Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt knows that taxpayers contesting their property values are not in the best of moods when they arrive at his address. Cooling their heels in cramped quarters only aggravates the situation.
So spending about $2 million to expand the McLennan Central Appraisal District offices on South 26th Street will happen if 32 of the 42 taxing entities countywide pass resolutions. McLennan County commissioners and the Waco City Council gave their approval Tuesday, and the Midway Independent School District board was scheduled to vote Tuesday evening.
The appraisal district in 2009 moved into its current home near the former William Cameron Co. woodworking plant and beside the old Cotton Belt railroad track.
MCAD entered into a $1.65 million lease-purchase agreement to acquire the structure, which was designed as a call center for Brazos Higher Education. Capital One financed the deal, said Bobbitt, and about $700,000 remains on the note.
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Back then, said Bobbitt, the building well served MCAD’s needs to provide office space to its staff, maintain appraisal documentation, and host hearings for taxpayers contesting their appraisals.
“Consider that when we first moved into the building, in 2009, we had 7,900 protests. This year, we had 19,000,” said Bobbitt. “Sometimes we have 400 people throughout the day, and if something goes wrong, we can have two or three hours of people waiting.
“We have 16 chairs in our waiting area, and sticking 20 to 30 already stressed people in this tiny space . . . We didn’t know we would have a tripling of our workload during the summer.”
Beyond the protests, Bobbitt said, MCAD has seen hearings increase from 1,961 to 6,005. To accommodate the surge, it has increased the number of hearing rooms, reduced cubicle size, moved staff from offices to cubicles, Bobbitt said in a letter to governing bodies.
May 15 each year is the deadline to protest appraisals, and MCAD must hold hearings and get protests resolved within 45 days, though some stretch into early July. This is when MCAD becomes a beehive, said Bobbitt.
With countywide property appraisals rising 30% on average in 2022, followed by a 16% bump this year, taxpayers want to vent, said Bobbitt.
“Will the trend continue? I hope not,” Bobbitt said. “With interest rates going up, we’re expecting them to slow down or stall, but then again, they may keep going up.”
Bobbitt said higher mortgage rates have an impact on home sales, reducing demand and prices. MCAD uses sale data to establish “comparable” prices in neighborhoods.
During his presentation Tuesday at a Waco City Council work session, Bobbitt said new construction would add 2,500 square feet, create five additional customer service windows, up from a single window, and increase the number of rooms for appraisal review board hearings from five to seven.
The work would add 60 parking spaces in a lot that would circle the building. Bobbitt said people have had to park at the nearby Stripes convenience store or at a nearby softball field during peak times.
Access to the field may become limited, as Live Oak Classical School is building a sports complex on vacant land next to the vacated Cameron Mills complex.
Bobbitt said the 2,500-square-foot addition would cost $1 million, and the balance of the $2 million projected cost would cover paving and remodeling. He said his team looked at other options, but this plan looked most feasible.
Council member Darius Ewing said $400 per square foot seemed extremely high. Bobbitt said the district will likely hire a construction manager at risk who will supervise the project and could find ways to reduce costs.
Council member Jim Holmes said the project was long overdue.
As a member of the appraisal board, he said he wants to have a positive experience for people taking time to visit the MCAD headquarters. He said he supported the project when it was first presented to the appraisal district board.
Bobbitt, in an interview, said MCAD can tap its financial reserves to pay the $2 million, and will not have to ask respective taxing entities for more money. He said MCAD’s annual budget stands at $4.8 million, and taxing entities pay a prorated share. It pays $127,000 of that to retire debt on the building.
“We have $700,000 remaining on the note,” Bobbitt said. “We can refinance to include new construction, and our mortgage payment will be less than or equal to what we pay now. We are not trying to make our budget go up.”
So far, Bobbitt said, the project also has received approval from the cities of Oglesby and Lorena, and the Midway and LaVega school districts.
He confirmed there once was in-house discussion about moving the appraisal district headquarters to the vacant Dillard’s space inside Richland Mall. But that idea faded with the realization that a major renovation would still be needed, and space there would greatly outsize MCAD’s need.
The idea never went to MCAD’s board, Bobbitt said.
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