Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood — A resolution approving final costs of the Aurora Lands assessor’s plat was approved Monday by the city commission.
The cost of the plat will be split 50-50 with the property owners, city manager Scott Erickson noted. The total cost to Aurora property owners will be $18,516.
The purpose of platting the Aurora Land parcels is so the homeowners can own the land where their residences are located, and not the land association.
Erickson said the landowners can choose to pay back their special assessments over five years at a 3.25 interest rate or cover the costs in one payment, with no interest, before July 1, 2018.
The project was initiated about two years ago when city officials budgeted $20,600 for platting residences in the Aurora neighborhood that were under ownership of the Aurora Land Association.
A total of 29 homeowners are affected. The individual assessments for the cost of the plat range from around $400 to nearly $2,000.
The houses were built during Ironwood’s mining period.
More than 80 percent of the Aurora Location homeowners favored the platting.
Now that the platting has been completed, every homeowner will get an annual property tax bill, rather than having to pay the land association.
Under the previous arrangement, the city issued one tax bill to the Aurora Association for all of the parcels. The association then collected dues from the residents to cover taxes, however, not all of the residents paid their dues. That left the remaining residents to cover unpaid dues.
The plat survey will also allow the city to tackle blight issues better and residents can more easily obtain permits. Also, platting clears up right-of-way issues and better facilitates selling and buying of homes within that area.
