Brattleboro reappraisal stays on track as residential review advances

The revaluation effort will cover all parcel types, including vacant, exempt, agricultural, residential, commercial and industrial property, for the 2027 grand list.

The townwide property reappraisal now underway in Brattleboro is moving ahead as planned, with most residential parcels already entered into the process and commercial work set to start at the beginning of the new year.

Ryan Silvestri, project manager and co-owner of New England Municipal Consultants, told the Select Board last week that residential listing is 70 percent finished. He said staff have gathered information on 2,378 of the town’s 3,578 residential parcels and believe inspections have been completed on more than 1,000 of them. About 1,200 residential properties still need to be listed, including 346 single wide mobile homes that he said should be completed quickly.

The next phase will focus on commercial properties, with income and expense request forms scheduled to go out Jan. 1. Those documents help determine value for business properties and are typically timed to coincide with tax-season recordkeeping for owners.

The revaluation effort will cover all parcel types, including vacant, exempt, agricultural, residential, commercial and industrial property, for the 2027 grand list. Work on the project began in December.

Silvestri also said the outreach effort will expand before preliminary value notices are sent to property owners. He noted that those notices usually draw the strongest reactions, since many people first see the updated values at that stage.

He framed the project as a necessary step after nearly 17 years since Brattleboro’s last reappraisal. In his view, the long gap has made the update especially important as property values have continued to rise across the state.

A key part of the effort, he said, is helping residents understand the difference between assessed value and the amount of tax they ultimately pay. He explained that a higher assessment does not automatically mean a bill will double, since tax rates are adjusted based on the new grand list and the common level of appraisal, or CLA, the state’s measure used to keep towns on a more even footing.

Town officials also plan to hold a question-and-answer forum to address concerns and explain the process. Additional information is available at brattleboro.gov/reappraisal.