Hampshire Country Club”™s tax bill won”™t be reduced after a state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the village of Mamaroneck”™s tax assessments of several properties owned by the club.
The decision is significant in that it is a rare tax certiorari that was not settled before it went to trial and decision ”“ the village says as much as 90 percent of all certioraris are settled before trial. Village Mayor Norman Rosenblum said Mamaroneck saw the case through because they viewed the matter as precedent-setting for other mega properties and because the two sides were so far apart in their numbers.
Hampshire Recreation L.L.C., which bought the properties from Hampshire Country Club in 2010 for slightly more than $12 million, contended that its more than 120 acres were over-assessed from 2010 to 2012. The company sought to reduce its assessment to an average of $4.5 million over the contested years. Joanna C. Feldman of White Plains”™ McCullough Goldberger Staudt L.L.P. was the counsel for the village in court. Most of the club is within the village, but roughly 8 acres are in the town of Mamaroneck and Hampshire also contested the town”™s 2011 and 2012 assessments.
As it stands, the properties pay roughly $76,000 a year in village taxes not including school taxes or taxes paid to the town of Mamaroneck. A ruling in favor of Hampshire would have meant not only a hefty back-tax payment, but a reduced assessment roll for the village and the need to increase taxes on other property owners in order to put together a balanced budget, according to the mayor.
“We would have had to pay some big bucks,” Rosenblum said. “The sad part is”¦if you don”™t get it from one person, you get it from another.”
Tax grievances and certiorari proceedings have become increasingly common in Westchester County over the last decade as property taxes skyrocketed, the economy tanked and most assessments were exposed as outdated. Most towns and cities in the county haven”™t been reassessed for 35 years due to its cost and potential political ramifications. Up-to-date tax rolls could mean higher tax bills for some residential homeowners who in turn could take their frustrations out on Election Day.
Courts became backlogged with certiorari cases and big cases were tied up in the legal system while municipalities felt pressure to settle the cases rather than drag out a lengthy and potentially costly process.
With no interest from Westchester officials to conduct a countywide reassessment and with the cost of certioraris and reduced assessment rolls having taken their effect on local budgets, many communities have undertaken town- and citywide reassessments. Among those are Rye Town and Mamaroneck Town, which Mamaroneck Village is located within. Although the village has its own assessment office, the community is likely to adopt the town”™s 100-percent-market valuations. Rosenblum said Hampshire will act as a point of reference for other large village grievances and potentially have implications outside of Mamaroneck as well.
In the Hampshire ruling, Justice Bruce E. Tolbert noted that the sale price of the property was the best evidence of the property”™s value. When the club that originally owned the property became distressed, it set the asking price at $14.9 million. The village and town combined to put a bid on the property at $10.1 million, with the intention of running it as a self-sustaining enterprise fund similar in management to Rye City-owned Rye Golf Club and Eastchester-owned Lake Isle Country Club.
The property, with its 18-hole golf course and 35,000-square-foot clubhouse, has been tied up in controversy since it was sold. The current owners are seeking to build a 290,000-square-foot condominium complex with more than 100 units and a parking garage with more than 200 spaces, a move that would require that the village shift the zoning in the area.
The Mamaroneck Coastal Environmental Coalition, a civic group, was formed by residents opposed to the proposal. The group”™s members have cited traffic and environmental concerns among the reasons the village should nix the proposal. An alternative plan would be to subdivide the golf course for residential homes. That move seems to be within zoning regulations, but might see difficulty getting environmental permits approved in a coastal area that has been tagged as sensitive, particularly in regard to potential flooding.
