated an average reduction of 19.4 percent and reported a majority of the homes had assessments of more than $1 million.

One home saw its taxable value drop from $4.3 million to $2.5 million, despite selling for more than $4 million within the past two years, according to the report. Another that changed hands for more than $4 million the week after the correction was issued saw its assessed value fall from $2.3 million to below $1.7 million.

The Board of Review still needs to sign off on the correction certificates. In a normal year, the board handles fewer than 40 corrections. The board's secretary told the Chicago Sun-Times it was too early to say if all 1,136 of the assessor's requests will be approved. Although final tax bills have not been calculated, the Sun-Times reported one estimate suggested the owners of properties on the floodplain will save in excess of $7 million and an average of more than $6,000 per home.

The final tax savings for the owners of homes on floodplains will not be certain until the Board of Review closes the township's assessments and local taxing bodies calculate their levies.

This year's reassessment of the north suburbs is the first round of triennial reassessments to be completed since Kaegi unseated longtime incumbent Berrios, the former head of the Cook County Democratic Party. Under Berrios, the assessor's office favored wealthier homeowners and attorneys specializing in property tax appeals, according to investigations by ProPublica Illinois, the Chicago Tribune and a report from the independent Civic Consulting Alliance.

As part of the three-year process, the south suburbs will be reassessed next year and the city of Chicago will undergo a new assessment in 2021. All future models will incorporate floodplain data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the assessor's office, which has not provided Patch a list of the corrected New Trier Township properties.

According to a statement Friday, the assessor's office is reviewing whether incorporating floodplain data into previous assessments will mean charges for property tax assessments in other townships. The office has no data, it said, that suggests floodplain maps will have a "considerable impact" on assessed values in Maine, Elk Grove, Northfield or Barrington townships. It said floodplains in Evanston and Norwood Park townships do not affect a significant number of properties.

Earlier: Higher Assessments Hit North Suburban Commercial Property Owners