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More than 1,200 Lancaster County property owners protested the values assessed on their homes or offices — substantially fewer than last year, when a historic spike in values led to sticker shock on many property tax bills.

As of Tuesday, the Lancaster County Assessor’s Office had received 1,227 formal protests, the majority for residential property. Of those protests, 47 were for agricultural property, 395 for commercial and 785 for residential.

The deadline to file formal protests was Monday, but those postmarked on Monday are still trickling in, said Brian Grimm, chief field deputy with the Lancaster County Assessor’s Office.

Last year, the county heard about 4,500 protests — the most since 2012, prompted in part by a total revaluation of property that resulted in an average increase in assessed value of a historic 23%.

There’s a couple of reasons the number of protests is down, including that property values increased at a more reasonable average of 5-6%.

Irrigated ag land increased 5%, and dry ag land by 3%. Commercial values increased the most — an average of 8%, Grimm said.

Another reason there are fewer protests this year: The assessor’s office didn’t revalue all property in the county.

The assessor’s office used to do revaluations of all properties every three years, then every two years, with the overall increase in the in-between years largely from new properties added to the tax rolls.

Now, Grimm said, the office is trying to look at properties more regularly, revaluing neighborhoods with robust sales so they stay more in line with market value. They revalued about half of Lincoln’s neighborhoods this year, he said.

“Part of our strategy all along has been to have more properties touched every year, but be less impactful every year,� Grimm said. “We’re trying to create as little impact as we can but still maintain our statutory obligations.�

Typically, when housing costs go up, as they have been, the assessor sees more sales of what would be considered affordable housing. That’s happened, but not in any one area, he said.

Grimm said he’s also seen increases in commercial property equally scattered between office, industrial areas and apartments.

The Lancaster County Board of Equalization has contracted with a third party to coordinate referees who will hold hearings and make recommendations, which will be presented to the Board of Equalization for final action Aug. 6. Filers will get written notice of the final valuation decisions in mid-August.