Below is a response to Mark Jansen who wrote to info.lg-ca.
Name: Mark Jansen
Los Gatos , CA
Heard about us:
I read the Los gatos Weekly Times
Comments:
Your group should do a little more reseach into the actual property-tax benefits of the Alberto Way development project.
According to information provided by the Town, the total increase in property taxes generated from the proposed project is estimated at $1 million annually, not $2 million as claimed in an ad placed by We Support Los Gatos. The ad writer may have forgotten to subtract present-day tax figures from future tax-revenue estimates and/or counted the one-time funds provided by the developer as annual taxes. Additionally, if the project was redesigned to conform to the height limitations specified in the current General Plan, there would still be a significant increase in tax revenues; one Town official estimated a 10% to 15% reduction in the net increase, which equals an $850,000 annual benefit.
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Good Morning Mr. Jansen, (this has been updated on 12-20-11 as we have obtained more data since the original response)
In response to your email to us at www.lg-ca.com , I’ll respond with the following.
First of all, we’re essentially neophytes on the town planning process. We’re learning as we go. Likewise, we don’t know exactly how to figure out the tax benefits, but we do believe the Albright property sold for around $46,000,000. That is hearsay at this point and even checking the tax records, we can’t tell what the price was as the tax records record a sales date but not the sale price. I don’t think this recording will happen until after Jan. 1, but don’t know for sure.
The property tax, without any development, we believe will be around $575,000 per year if the selling price is $46MM. We believe the old tax rate was about $ $ 257,473 per year, but we’re not sure we found all of the data. If $46MM is the correct number, the net increase of property tax would be about $317,527. I have no idea what it might produce when fully built out. I also don’t know if the new owners could tear down the buildings and then have the property reassessed for a lower number based on no improvements. Lot’s to learn.
My understanding of the $900,000 to be given by Netflix, who is looking less and less like the new tenant, would be applied to paying for a pedestrian bridge over Hwy 85. That could benefit them and anyone who was walking down Winchester.
I am not aware of other money being contributed by the developer, but, with all that’s going on in all projects, that may be something I overlooked.
On your last item, I did not follow how reducing the height could increase the tax base. I do believe that they could reduce the height and still get the 550,000 square feet, but it would take up land that they wanted to keep for open space. I would argue that 550,000 will increase the traffic to intolerable levels when combined with the estimated 21,000 additional cars to be generated by the North Forty and the Sports Park.
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