Identical condominium units in the same Collier neighborhood have been assessed at widely different values, an Allegheny County councilman has found.

Councilman Michael Finnerty said property values in the Summit Ridge housing project appear to depend on what kind of assessment method was used to calculate their worth.

The county, for example, has assessed a three-bedroom home at 1806 Benson Blvd. at $190,000. Following a 2009 appeal, the adjoining unit at 1808 Benson -- originally valued by the county at the same amount -- was revalued at $107,600. Both condo units were built in 2005, are 1,844 square feet and have 21/2 baths and central air conditioning.

Similar yawning differences in value appear among many other similar-appearing units in Summit Ridge.

Those gaps are reduced slightly thanks to the county's $15,000 homestead exemption that cuts the assessed value on owner-occupied homes by that amount.

"Inequities like this show the assessment system in a really bad light," Mr. Finnerty said. The policies followed to value homes in the same neighborhood should be consistent, he said.

Martin "Bud" Piper, who lives at 1806 Benson Blvd., agreed. "It seems unfair that I should be paying so much more in taxes," he said. "I'm 68, and I have to watch my money."

Mr. Finnerty and two of his colleagues have introduced an amendment to the county code that would require all properties in a housing development be assessed in the same way.

Members of council's economic development and housing committee last week discussed the proposal and recommended approval to full council. The amendment will be on the agenda when council meets Tuesday.

The sponsors, in addition to Mr. Finnerty, D-Scott, are Bob Macey, D-West Mifflin, and Charles Martoni, D-Swissvale.

Mr. Finnerty and his colleagues are proposing their change in development valuation rules at the same time as a controversial countywide reassessment is under way. When it is completed early next year, it will result in new values being assigned for all commercial and residential properties in the county.

Mr. Finnerty said his proposal should not affect the reassessment work currently under way, but it would make the appeals process fairer in the future.

The county office of property assessments can look to three main methods to value properties: the cost approach, the sales approach and the income approach. The proposed amendment would require that each unit within a housing development be assessed using the same standard. The new rule could cover any project built by a company or group of companies constructed on five or more adjoining properties.

The huge difference in values assigned to similar neighboring properties at Summit Ridge appears to have resulted from county assessors basing their original property values more on comparable sales. Those assessed values range from about $182,000 to as much as $240,000.

When developers Richard A. and Susan Nernberg appealed the assessments on several dozen unsold properties in the neighborhood, those units were revalued downward by hearing officers from the Allegheny County's Property Assessment Appeals and Review Board by as much as 55 percent. The appeals board is separate from the assessment office.

The appeals board relied heavily on property appraisals for the unsold units submitted by the developer, solicitor David Montgomery told council members.

That appraisal appears to have rested, at least in part, on the income, or development, model for assessing real estate. That method values properties based on how much rental income they could generate.

The third method for valuing real estate, the cost method, relies primarily on the value of land and improvements.

The appeals board's decision to lower the Nernbergs' assessments has, in turn, been appealed by the Chartiers Valley School District, which includes Collier, to the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas. The municipality has joined that suit.

The court then appointed a board of viewers special master -- a lawyer familiar with real estate assessment law. The master held a hearing March 4 on the appeal, but no decision has been announced.

Mr. Finnerty said that when one of his constituents, who lives in Summit Ridge, sought to have her assessment lowered, based on the decision in the Nernberg case, she was turned down. There was no appreciable difference between her home and the nearby condo units that were assessed at $100,000 less, he said.

Such decisions fly in the face of common sense and fairness, he said.

"This is the kind of situation that makes people think that politicians are all crooks," said Councilman John DeFazio, D-Shaler.

County assessors originally had valued all the condo units in Summit Ridge similarly, he said.

It was the appeals board that lowered the assessments on the unsold rented units but kept them unchanged on identical owner-occupied homes.

The proposed change in valuation rules would eliminate that practice, Mr. Finnerty said. "If you are going to assess on the income method for some units, you have to assess that way for anyone else who appeals," he said.