Newark v. West Milford Township

7 N.J. Tax 35
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 28, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 7 N.J. Tax 35 (Newark v. West Milford Township) 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
Newark v. West Milford Township, 7 N.J. Tax 35 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1984).

Opinion

CONLEY, J.T.C.

In these proceedings the City of Newark seeks a reduction in the local property tax assessments on approximately 18,000 acres of land the city owns in West Milford Township, Passaic County. Essentially undeveloped, the land comprises much of the watershed that feeds Newark’s reservoirs and ultimately provides water to consumers in the city. The assessments are at issue for 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1983. In the aggregate the assessments for all the blocks and lots involved is very close to $20,000,000 for each year.1

The Supreme Court dealt with earlier assessments on the same watershed lands in Newark v. West Milford Tp., 9 N.J. 295, 88 A.2d 211 (1952). As noted in that case, the statute governing the assessment of these properties is N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.3. Insofar as that law applies to publicly-owned watershed [37]*37lands, it exempts any improvements on those lands. In pertinent part the statute provides as follows:

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 taxable 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. [NJ.S.A. 54:4-3.3]

The Court held in Newark v. West Milford that this statutory standard “[b]y its very terms ... is expressly in pari materia” with NJ.S.A. 54:4-23, the generally applicable assessment statute, which requires assessments on properties to be made at market value as of October 1 of the pretax year. 9 N.J. at 303, 88 A.2d 211. The Court in that case reversed the assessment determinations that had been made by the Division of Tax Appeals and remanded the matter for a new trial with the following guidance regarding the assessment of Newark’s watershed lands:

The true value of these watershed lands can only be reasonably approximated and will have to be determined by comparison of the representative component parts of the various classifications of the lands, which in the aggregate make the total of 18,548 acres, with the true value of comparable parcels of land owned by private persons adjacent to the watershed or reasonably nearby in the township, measured by the standard of value established by a fair and bona fide sale at private contract.
Such lands need not match exactly as do the parts of a jig-saw puzzle, nor is it necessary to compare for value each and every square rod or acre in this vast tract. The value of the aggregate of these lands may be established by a comparison of a representative number of comparable parcels owned by private persons to an equally representative and comparable number of tracts or parcels in the various classifications of the lands making up the watershed, to the extent that the sum total of such values established will represent such a percentage of the total that the value of the lands of the entire watershed may be reasonably approximated therefrom. [Id. at 308, 88 A.2d 211]

Newark presented its case in accordance with its interpretation of the Supreme Court statement just cited. In essence, Newark’s experts divided the vast landholdings of the city into more manageable parcels for purposes of description and valuation. The division of land was into two basic categories: parcels of 100 acres or more and parcels of fewer than 100 acres. The larger parcels were established arbitrarily, using roadways, [38]*38the Pequannock River, and block and lot lines from tax maps to separate portions of the tract into relatively contiguous segments. Newark grouped 68 line items comprising 17,000 acres into 26 large parcels, ranging in size from 101 acres to 4,051 acres. The remaining 1,000 acres of the overall tract consisted of 88 line items, each smaller than 100 acres in size. Newark treated these as 88 separate parcels for purposes of its presentation. At trial, Newark offered its proofs first with respect to the 26 large parcels and later with respect to the 88 smaller parcels.

With regard to the 26 large parcels, Newark’s appraiser testified that he found an adequate number of sales of vacant land in West Milford from 1973 to 1984 to form an opinion of the value of Newark’s properties. He reviewed the deed abstracts of “literally hundreds and hundreds of Class I [vacant land] sales” from the relevant years. He found sales involving 7,600 acres of land fairly well distributed over the years 1975 to 1983. To put this in perspective, there are approximately 50.000 acres in West Milford Township, of which Newark owns 18.000 acres. Because he was of the opinion that smaller tracts tend to sell at higher prices per acre than larger tracts, primarily because smaller lots are frequently purchased as house sites, Newark’s appraiser arbitrarily looked first for comparables from among the vacant land sales of 100 acres or more. He then looked at sales in excess of 70 acres and then at those in excess of 50 acres, all without regard to zoning. To broaden his examination he looked finally at sales of 15 acres or more in residential zones which were the same as or more restrictive than those in which Newark’s larger parcels were located.2 The city’s appraiser said he felt more confident in his valuation analysis having looked at everything that had occurred rather than only at selected sales.

[39]*39From the data he reviewed, he selected 37 comparable transactions. However, he concluded that it would be unwieldy to compare each of his actual sales to each of the 26 parcels. In order to make the appraisal process more manageable, the appraiser decided to construct a model comparison sale, or a composite sale, from patterns he could identify from the 37 comparables. He felt he could then compare each of the 26 parcels to his model and determine a value for each parcel. He made a number of calculations in the process of developing his model. For example, he examined the significance of various groupings of the comparables, such as those of the largest acreage and those acquired by public agencies for parkland purposes. Taking all of his computations into account, Newark’s appraiser concluded that the 37 comparable sales demonstrated that a model comparable sale had an indicated value of not more than $1,500 per acre.

The appraiser concluded that this value indication for the large parcels was consistent throughout the period in question. He supported this conclusion with graphs displaying the absence of an upward trend in sale prices for large tracts. One of the significant factors holding down an appreciation in sale prices, according to Newark’s expert, resulted from the placement of West Milford in a conversation area in the state development guide plan. The plan was promulgated by the Division of State and Regional Planning in the Department of Community Affairs. Although the plan was not published until 1980 it had obviously been under consideration for a considerable time prior to 1980.

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7 N.J. Tax 35, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/newark-v-west-milford-township-njtaxct-1984.