Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., seemingly exasperated by a decade of court fights, yesterday ordered the county to complete an assessment of its 575,000 properties within four years.

But neither the county nor all of the lawyers for the residents who challenged its property valuation system seemed satisfied with Judge Wettick's order, which called for an assessment to be done by dividing the county into four segments, with one segment to be completed by Oct. 1 of each year.

"I am a bit disappointed in the [reassessment] options given to the county. They are inadequate because they don't address the existing and substantial disparities in the tax burden on people in low-income communities," said Donald Driscoll of the Community Justice Project.

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, who has long described any real estate property reassessment as a back-door tax increase, declined to comment on the order until Monday, when he will have "a comprehensive analysis and set of options."

In a 33-page ruling, Judge Wettick said he crafted the plan because the county didn't come forward with one of its own, and he didn't have confidence that it could complete an assessment in a reasonable time frame, even if he ordered one.

Under his schedule, the first assessment district would have to complete its property assessment by Oct. 1, 2010. The first assessment district would include school districts and communities in Allegheny County with the greatest disparity between market values and assessed property values.

The reassessment would be based on real estate sales in that district up to June 30, 2009.

The second reassessment district must be completed by Oct. 1, 2011. It would be reassessed using market values as of June 30, 2010. The third district would be done by Oct. 1, 2012, based on market values as of June 2011; and the last district would be done by Oct. 1, 2013, based on market values as of June 2012.

The new assessments, however, would be used to calculate school district and municipal tax rates beginning with Jan. 1 of the year after a district assessment is finished. The county tax rate would continue to be based on 2002 base-year values until 2014, when all four districts have completed one property assessment.

In April, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out Allegheny County's base-year system, which sets property assessments based on the value of property in 2002, including new construction.

That system, the court ruled, is inherently unconstitutional, because it violates the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The court then ordered Allegheny County to conduct a new property reassessment and asked Judge Wettick to implement it in a reasonable time frame.

Judge Wettick said his order was compelled by the county's inability, if not unwillingness, to tackle the issue.

"Why is this assessment plan being developed by the court rather than the county? Because the county did not develop an assessment plan but, instead, is taking the position that it is waiting for the court to develop an assessment plan," said Judge Wettick.

He ordered the county and attorneys for property owners to attend a hearing Dec. 2 to get the assessment process started.

"I think Judge Wettick deserves an enormous amount of credit for coming up with a creative solution that is both realistic and pragmatic," said Ira Weiss, solicitor for Pittsburgh Public Schools and a group of residents who challenged the county's system.

"He's made it clear that he came up with his plan because the county would not do anything. It attempts to reach the goal we all want while operating within tight guidelines of the law," said Mr. Weiss.

But Mr. Driscoll, who together with Mr. Weiss argued the case on a singular front even though they represent two sets of clients, said his clients might appeal Judge Wettick's decision because "it has no immediate relief for the people who have been overpaying taxes for years."

Some political observers yesterday agreed that Judge Wettick's decision most likely will be appealed, if not by Mr. Driscoll, then by Allegheny County. Any appeal would ensure that the problem with property reassessments will continue to be legal and political football.

Others said Judge Wettick's order comes perilously close to re-establishing a triennial property assessment system that former Common Pleas Judge Nicholas Papadakos threw out as illegal in 1980 -- a decision that was upheld by the state Supreme Court.

In that case -- Green Tree Borough versus Allegheny County -- Judge Papadakos ruled that it was illegal for the county to create three separate regions that conduct three separate property assessments.

But Dominick Gambino, a former manager of the county Office of Property Assessments, said Judge Wettick's plan is different because it does not seek to change the county tax rate until 2014, when all four regions have completed a reassessment.

"Judge Wettick's plan is a piece of genius. He gets around the uniformity issue by making sure that only the school district and municipal taxes will be affected by his plan. The county tax rate will stay the same until 2014," he said.

Judge Wettick noted that the issue of how his plan deals with county taxes as opposed to municipal and school district taxes is one of its weaknesses.

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