Six Cherry Hill, Inc. v. Township of Cherry Hill

7 N.J. Tax 120
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedDecember 13, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 7 N.J. Tax 120 (Six Cherry Hill, Inc. v. Township of Cherry Hill) 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
Six Cherry Hill, Inc. v. Township of Cherry Hill, 7 N.J. Tax 120 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1984).

Opinion

RIMM, J.T.C.

These local property tax assessment matters involve a claim that the existing use of the subject properties as a high-rise apartment complex which is subject to rent control is not the highest and best use for the land. Taxpayers contend that [123]*123office use is the highest and best use. The subject properties are two contiguous lots each with a twelve-story apartment building together known as the Cherry Hill apartments. The “East Building,” known as 2151 Route 38, is owned by Six Cherry Hill, Inc., and is designated as Block 285, Lot 2B. For the tax year 1982 the assessment was:

Land $ 648,000
Improvements 1,852,000
Total $ 2,500,000.

On appeal to the Camden County Board of Taxation by the taxpayer, the assessment was sustained. Taxpayer then filed a complaint in the Tax Court pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:2-391 seeking a reduction in the assessment. For the tax year 1983 the original assessment for this property was:

Land $ 648,000
Improvements 1,846,900
Total $ 2,494,900.2

Taxpayer filed a direct appeal with the Tax Court pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:3-21 seeking a reduction in this assessment as well.

The “West Building” is owned by plaintiff, Eleven Cherry Hill, Inc. It is designated as Block 285, Lot 2C and is known as 2141 Route 38. For the tax year 1982 the assessment was:

Land $ 648,000
Improvements 1,852,000
Total $ 2,500,000.

On appeal to the Camden County Board of Taxation by the taxpayer, the assessment was sustained and the taxpayer then filed a complaint in the Tax Court for a reduction in the assessment. The assessment for the tax year 1983 was the same as that for 1982. The taxpayer filed a direct appeal with [124]*124the Tax Court seeking a reduction in this assessment. Although the two buildings are in separate corporate ownership, the corporations are owned by the same principal and the buildings are operated together. All four matters were accordingly consolidated for trial.

The two contiguous lots are irregularly shaped. Lot 2B has a total area of 6.081 acres with 706.43 feet of frontage along Route 38. Lot 2C consists of 6.139 acres but has a smaller frontage of 606 feet along Route 38. The buildings are approximately 28-years old. They are of concrete and steel construction. The exterior walls are brick and the interior walls are painted plaster throughout, with ceramic tile wainscotting in the bathrooms. The roofs are of flat concrete fabrication with four-ply asphalt composition covering. The floors are concrete with carpeting. There are 214 apartments in the east building. Two commercial units, a delicatessen and a nursery, are located in the basement. The basement of the east building also contains coin-operated laundry facilities, a trash compactor room, a paint room, rooms for supplies and mechanical equipment and a heating and control room. There are 213 apartments in the west building. One commercial unit, used by a beautician, is in the basement. There are also laundry facilities and other support facilities in the basement of this building. Each building is served by two passenger elevators and a freight elevator. Central trash chutes to the interior compactor in the basement are located on each floor of each building. Units on the third through twelfth floors of the buildings have concrete balconies. The apartments in each building are of various sizes ranging from small one-bedroom, one-bath apartments to three-bedroom, two-bath apartments. Additional improvements include a one-story garage structure attached to each building and each with a capacity of 58 automobiles, a concrete pool and pool house which serves the entire complex, a small playground and blacktop-paved parking and driveway areas. The properties are in close proximity to the Cherry Hill Mall, a super-regional shopping complex, motels and hotels, including the Cherry Hill Inn, several office buildings and [125]*125several restaurants. A major one-family residential housing development known as Cherry Hill Estates is situated to the rear of the apartment complex, and there are several mid-rise apartment buildings within one-half mile of the subject properties.

Plaintiffs’ appraisal, admitted in evidence, indicates “areas of deferred maintenance” which include constant mechanical problems with an old elevator system which has inadequate controls that require frequent replacement. There are numerous defective heating and air conditioning units and areas of falling or patched plaster and peeling paint. Kitchens are outdated and the heating and domestic hot-water systems are inefficient, with leaking heat valves a problem. Some of the apartments had no floor covering, no heating units, no refrigerators, no ovens or no ranges. Some units had no kitchens except for a “small bit of cabinetry,” and some units had no toilets.

There was testimony that there were approximately 80 vacancies in the two buildings at the time of the appraiser’s inspections which occurred on various dates between August 25, 1983 and October 24, 1983, and that two-thirds of the 80 vacant units needed “rather complete rehabilitation.”3 In addition, extensive portions of the blacktop have been patched or repaved.

The subject properties are located in the township’s R-4 high-rise apartment zone according to the current zoning map and ordinance. The same zoning requirements were in effect on both assessing dates. The zone permits high-rise residential structures provided that the minimum lot area is four acres and the maximum density is 20 dwelling units an acre. The two subject buildings are nonconforming as there are a total of 183 [126]*126more dwelling units than the maximum permissible density for the two sites under the existing zoning ordinance.4

Plaintiffs have the “burden of ultimate pursuasion” in seeking reductions of the judgments of the Camden County Board of Taxation and of the original assessments. Passaic City v. Botany Mills, Inc., 72 N.J.Super. 449, 454, 178 A.2d 657 (App.Div.1962). In attempting to meet such a burden, plaintiffs are faced with the presumption of correctness in favor of the board’s judgments, Riverview Gardens, Section 1, Inc. v. North Arlington Bor., 9 N.J. 167, 174, 87 A.2d 425 (1952), and the original assessments, Passaic City v. Botany Mills, Inc., 72 N.J.Super. at 454, 178 A.2d 657. Before this court will reject either of the board’s judgments or either of the original assessments, plaintiffs must introduce evidence which is sufficiently “definite, positive and certain in quality and quantity” to prove a valuation different from the board’s judgments for the tax year 1982 or the original assessments for the tax year 1983. Aetna Life Insurance Co. v. Newark City, 10 N.J. 99, 105, 89 A.2d 385 (1952).

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Bluebook (online)
7 N.J. Tax 120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/six-cherry-hill-inc-v-township-of-cherry-hill-njtaxct-1984.