St. Cloud City Council Approves Road Assessments After Second Review

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud City Council took a second look at how much they would charge residents for road work, and on Monday night, approved the assessments with one notable change.

The city completed four major projects totaling $12.9 million in 2025, with $3.6 million of that assessed to 917 property owners. Construction included eight miles of resurfacing around the city, road and sewer work in the Pantown Neighborhood, and a road reconstruction with sewer work on Lincoln Avenue.

During the March 9th city council meeting, six small business owners along Lincoln Avenue spoke out, and another 11 residents sent letters opposing what they called excessive assessments. The council postponed approving the final bill so city staff could double-check the numbers. There were 79 parcels along Lincoln Avenue that were assessed. Of those, 19 filed objections.

Car Smart and Smart Signs owner David Koop was initially facing a $49,900 assessment. After a second review, staff reduced his assessment by more than $17,000, citing the unique nature of his parcel, which contains four buildings and multiple uses on one combined property. Two of his buildings are served by the water main replaced on Lincoln Avenue, while two are served by an existing main off Columbia Avenue. The city amended the final assessment so that only the two buildings receiving service from Lincoln Avenue are assessed under the project.

Koop is still objecting to the revised $32,700 assessment, stating the work added no value to his properties.

St. Cloud City Attorney Renee Courtney told the council the cost of a municipal improvement “may be assessed upon property benefited by the improvement, based upon the benefits received.” Minn.Stat.§ 429.051 (2025). Three things limit such an assessment: “(a) The land must receive a special benefit from the improvement being constructed, (b) the assessment must be uniform upon the same class of property, and (c) the assessment may not exceed the special benefit.” She went on to say, “The test is whether the improvement for which the assessment was levied has increased the market value of the property, against which the assessment operates, in at least the amount of the assessment. [A]ny method resulting in a fair approximation of the increase in market value for each benefited parcel may be used. Each parcel does not have to be assessed exactly in the amount of the benefit received, various formulas such as the front-footage or square-footage methods by be utilized. A method which on its face appears to be a fair approximation will be presumed valid, with the burden resting upon the objector to show its invalidity.”

Council Vice President Dave Masters defended the process, expressing confidence in the work city staff had done. “I felt that the staff had spent a great deal of time going back and reviewing what the estimates were and then what the actual final costs were. And this is a policy that’s used in many cities and so forth, and the judicial system has upheld the constitutionality of the system that’s being used.”

He added that property owners who still disagree have legal recourse. “The residents and commercial owners also have the ability to appeal the motion and then go before a judge if they want to go further with having someone else take a look at that cost.”

Monday’s unanimous vote closed out the city’s formal assessment process for the 2025 road work, though property owners retain the right to pursue further appeals through the courts.

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