By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — The process of revaluing taxable properties in town is underway, with new assessments set to be in place for a new Grand List — currently, totaling just under $11.47 billion — in January 2026, Assessor Paul Friia told the Board of Selectwomen on Wednesday.

About 7,100 “walk-around or interior inspections of properties in town” have taken place, Friia reported, and those inspections should be finished by the end of this year. Data mailers have also been sent out, Friia said, with property owners being notified before inspectors arrive in their part of town.

It’s a state-mandated 2025 revaluation, the assessor noted, which First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker called “long awaited.” Selectwoman Candice Savin joked the revaluation is also “for homeowners, long dreaded.”

The selectwomen were considering a $239,000 agreement between the town and Vision Government Solutions to conduct appraisal services for the property revaluation. The company was the lowest bidder of three businesses bidding for the job, Friia said. It has carried out four revaluations for the town previously.

“And they were successful revaluations,” he said. “They understand us. They understand the taxpayer base in Westport.”

For town’s 2023 Grand List of all taxable properties, reported last February, was $11,468,456,765, up a modest 1.38 percent from the 2022 Grand List of $11,312,004,303.

The Grand List is a factor used to calculate individual property owner’s tax bills, depending on the tax rate set by officials to finance the town’s annual expenditures.

Friia explained that with new technology inspectors will have data accessible via an iPad and will be able to make changes, and adjustments, and to take property photos. His department will then conduct a quality-control review of the data, and then upload the information to the Vision Government Solutions software.

“I’ve hired actual real estate appraisers instead of the revaluation company’s data collectors,” he told the selectwomen. “They’re more qualified to do the work.”

His staff will also use aerial technology to compare older maps of the town with existing maps, he said.

By mid-October 2025, he will review, inspect and finalize the revalued figures, and set up hearings in November and December 2025 for residents who have questions or complaints. 

“From there, we will make whatever changes we feel are necessary,” the assessor said.

“Once the Grand List is signed in January 2026, [property owners] will also have the opportunity to go to the Board of Assessment Appeals,” which will review any challenges of the newly approved assessments.

The selectwomen unanimously approved the town’s agreement with Vision Government Solutions and move the revaluation process along.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.