Norwich — Assessor Donna Ralston will hold a public workshop Aug. 8 to explain the 2018 property revaluation process in the wake of multiple complaints and several lawsuits challenging new property assessments this past spring.

The workshop will be held from 7:30 to 9 a.m. in room 335 of Norwich City Hall. Ralston and Assessment Analyst William Lee, who does the field work on property values, will explain the process and factors used in determining property values.

Several prominent commercial property owners in Norwich filed suit this spring challenging their assessments, including owners of three West Main Street shopping centers, owners of large apartment complexes, properties in the business park and office complexes. Some cited appeals to the Board of Assessment Appeals that either were denied after hearings or were denied with the board saying it would not conduct a hearing.

Ralston said some of the court appeals involve properties whose tax deferral programs have ended. She said state law allows the board to deny hearings on property values of over $1 million, meaning those owners would have to go to court.

In addition, property owners have complained to the City Council and Mayor Peter Nystrom that sharp increases in assessments did not result in comparable decreases in the tax rate after the city budget was approved in June.

Ralston said she will clarify that the city assessor’s office has nothing to do with the annual budget and remains independent of political and budget-setting roles of other city officials.

“We’re going to give them as much information as we can on the assessed values and how they were established,” Ralston said.

The Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce, whose board recently discussed the tax assessment issues and complaints, is supporting the event. Chamber Executive Director Angela Adams said Nystrom was at the meeting and suggested a workshop as a follow-up to members’ questions.

Norwich business and property owner Steve Dumont, owner of Chelsea Insurance at 124 W. Town St., said he plans to attend the workshop and ask questions about his and other assessment increases. Dumont said the chamber notified him of the workshop.

Dumont said he did a renovation on his building 10 years ago and hasn’t done any new work on it. The building did not increase in value, but his land value went up by $68,000. He started checking on values assigned to friends’ properties and expanded his search to compare dozens of commercial properties throughout the city on a spreadsheet.

Dumont said downtown properties especially were hit with jumps in assessments.

Overall, he said property owners expected that with the big jump in assessments, the tax rate would drop substantially, making tax bills close to last year’s totals.

But while the overall grand list of taxable properties rose by 6.88 percent, in the $129.9 million budget approved by the City Council, the citywide tax rate dropped by only 1.7 percent, from 41.01 mills to 40.28 mills. Property owners in the central city paid fire district pay an additional 7.71 mills, up from 7.38 mills last year, while those in the volunteer fire districts pay an additional 0.36 mills, down slightly from 0.45 mills.

Dumont said he had an appointment to appeal with the Board of Assessment Appeals in spring but was busy with work and didn’t attend. Like others, he said, he wasn’t too worried because he expected the tax rate to be adjusted based on the growth in the grand list.

“I don’t think the mill rate has been adjusted,” Dumont said.

c.bessette@theday.com