City of Newark v. Township of Vernon

1 N.J. Tax 90
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedApril 1, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1 N.J. Tax 90 (City of Newark v. Township of Vernon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Newark v. Township of Vernon, 1 N.J. Tax 90 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1980).

Opinion

EVERS, J. T. C.

The City of Newark appeals the denial of the Sussex County Tax Board of its claim for a reduction of assessments of 5,424 acres of vacant watershed land in the Township of Vernon for the years 1973, 1974 and 1976. In addition to valuation, issues concerning discrimination in assessments and the impact on value of Vernon’s zoning ordinance are involved. The assessments follow.

Per Acre
Block Lot Acreage Assessment Assessment
203 1 1,998 $1,000 $1,998,000
203 1A 292 1,100 321.000
210 7 1,588 850 1,348,800
240 2 1,506 512 771.000
240 5 40 1,550 62,000
5,424 $4,500,800

Using the comparable sales approach, Vernon’s expert was of the opinion that the true value of the land was $5,810,600, or over $1,000,000 in excess of the assessment. For 1973 Newark’s expert valued the land at $2,765,000 and, due to the alleged discrimination and restrictive zoning ordinance adopted in March 1973, at $1,077,000 for the remaining years. No discrimination was alleged for 1973, the year a revaluation program was effective.

Although the testimony consumed five days, it was extremely difficult to describe the premises with precision because of the nature of this vast acreage. Generally, the lands are part of the 35,000-acre Pequannock Watershed (approximately two times the size of Newark), which was purchased by Newark at the turn of the century to provide a water supply. The watershed, which contains five major bodies of water, is located in Vernon and Hardyston in Sussex County, Jefferson, Rockaway and Kinnelon in Morris County, and West Milford in Passaic County. The Newark-owned lands comprised approximately 86% of the watershed, with the balance in private ownership.

[93]*93The area is rural in character1, with occasional dwellings fronting on the roadways. During the period in question Vernon had already commenced its transformation from a relatively sparsely developed summer lake community to a major all-season recreational area. Vast tracts in Vernon and adjacent communities had been purchased by the State under Green Acres programs. Several major ski resorts had been established and the well-known Playboy Resort Hotel had been constructed. Many of the former summer lake dwellings had been transformed into all-year residences and, in fact, immediately to the north of the subject lands is the relatively large and substantially developed Highland Lakes community which consists of both year-round and seasonal homes. Such developments, while indicating the existence of a market for lands such as those under consideration, is not to suggest that Vernon was in the throes of a building boom. In 1975 this 67 square mile township had a population of 7,965 people.

The five tax lots, although separated by roadways, are contiguous, and with the exception of a 292-acre reservoir (Block 203, Lot 1A), are characterized by some severe slopes, major rock outcroppings and wet, swampy areas. With the exception of the reservoir lot and the 40-acre Block 240, Lot 5, the parcels are substantial in size, ranging from 1,506 acres to 2,290 acres. The lands are served by several well-maintained roadways which lend extensive frontage to all parcels, a point emphasized by Vernon in arriving at its values. While each has some, if not all, of the characteristics of the others, Block 240, Lot 2 was described as being less desirable than the balance of the lands. This fact is confirmed by a comparison of the values and original assessments of this parcel with the others which clearly shows that all parties found its value to be approximately 60% of that of the other lots.

[94]*94Two other points with respect to size and composition of the lands are to be observed in our analysis. Block 240, Lot 5, contains 40 acres, a fact which, in the market place, usually results in a higher per-acre value. This tax lot, however, is a part of a large contiguous tract located in Hardyston. There is no basis for the suggestion that, because of the municipal boundary line, this large tract would be mentally subdivided in the market place and thus treated as two distinct sales transactions. For valuation purposes, therefore, this parcel will be accorded the same treatment as the larger tax lots with which it favorably compares in all other respects.

Secondly, the reservoir parcel, which is comprised solely of a 292-acre body of water, was valued by Newark in a manner which finds no support in either the record or the market area under consideration. Treating it as separate and apart from the remainder of the 5,424 acres, Newark arbitrarily assigned a nominal value of $100 an acre to this lot. Vernon’s approach, although not its conclusions, in evaluating this lot as part and parcel of the surrounding 1,998-acre Block 203, Lot 1, which approach finds support in the market and in the actual development of the many area lake communities, will be adopted here.

In light of the above, the varying sizes of these tax lots are of no consequences in determining the per-acre value of each, the only concession being made as to Block 240, Lot 2, because of its inferior quality.

Publicly-owned watershed property is to be assessed pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.3, which provides among other things:

. . . the lands of counties, municipalities, and other municipal and public agencies of this State used for the purpose and for the protection of a public water supply, shall be subject to taxation by the respective taxing districts where situated, at the true value thereof, without regard to any buildings or other improvements thereon, in the same manner and to the same extent as the lands of private persons, but all other property so used shall be exempt from taxation.

The purpose and intent of this method of assessment was construed in Newark v. West Milford Tp., 9 N.J. 295, 301, 88 A.2d 211, 214 (1952):

[95]*95. to distribute the tax burden of the taxing district equally between the municipality owning watershed lands and the lands of the other taxpayers of the district. It subjects such lands to taxation at their true value on the same terms and conditions as the lands of the other taxpayers in the district are subjected to.

Since the lands must be assessed in the same manner and to the same extent as lands of private persons, the assessment must be made in accordance with N.J.S.A. 54:4-23, which provides that the true value test is what the property “would sell for at a fair and bona fide sale by private contract on October 1 next preceding the date on which the assessor shall complete his assessments . . . .” True value is the value the property has in exchange for money. Hackensack Water Co. v. Division of Tax Appeals, 2 N.J. 157, 163, 65 A.2d 828 (1949).

In remanding the cause to the Division of Tax Appeals, the Supreme Court, in Newark v. West Milford Tp., supra, recognizing that the problems presented to the Division of Tax Appeals were not without difficulty under the applicable statute, stated:

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Bluebook (online)
1 N.J. Tax 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-newark-v-township-of-vernon-njtaxct-1980.