Bensalem Township School District v. Bucks County Commissioners

303 A.2d 258, 8 Pa. Commw. 411, 1973 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 732
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 6, 1973
DocketAppeal, No. 806 C.D. 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 303 A.2d 258 (Bensalem Township School District v. Bucks County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bensalem Township School District v. Bucks County Commissioners, 303 A.2d 258, 8 Pa. Commw. 411, 1973 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 732 (Pa. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge Blatt,

This is an action brought by the Bensalem Township School District (School District) seeking to have us declare unconstitutional the Act of January 13, 1966, P. L. (1965) 1292, 16 P.S. §11941 et seq. (hereinafter Act 515), or, in the alternative to have us find that a covenant entered into between Bucks County (County) and Wladyslaw Kowalski (Kowalski), pursuant to this legislation, is invalid.

Act 515 was enacted for the purpose of permitting counties to enter into covenants with landowners in order to preserve their land as farm, forest, water supply or open space land. Act 515 consists of seven sections. At the time in issue,1 that portion of the Act primarily in question here was Section 3, which read as follows: “All counties of the first, second, second A, third or fourth class are hereby authorized to enter into covenants with owners of land designated as farm, for[414]*414est, water supply, or open space land on an adopted municipal, county or regional plan for the purpose of preserving the land in the designated use. Such covenants and extensions thereof shall take effect upon approval of the court of quarter sessions of the county in which such land or the major part thereof lies. The landowner may voluntarily covenant for himself and his successors and assigns in right, title and interest that the land will remain in open space use as designated on the plan for a period of five years commencing with the date of the covenant. The county shall covenant that the real property tax assessment, for a period of five years commencing with the date of the covenant, will reflect the fair market value of the land as restricted by the covenant.”

The County Planning Commission adopted a plan as contemplated by Section 2 of the Act2 and on May 21, 1971, an Act 515 covenant was executed by Kowalski and presented to the County Commissioners concerning 37.31 acres of Kowalski’s property. It is mostly tillable, but a small portion is woodland. The proposed covenant was submitted by the County Commissioners to the County Board of Assessment, and that body reported the unrestricted fair market value of Kowalski’s property to be $309,600.00, or an assessed value on a countywide 30% ratio of $92,826.00. It further reported that the fair market value of the property, as restricted by the proposed covenant, would be $70,840.00, or an assessed value, applying the 30% ratio, of $21,250.00.

The County thereafter approved the covenant and submitted it to the lower court for court approval, at [415]*415which time the School District filed preliminary objections. Following hearings, the lower court entered an order approving the covenant, except for Paragraph 22 thereof which provided that the property would be assessed at $21,300.00. The Court, held that Act 515 was neither a tax statute nor an assessment statute and does not authorize the County to determine revisions in assessments. It also held that there is no provision, for interim assessments such as that purportedly effected by Paragraph 22 of the proposed covenant. The Court’s order authorized Kowalski to withdraw from the covenant within 30 days if he so chose, but Kowalski did not so withdraw.

The School District contends that Act 515 violates the uniformity provision of Article VIII, Section 1, of the Pennsylvania Constitution3 and, because the body of the Act contains more than one subject not clearly expressed in its title, that it also violates Article III, Section 3.4

In reviewing such a challenge as is here made, we must keep in mind that a statute is presumed to be valid and constitutional, and the burden is on the challenger to prove that it plainly and clearly violates the Constitution. Breslow v. Baldwin Township School District, 408 Pa. 121, 182 A. 2d 501 (1962). “[O]ne seeking to show a statute unconstitutional must carry a very heavy burden.” Philadelphia v. Depuy, 431 Pa. 276, 279, 244 A. 2d 741, 743 (1968). And, upon careful review, we must find that the School District has failed to carry this burden.

[416]*416The School District contends that Act 515 violates Article Yin,. Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution in lacking uniformity, because it permits certain landowners to enter into covenants with the County which would result in a reduction of the real estate tax assessments on their land. Initially, we must note that Act 515 would not appear to .us to be a tax statute, and the uniformity clause, therefore, would not apply because no tax is involved. Burkley v. Philadelphia, 339 Pa. 426, 15 A. 2d 201 (1940); Walsh v. Philadelphia School District, 144 Pa. Superior Ct. 321, 19 A. 2d 598 (1941), aff'd, 343 Pa. 178, 22 A. 2d 909 (1941). There is nothing in Act 515 which indicates that its purpose is other than to aid in the preservation of open lands, and, although the Act does provide that land restricted by a covenant shall. be assessed at a value as so restricted, it does not directly impose any tax, nor does it exempt any property from taxation.

Even if Act 515 were a taxing statute, however, we do not believe that it would be violative of the uniformity clause of the Constitution. While it is certainly true that a tax must be applied with uniformity upon similar kinds of business or property and with substantial equality of the tax burden upon all members of the same class,5 Act 515 is not violative of that test. Act 515 merely provides that a county may covenant that a tax assessment will reflect the fair market value of the land as restricted by the covenant. No exemptions from taxation are awarded. It is merely agreed to recognize the actual value of the land as its use has been restricted. Land must be assessed according to its actual value, and actual value means market value. Valley Forge Golf Club, Inc. Tax Appeal, 3 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 644, [417]*417285 A. 2d 213 (1971). And certainly, a covenant binding on the landowner under Act 515 would have some effect on fair market value. As courts in the past have recognized, especially in eminent domain cases,6 everything which affects the value of the land is a proper element for consideration in determining its value. Zoning regulations have been held a proper consideration in condemnation cases, Gottus v. Allegheny County Redevelopment Authority, 425 Pa. 584, 229 A. 2d 869 (1967). In Boteler v. Philadelphia & Reading Terminal R. R., 164 Pa. 397, 30A. 303 (1894), a lease limited the uses to which a certain piece of property could be put, and the Court held that, for eminent domain purposes, the leasehold could not be valued for any purposes other than those permitted in the lease. Land in Millcreek Township, 24 Erie L.J. 237 (1942), involved a condemnation of land whose use was limited by a restrictive covenant, and the court there held that the proper measure of damages was the value of the property exclusive of its value as prohibited by the covenant. Brown Appeal, 25 Pa. D. & C. 2d 461 (1961), concerned a tax assessment on woodland which was suitable for growing Christmas trees but which had been placed under the United States Soil Bank Program, which effectively prohibited the removal of any trees from the property for ten years. There the court held that, since any trees on the land would not be usable as Christmas trees, the land could not be valued as Christmas tree land.

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303 A.2d 258, 8 Pa. Commw. 411, 1973 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bensalem-township-school-district-v-bucks-county-commissioners-pacommwct-1973.