Rising home valuations and tax bills dominated the discussions at the Feb. 4 meeting of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association. City Councillor John FitzGerald, a leading critic of the city’s most recent assessment process, was on hand for the session, which came a day after residents had received a quarterly tax bill that left many homeowners with larger bills and unanswered questions.

FitzGerald noted that he had held a city council hearing focused on the city’s Assessing Department in late January but didn’t get the clarification he was hoping for regarding what he calls inconsistencies in the valuation numbers.
“What was ignored in all the recent debate is the other variable in the equation and that’s the value of your property,” he said.

“I think Savin Hill had a lot higher increase than everywhere else. It gave me pause when we broke it down by neighborhood like that and you say, ‘Okay…Some here were up $700,000 and that’s a whole other house and they said they didn’t improve it. So, you have to wonder: What is the difference between last year and this year.”

The councillor said his investigation showed the average valuations increased 4.3 percent in the Back Bay and 4.9 percent in Chinatown. South Boston values were in a 9 percent increase range while Savin Hill addresses averaged 13.5 percent hikes amidst a citywide average of around 10 percent.

“I think it brought more questions than answers,” he said. “I think there are concerns about the criteria and formula for which they value property. What I realized after that is it’s really not an exact science and allows for more inconsistencies across the board to be made…They didn’t have an equation that they could say they plug in.”

Neighbor Z. Andy Warot, a Vietnam veteran originally from Poland, said he has lived in Savin Hill for 40 years and has seen the market’s various ups and downs in that time. He thinks there should be some accommodation for those who have lived in the same homes for long periods of time.

“I get my bill and from last year in January to this year in January, the cost isn’t up 5 percent or 7 percent, but 42 percent,” he said. “I get that there needs to be more in taxes, but the taxes need to be done in the right way. When I have 40 years in the same home, they should be level at 4 percent or 2 percent increases maximum no matter what the cost of the building comes to.”

He said he tried to apply for relief at City Hall but didn’t qualify under any of the programs.

Bill Walczak, the Columbia-Savin Hill civic group’s president, said he thinks that when it comes to home valuations, they need to look at speculation in the market, since homes are re-valued in part by using comparable sales from nearby properties.

“I think speculation is a major part of the increase in values and if you look at the sales, about one-third at times are LLCs,” he said. “I think speculation should be a determining factor.”

Walczak suggested that a neighborhood like Savin Hill has seen single- or two-family homes sell to developers at a premium because buyers intend to demolish the home and build larger multi-family buildings on the site. He said that should be part of the calculation because it isn’t a true value for those who are staying in their existing homes with no plans to re-develop.

FitzGerald said that for the time being, residents should look into programs that exist to ease tax burdens for owner-occupants. Meanwhile, a third version of Mayor Wu’s Home Rule tax plan did pass the City Council earlier this month by a vote of 12-1 and is back again in the Legislature. Two previous iterations have been rejected twice already by the state Senate. With new stipulations in this bill, the administration said it hopes it can be passed in March so that quarterly property tax bills due in April could see some savings. The plan would shift the tax burden at a greater rate from residential properties to commercial properties.

The Notebook

• Speed humps on the way – Neighbors in Savin Hill have been calling for the traffic calmers in their neighborhood for the past year, and a new communication from the city seems to point to the popular measures coming soon. Councillor FitzGerald said the Wu administration told him they would install the humps after utility work in Savin Hill is completed, which he said might be late summer or fall.

• Murder suspect arrested – The Boston Police Fugitive Task Force and the State Police arrested a New Bedford man at the Speedway Gas Station on Columbia Road on Jan. 13, according to a BPD account shared with residents at the civic meeting. Police learned the suspect — 19-year-old Danielson Varela —was hiding out with family on Moseley Street, according to the police account.

Varela was wanted on a warrant for first-degree murder in New Bedford related to a triple shooting at a New Bedford lounge that killed a 27-year-old man and injured two women in January. He was apprehended after a short foot chase, then transferred for arraignment.

• Mail problems persist – Several residents complained that there needs to be action on the lack of mail deliveries – a recurring complaint for those in the zip codes serviced from the Roxbury Postal hub. Some said they only get deliveries a few times a week, and other areas said it comes even less consistently. Jones Hill residents have also logged the same complaints.