BOA Files Cases in Court

The Jasper County Board of Assessors has indeed filed four separate notices of appeal in Jasper County Superior Court, as officially decided during an October 9 BOA called meeting with County Attorney Kevin Brown.

The filings, recorded in Superior Court on October 18, challenge the September appeal rulings of the Board of Equalization in relation to four applicants — Providence Baptist Church, Conway Thomas, Timothy and Marlo Slaughter, and Charles and Pam Burnett.

The Providence case involves 180.54 acres located on Wyatt Road in Shady Dale. In March, the church applied for exempt status on the property. The exemption was denied by the BOA on the premise that there were no church activities taking place on the property. An appeal was filed with the BOA and that hearing was held in June producing the same result.

Yet another appeal was filed with the Board of Equalization (BOE) and held in September during which the BOA ruling was overturned.
The legal document filed last week by the BOA states:
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“At the time of application, the primary use of the property was not for religious worship. No activities whatsoever were conducted on the property at the time of the application.
Mere ownership of a parcel of land by a religious organization does not automatically constitute use of the property for religious purposes which would entitle tax exempt status.
Dedication of the property by defendant for future religious use necessarily means that the property is not currently being used for religious purposes.
The board hereby files this appeal based on the grounds of taxability and uniformity.”

The remaining appeals filed by the BOA are regarding three conservation use (CU) applications for tracts of land located in Cedar Creek Plantation off Cedar Creek Road.

Mr. Thomas owns a 30.32 acre tract that was initially approved for CU in December 2004. In April 2006 the applicant was denied CU on the basis “that the property is located in a subdivision and the primary purpose is for residential property” versus for agricultural production.

Unlike Mr. Thomas the Slaughters and Burnetts had not been previously granted CU covenants but were denied based on the same rhetoric. The Slaughters with 23.25 acres and the Burnetts with 19.86 acres in Ceder Creek Plantation were initially denied CU.

All three applicants, represented by attorney Dan Roberts, filed for appeals with the BOA. The appeals produced no change in status for the taxpayers. However when appealed to the BOE last month the BOA denials were all overturned.

The court filings state that the subdivision is subject to certain restrictive covenants that prevents it from being deemed “bona fide conservation use property as it is neither an environmentally sensitive property nor is devoted to subsistence farming or commercial production of agricultural products or timber. The property is instead restricted to use as a residential property under the covenants.”

The legal documents each request that the court settle the matters as soon as possible without a jury and that neither applicant be granted exemption status.