Date: Fri 02-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

revaluation-court-appeals

Full Text:

Revaluation Yields Three Court Appeals

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Sheriff's deputies knocked on the door of Town Clerk Cynthia Curtis's house

twice Tuesday night to deliver copies of two local property tax assessment

appeals.

The appeals, by the owners of the Newtown Country Club and by Robert T. and

Sioghan M. Deveney of 10 Greenleaf Farms Road, were filed in Danbury Superior

Court in the closing hours of the deadline for objections to decisions made by

the Newtown Board of Assessment Appeals.

Last week the new owners of Sand Hill Plaza also appealed the property tax

assessment on the shopping center on Route 25.

Tax Assessor Mark DeVestern said the three appeals were less than the number

that had been anticipated.

"I talked to Brookfield, which also recently completed a revaluation, and they

had about 16 appeals," he said. "John Valenta (of Lesher-Glendinning Municipal

Services, which conducted Newtown's revaluation) estimated we would get 12 to

20 appeals."

Nearly 10,000 properties (7,411 dwellings, 180 commercial buildings and 36

industrial buildings) were appraised last winter and the new assessments were

sent to the owners. The owners of about 700 properties asked for informal

hearings with the reval company. Unresolved cases went to the Board of

Assessment Appeals which considered nearly 400 property assessments and

reduced 325 assessments. Property owners who still weren't satisfied had the

right to appeal to Superior Court.

The appeal filed by Newtown Country Club Realty Corp objected to the

assessment of 27.5 acres (Parcel A) and 20.8 acres (Parcel B) which make up

the country club property between South Main Street and Elm Drive. Before

revaluation, the parcels were assessed at $214,330 and $92,960 respectively.

In the revaluation, the new assessments were set at $576,950 and $275,770,

which was estimated to be 70 percent of the market value of the properties as

of October 1995.

The Board of Assessment Appeals reduced the assessment of the larger parcel to

$453,610, and the smaller to $210,150. In their appeal, the owners disputed

the reduced assessment, claiming that it is still too high and asking that it

be reduced to "70 percent of the true and actual value."

In the appeal, the country club did not mention that the assessment on a third

parcel of land decreased from $51,350 to $8,520 in the revaluation. Combined,

the assessment of the three parcels increased from $358,640 last year to

$672,280 this year.

In the other appeal, Robert T. Deveney and Siobhan M. Deveney of 10 Greenleaf

Farms Road objected to assessments on properties at 10 Greenleaf Farms Road,

12 Greenleaf Farms Road and 11 Jangling Plain Road. The three properties were

assessed in the revaluation as $720,360, $93,140 and $60,960, respectively,

compared to $467,150, $41,230 and $36,610 last year. The $93,140 assessment

was reduced to $71,440 by the appeals board and the $60,960 was reduced to

$46,690; the largest parcel, which includes a house, was not reduced.

Last week D.D. Newtown Partners Limited Partnership, a real estate investment

company which owns the Sand Hill Plaza, and the Hutensky Group LLC, a Hartford

company which manages the shopping plaza, also filed an appeal in Superior

Court. The shopping center was purchased by the new owners last December for

$20 million. The market value, as of October 1995, was calculated by the reval

company to be $19.9 million, resulting in an assessment of $13.9 million, more

than double the previous assessment.

The reduction in the assessment of 325 properties during the appeals process

reduced the $1.5 billion grand list by $15.5 million, creating a shortfall of

$362,000 in anticipated local property tax revenues for 1996.

Property owners who did not appeal their new assessments will have another

opportunity next year. Property owners have the right to appeal every year

when the Board of Assessment Appeals (formerly known as the Board of Tax

Review) holds hearings by appointment each spring. The board, which is elected

and unsalaried, includes Chairman Charles V. Framularo Jr, Eleanor C. Mayer

and David G. Nord.