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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980 Rr Vy !PA4: Board of Assessment Review AUG l 198Q TO: a ,• _ .e,-r Town Clerk b RE: REPORT - BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW - TAX YEAR 19PO/Yf. DATE: OF Attached herewith please find for public filing in your office, the complete file covering the public hearing (s) of the Board of Assessment Review, together with changes ordered by this Board to the assessment roll, Assessors' acknowledgment, etc. The duties of the Board of Assessment Review for the grievance period covering the 19LfrL assessment roll are completed. *Aikman Me i e i .41&e r He Wiger Form BAR-4 . � RECEIVED A u G 111980 STATEOF NEW 0 Town Clod( Soatkold COUNTY OF ) ss: TOWN OF ) The undersigned, being duly sworn do severally depose and say that deponents are members of the Board of Assessment Review; that deponents have read the foregoing and know the contents thereof; and the matters set forth are true to the best of the deponents ' knowledge. Sworn to before me this � ay of Q. 19 �d JUDITH T. TERRY Notary public, State of New York No. 52-03 63 Suffolk Coun Nobdry Public mm Won Expires March 30,1 C airman Member �-Me er Me e ✓i..C.�,�Ct�i�C Member R.P.T.S.A. - 200 - 4/72 BAR-2 - Page 2 of 2 M I N U T E S OF G R I E V A N C E D A Y F O R T H E TOWN OF 3 O U T H O L D — — — — — — — — — — — — — — July 15 ,, 1980 PRESENT: BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW: Mr. Samuel Manarel, Chairman Mr. Theodore Heuser Mrs. Patricia Schwicker Mr. William Weinheimer MR. Samuel Markel BOARD OF ASSESSORS: Mr. Melville. A. Kelsey, Jr. , Chairman Mr. Henry Moisa Mr. Charles Watts Town of Southold Grievance Day - July 1-X, 1980 TABLE OF CONTENTS Item No. Matter of Page 1 R.E.C. Realty Co. 1 2 Dorothy A. Reibling 6 3 William L. & Muriel A. Murphy 8 4 Mattituck Presbyterian Church 14 5 PresbytOry of Long Island of the United 14 Presbyterian Church in the United States of America 6 , Raymond A. and Helen G. Reichert 20 7 Helene T. Schmidt 23 8 Helene T. Schmidt 25 9 Phyllis E. Hale 29 10 Helen S. Price 33 11 J. W. Morris 56 12 Joseph T. Macari and Herbert Ingber 56 13 Joseph T. Macari and Herbert Ingber 56 14 James W. B. and Margaret W. S. Benkard 57 15 Grenville T. Emmet and Patricia B. Emmet 57 16 Grenville T. Emmet and Patricia B. Bemmet 57 17A,. Westbury Equipment Co. , Inc. 57 17B Westbury Equipment Co. , Inc. 57 18A Westbury Equipment Co. , Inc. 57 18B Westbury Equipment Co. , Inc. 57 19 Joseph Frederick Gazza 57 20 Joseph Frederick Gazza 59 21 Arthur and Andrea Tillman 58 Patrick F. Gorman 59 22 Item No. Matter of Page 23 Eylene H. King 59 24 Jon Harvey Klasfeld 60 25 Donald G. King 60 26 George J. W. Husing 60 27 Leonard L. Frank & others 63 28 Mid-Island Shopping Plaza Co. 62 29 Greenport Shore$, Inc. 65 30 Long Island Lighting Company 66 31 Long Island Lighting Company 66 32 Oscar J. Bloom, et al. 106 33 St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church 106 at Greenport 34 St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church 106 at Greenport 35 St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church 106 at Greenport 36 St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church 107 at Greenport 37 Vera Mayer 107 38 235 Mill Street, Inc. 107 39 S & E Realty Co. 107 40 Vera Mayer 107 41 Deborah Penney 107 42 Vantage Petroleum Corp. 107 43 Vantage Petroleum Corp. 107 44 Hodor-Stall and Kasper, et al. 107 45 Cutchogue Joint Venture 107 46 Arshamomaque Associates. 107 47 Arshamomaque Associates 108 48 S & E Realty Co. , 108 49 Daysman and Nan Morris 108 t f Item No. Matter of Page 50 Daysman & Nan Morris 108 51 Alan A. Cardinale 108 52 The Southland Corp. 108 53 Alfred J. Bartosieqicz & Joan 108 Bartosiewicz 54 Edward Maguire 108 55 Marvin & Lilliam Qualls 108 56 Stephen & Ella Schmidt 108 57 Hans H. & Francoise A. Rieger 108 58 Marjorie Nezin 108 59 Gerard H. Egger 109 60 Salvatore & Maria C. Iannolo 109 61 Strong Oil Company, Inc. 109 62 Strong Oil Company, Inc. 109 63 St. Peter' s Lutheran Church 68 64 St. Peter's Lutheran Church 83 65 Harry Mitchell Family Corp. 108 66 Mr. & Mrs. Clifford J. Van Cleef 81 & 91 6'7 Rose 0. Silverstone 91 68 Clement J. Welles 91 69 Mr. and Mrs. William W. Schriever 91 70 Margaret E. Aha 91 72 Joseph L. Townsend, Jr. & Arnold Gardner 92 73 Kevin & Lorraine Quillan 104 Mr. Samuel Manarel, Chairman of the Board of Assessment Review, opened the Grievance Day Proceedings at 9:05 A.M. July 1f, 1980, at the Southold. Town Hall, Main Road, Southold, New York. The other members of the Review Board present were: Theodore Heuser, Patricia Schwicker, William Weinheimer and Samuel Markel. NO. 1 REC REALTY CO. , c/o K & C Agency, Inc. , 515 Rockaway Avenue, P. 0. Box 39, Valley Stream, New York 11582 GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: OVERVALUATION; Assessed valuation of property: $12,000.00; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $7,200.00; Complainant believes assessment should be reduced to: $4,800.00. MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO MR. CUMMINS. ROBERT E. CUMMINS: Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Bob Cummins, I would like to introduce myself. I have been the owner of this particular parcel on the corner of Main and Indian Neck Lane for about 7 or years, or 6 to 8 years. It was purchased at the height of land values in the area, in fact land values all over the country. I am not a lawyer, a builder, or developer, I bought it as the American Dream as a hedge against inflation. The thing to do in those days was to buy land, and I did at a very high price . And as all good things seem to come to an end, the price of land seems to have been going down in the past few years. The theme of my. . . I can also sympathize with you people and appreciate the job that you have as assessors and hearing, I myself serve as a Village Trustee in my own small village and also double as a member of the Board of Assessors so I know that it is a difficult job that you have. Most of our work is done in alteration of houses, and we have very little land so our job is not as difficult as your job is. The theme of my protest is that this piece or parcel was primarily assessed as vacant land with a small building on there, which I am not really pro- testing as to the value of the building, even though the building has zero value . Now that this particular piece or parcel has been sub- divided with a map that has been approved with 24 lots, the assessed valuation has almost doubled. The physical condition of the land has not changed. There are no roads. There are no improvements. There are no utilities. There are no recharge basins. There are no catch basins. There is no water. There are no lights. They physical con- dition of the property has not changed one bit. I cannot do anything more with the land today than I could do before the map was filed. No lots can really be sold without filing permits, without having the roads put in there, and having the improvements put there. Also in thinking about all this I recall that about 8 or 10 years ago this 1Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 2 particular parcel of property was zoned for half acre zoning, permitting half acre lots. Then it was rezoned for one acre use. I do not think the assessed valuation was cut in half at that time when the land went from one acre zoning to half acre zoning. Also I feel it is unfair that if someone has a piece of vacant land and they file with the Building Department to get a building permit to build a house with an architectual plan the land value does not go up at that time, the value of the land does not go up until the improvements are made. Therefore, I protest that just because the map was filed that the assessed value of the land is almost doubled. SAMUEL MANAREL: Are there any questions? PATRICIA SWICKER: Is he asking for a specific reduction? WILLIAM WEINHEIMER: Can I see the card? MR. MANAREL: The card is there. MR. CUMMINS: I asked for a reduction. The card was a little complicated to file. MR. WEINHEIMER: What is is assessed for now? MR. CUMMINS: It is assessed for land. . . . MR. MANAREL: You are talking about 24 parcels, is that correct? MR. CUMMINS: Yes. SAMUEL MARKEL: 24, one acres, you have now? MR. CUMMINS: You see, they made up two parcels on it. That is what is very confusing. MRS. SCHWICKER: May I see that paper, please? THEODORE HEUSER: Pardon? MRS. SCHWICKER: The top card and paper. MR. MARKEL: I would like to know how large each parcel is that you are subdividing. MR. CUMMINS: The land was $8,600.00, with land and buildings $8,800.00. MR. HEUSER: The subdivisions are all a half acre. MR. MARKEL: Half acre. So there are approximately 12 acres in the plot? MR. CUMMINS: There are 24, half acre plots. However, we kept the * Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 3 one half acre housing unit there. The rest of the land is open area. This is a cluster type zoning. MR. MARKEL: You have a filed map? MR. CUMMINS: Yes, I do. The land was $8,600.00. Now that particular open land was reduced from $8,600.00 to $4 100.00. The 24 lots were assessed at $500.00 each for a total of $12 000.00. So the total assessed valuation is $16,300.00 where it was 8,600.00 MR. HEUSER: May I see that sheet there? MR. HEUSER: The two forms you handed me, are they covering the same property? MR. CUMMINS: Yes. Identically the same piece of property. MR. HEUSER: It went from $4,100.00 to $12,000.00? MR. CUMMINS: That is correct. MR. HEUSER: In one year? MR. CUMMINS: Right. MR. HEUSER: Have you developed it, Sir? MR. CUMMINS: No, I have not. MR. WEINHEIMER: Is there more than one card? MRS. SCHWICKER: Yes, there are several cards. Can we see the rest of the cards? MR. HEUSER: Sure. MR. CUMMINS: There are several reductions for some old houses that were taken off. MR. WEINHEIMER: At the end of 1979 it was reduced in half on the land part. MR. CUMMINS: Not the land, only on the old house that was moved.. MR. WEINHEIMER: The card shows that it went from $8,600.00 down to $4,100.00, on December 20, 1979. MR. CUMMINS: Simultaneously then they made the 24 lots at $500.00 each. There are now two tax cards. MRS. SCHWICKER: Then what is this for? MR. CUMMINS: That is for the open area. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 4 MRS. SCHWICKER: This is open area? MR. CUMMINS: This has 10 acres of open area. MR. WEINHEIMER: That isn' t zoned for residential use? MR. CUMMINS: It is the open area and three acres of road. which are not there . MR. HEUSER: I think we ought to bring one of the assessors in. MR. MANAREL: Henry will come up. Mr. Cummins this is Mr. Moisa one of the assessors. MR. MOISA: You have a question? MR. MARKEL: Could, you please explain the assessment in this case? MR. MOISA: The original assessment reflects the valuation as to farmland. If I could see the card. MRS. SCHWICKER: Was this rezoned from one acre to one half acre? Or did it go from one-half acre to one acre? MR. CUMMINS: Zoning went from one half acre to acre before I owned the property. MRS. SCHWICKER: That is what I thought. M$. MOISA: The original assessment as I said before was based on farmland whi(h was $250.00 per acre. It was being farmed at the time. For several years now it has not been farmed. So Mr. Cummins and. Co. have decided to subdivide it. They applied for a cluster type zoning' which means they were allowed through the approval of the Town Board they were allowed to have smaller lots,but they had to leave enough land in reserve to make up an acre lot for each one, and I think they have 13-1/2 acres which is undescribed outside of the subdivided property. When you subdivide a piece of property it has been the policy of the Board. from years ago they do give the developer some sort of break at a lower rate, which this happens to be $500.00. There are other half acre subdivisions in the Town that will justify that assessment. Then the part which is left undescribed, which is the reserved part, is put on the records at $300.00 an acre, which is parallel with the other vacant land throughout the Town. There hasn' t been anything done to this property. MR. MANAREL: There is 13-1/2 acres of undescribed property. MR. MOISA: That' s right. You have two assessments. MR. HEUSER: The original 12 acres were valued at $800.00. Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 5 MR. MOISA: No, sir. The original 28 acres. . . . MR. HEUSER: No, I mean after it was subdivided . MR. MOISA: After it was subdivided at a half acre apiece. There were 24 lots. There are 24 lots there now on the filed map. MR. MARKEL: How much did you assess each lot for? MR. HEUSER: $800.00 I believe . MR. MOISA: $500.00. MR. MARKEL: That is even below the average rate for an acre at $1,600.00. MR. MOISA: That' s true, but here again, you have got to remember when land is being developed there is a slight break given to the developer. That has been the policy of the Town. MR. MARKEL: I understand. MR. MOISA: That helps them get started in a way, because there is money that has to be laid out for the building of roads and stuff like that which has to be taken into consideration. MR. HEUSER: We are running into the same thing that we ran into when people say that the realtor comes up and sells property to a buyer of farmland. He says it is assessed at only $300.00. Then he develops it and they buy that farmland and eventually when they get their tax bill they find out it is a $1,000.00. M$. MOISA: That' s right. MR. HEUSER: The same principle applies here. MR. rOISA: As I say that policy is carried through on every filed map which we receive in our office. MR. MANAREL: Okay, Henry, thank you very much. Do you have any other questions, Mr. Cummins? MR. CUMMINS: No. MR. MANAREL: Does any Board member have a question? No, okay. You will receive a reply from us, Mr. Cummins, one way or the other. Hopefully we will get this done in a couple of weeks and then be able to sit down and review this. MR. HEUSER: May I interject one thing? Was the explanation of the tax assessor fairly clear to you at this point? MR. CUMMINS: Yes it was. Yes his explanation was very clear, but Towrr of Southold Grievance Day - Page 6 I feel that it doesn' t really apply to this situation. It' s only use I can do now is farm it. Until the roads and improvements are put in I really don' t have lots. MR. WEINHEIMER: I have one question. Do you contemplate leaving the land exactly as it is in its present state? MR. CUMMINS: Sure, there will be contemplation of putting in the improvements. Not at this time. MR."HEUSER: There are no roads in at this time? MR. CUMMINS: No roads at this time. MR. HEUSER: But you have subdivided? MR. CUMMINS: Just the map has been filed, which I feel is the same principle as filing to beuild a house. MR. WEINHEIMER: Is that where the house was removed down to Wells Avenue? MR. CUMMINS: Yes, it was on that corner, right. MR. MANAREL: Thank you, Mr. Cummins. NO. 2 DOROTHY A. REIBLING, 290 Wabasso Street, Southold, New York 11971. GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: OVERVALUATION: Full market value of property: $27,000.00; Assessed valuation of property: $4,600.00; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $100.00; Complainant believes assess- ment should be reduced to $4,500.00 MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO MRS. REIBLING. Let the record show that William Weinheimer has filed a "With- drawal Bt Member of the Board of Assessment Review from Rendering Decision ' on this application. MRS. REIBLING: I am Dorothy A. Reibling a/k/a Mrs. Russling Wood, Jr. This property is in the name of Reibling. I recieved a notice of a $100.00 increase in my assessment, which seems insignificant to you people, but it is the principle of the thing which I am here for. I will read to you a letter which I have attached: "The Assessor' s office the increase of $100.00 in building assess- ment is due to the presence of a "shed" which they had never noticed heretofore on caption property. This particular "shed" has been affixed to the house as long as Townr of Southold Grievance Day - Page 7 the house has existed, long before I bought the property in 1969 from Mr. Horton Barr. The property has been inspected by the Assessors people frequently through the years, and most especially when I had extensive alterations on the bay side of the house in 1970-71. The "shed" is still substantially the same size and shape as it was when the property was purchased in 1969. As a matter of fact, from an inspection of the Zoning Code 100-30-C-2, this "shed" does not qualify as an "Accessory Building", but is part and parcel of the main building, and always has been. Its rear wall is the side of the main building. It in no way compares in size and shape with the separate building installed recently by my neighbor just west of my property, about which a member of the Assessors office sought to compare it. I would, therefore, respectfully request that this error in assessing my property be corrected for the coming taxable year since I never had an "accessory building. " 7/15/80. s/ Dorothy A. Reibling I have pictures here to prove it. MRS. SCHWIC.[ER: Before we go any farther, the form is not filled out correctly. The letter is not sufficient. MRS. REIBLING: I didn' t know what to fill out there . There is nothing covering my problem. I even asked them at the desk this morning. MR. HEUSER: Your name is Dorothy A. Reibling? MRS. REIBLING: R-e-i-b-l-i-n-g. There is no place there. I am not complaining about an equalization, I am not complaining about any of that. MRS. SCHWICKER: Red, as you can see there is not anything filled out under the letter. MRS. REIBLING: It doesn' t pertain to this particular thing. I have no quarrel about my original assessment. All of a sudden it was upped $100.00 ,just because of a shed that has been there for years. MR. MANAREL: I think probably what you ought to fill out is over- valuation because from what you stated, if I understand-, it clearly, you have been reassessed in a sense for a shed apparently the Assessors say was not assessed originally. We have no choice, we are bound by. law. MRS. REIBLING: I understand that. I asked out at the desk. . . . MR. MANAREL: Unless this form is filled out properly we cannot act. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 8 MRS. REIBLING: I didn' t understand how I should fill this out. MR. MANAREL: Why don' t you fill out overvaluation, and then you can ask for the reduction. You can sit right there at the table. Would you like a pen? MRS. REIBLING: I have one thank you. MR. MANAREL: Fill that out so we know where we can go. MRS. REIBLING: Okay, fine. I'll do that. MR. HEUSER: The fact that it existed, but it was overlooked doesn' t change the status of a thing. The Board held a discussion conerning the location of the shed. MR. MANAREL: We can set this aside and. go on to the next appli- cation. Mrs. Reibling, you gust take your time. We are going to proceed with some over people, and. then we will bring you back. NO. 3 WILLIAM L. & MURIEL A. MURRAY, 213 Elsie Avenue, Merrick, New York 11566. GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: OVERVALUATION: Full market value: $1500 approximately; Assessed valuation of property: $1500; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $900.00; Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to approximately $600.00. MRS. SCHWICEER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO MR. MURRAY. MR. MANAREL: Would you like to present your case, Mr. Murray? WILLIAM MURRAY: My name is William Murray and this is my wife, Muriel. I purchased a piece of property on the Main Road in Cutchogue. Formerly known as the Field and Ziggy Rysko property. Being a farm boy at heart I farmed a little land with it for retirement so I took a packaged deal. The figures that I present there were what I paid for the entire piece of property. It was very much overpriced, I admit. MR. MANAREL: When did you buy this? MR. MURRAY: I bought this in the latter part of last year. MR. MANAREL: 1979? MR. MURRAY: We had the closing in December, 1979. Because the property had a .right-of-way to the east of the house, which split the back property which would be my garden I chose to get a subdivision on it to move the right-of-way to the west of the property and along Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 9 the edge of the land. Also though I have no intention of developing the property, but to protect its value in case we pass away and it have to be disposed of some time. Following my purchase, of course, the economic condition has changed considerably and with the Temik contamination which this property is, I find that the value of the property is considerably reduced. I have not put it on the market because I do not wish to sell it, but I have approached many people who are looking for building lots to establish the value. I have talked to people who have lots for sale adjacent andacrossthe road. I find, of course, that you can' t hardly give it away. I also find this when I try to rent. I was led to believe that I could at least get taxes out of it. I find that I cannot even get taxes and in many cases it is farmed for free. MR. HEUSER: What was your Temik report? How much? MR. MURRAY: The Temik on my house itself, because my house is on a higher. . . . . MR. HEUSER: What did it read? MR. MURRAY: My water is free from Temik. Because I have a shallow well, and the property is higher. The back of my property which is adjacent to Mr. Robinson' s place, I believe. He has I understand one of the highest Temik ratings anywhere. His place is about 20 or 30 feet from mine. MR. MANAREL: Speaking of the Temik on this lot. You don' t have any in your residence? MR., MURRAY: No, the residence is free. MR. MANAREL: But you have another lot? MR. MURRAY: I have another lot in the back which has been sub- divided. MR. MANAREL: You say there is Temik in the water in that lot? MR. MURRAY: I am sure there is in that lot. MR. MANAREL: Have you had that water tested? MR. MURRAY: My property, no, but one 20 feet from it has been. MR. MANAREL: I'm sorry, but without proof, this Board cannot act. I have Temik. My neighbor across the street as well is less than 50 feet from me and has no Temik. So there is no guarantee because of the way the water tables run. under the ground that one has Temik and therefore the one next to it will have Temik. Your proof is that you do not have any temik in your own building. MR. MURRAY: But that influences any buyer. If he knows that it is Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 10 all around. MR. MANAREL: I grant you that. MR. MURRAY: He won' t touch it if he knows it is there. MRS. SCHWICKER: Excuse me , you have a figure here for the amount of overvaluation. It isn' t clear to us. MR. MURRAY: Weli, it isn' t clear to me either because when I received a notice it did not say that the form was re-evaluated . MRS. SCHWICKER: Do you want to look at this figure for just a moment please? MR. MURRAY: Yes. MRS. SCHWICKER: You have $1500 here. Then you have Wc:,00 here. MR. MURRAY: This is the amount of overvaluation. I assume that this means here the whole market value of the property, right? MRS. SCHWICKER: Right. MR. MURRAY: I'm saying that the ratio. . . You don' t value it I assume at 100%. It ' s a ratio of the true value. So you really have to in order to value it I assume establish what the value of the property is to start with. I have no benefit of that figure or no benefit of the ratio of which you use. So I can only try to ratio it from my house property. MR. MANAREL: Ir you have $1500 for your full market value of the property. The assessed valuation of the property is $1500. That is what you have. MR. MURRAY: Yes. MR. MANAREL: The amount of overvaluation claimed is the amount of $13,500.00. How can you have an overvaluation that is $13,50u when you are only assessed $1500 to begin with? MR. MURRAY: You are assessed $1500.00. To get $1500 at a ratio of 9% or 10%, I assume of the full market value. MR. MANAREL: You cannot compare apples and peaches. When you start with assessed valuations you stay with assessed valuations all the way through. You want to jump from assessed valuation to full valuation. MR. MURRAY: It looks like that form is made that way. MR. MANAREL: No it is not. Tuwn of Suuthold Grievance Day - Page 11 MRS. SCHWICKER: You are working with one set of figures and. that is what you stay with. MR. MANAREL: You have an assessed valuation of $1500. 00 and then you want a reduction of $13,500.00. That is just clearly impossible. MR. MURRAY: I assumed that the $13, 500.00 was what the assessors figured the property worth in order to come up with $1500.00. MRS. SCHWICKER: In other words, you want the assessment back to the $900.00 where it was originally? MR. MURRAY: No I really feel it should be less than $900.00. MR. MANAREL: But you are not asking for that here, and we can only act on what you put on the form. MR. MURRAY: I had no way of figuring how you people get your figures. MR. MANAREL: We don' t figure anything, you misunderstand. MR. MURRAY: I'm sorry, I realize that. I have no way of knowing how they figure this. They do not publish the rates or the full value in order to get the proportionate figures. MR. HEUSER: The thing that sticks in Sam' s mind and mine is that this property has been subdivided. Correct? MR. MURRAY: Yes. MR. HEUSER: By subdividing it you have increased it into a development property per se. MR. MANAREL: Let' s bring Charlie up here to help us with the evaluation. MR. MARKEL: Sam, first of all it looks like the piece that was broken off is now 1.166 acres, is that correct? Mit. MURRAY: It must be more than that. MR. MARKEL: More than that? MR. MURRAY: It is three building lots, each with 40,000 .. square feet. MR. MANAREL: Mr. Watts is the Assessor. Do you want to come here, Charlie? CHARLES WATTS: Can I see the property card? MR. HEUSER: Ask him about this acreage here? ' Towrf of Southold Grievance Day - Page 12 MR. MANAREL: What about the acreage of the subdivision. MR. WATTS: The house plot was broken away, at Mr. Murray' s re- quest. It is a minor sub, a filed minor subdivision. It has four lots. The standard procedure when we have four lots is at least $500.00 per lot in the subdivision. Any one can be sold. MR. MANAREL: So you have 3 lots at $500.00 apiece is $150u.u0. MR. MURRAY: I was told when I made the subdivision. . . . MR. MANAREL: By whom? MR. MURRAY: By the man who presented the subdivision, by two different officers here that it probably would not change my assessed valuation at all as long as I did not file with the County. MR. MANAREL: Who were the officers? What division of the Goven- ment did you deal with? MR. MURRAY: I went to the Planning Board. I went to the assessing department. MR. MANAREL: Who did you see in the Assessors Department? We have the three assessors right here. MR. MURRAY: I don' t know their names. MR. MANAREL: Did you see Mr. Kelsey? He is sitting back there . MR. MURRAY: No, I don' t think so. MR. MANAREL: You saw Mr. Moisa here before. The heavy set gentleman that was here with the first gentleman who appeared.. They are the three assessors we have here. I don' t know who you spoke with? MR. MURRAY: I might now have been assessor. It might have been a clerk. I spoke to someone about this. MR.' MANAREL: You see Mr. Murray, the problem is that when you ask someone who does not have direct authority over what is going to be evaluated, they are giving you opinions. MR. MURRAY: The man who did the presenting did the mapping. This man, Van Tuyl, told me the valuation should not be raised as long as I didn' t file with the County. Now I find out it was raised. MR. MARKEL: He is only a surveyor. MR. MURRAY: He presented the papers for me. He drew it up for me. ' Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 13 MR. MARKEL: That doesn't mean he had any authority to tell you that. MR. MANAREL: That is misinformation. He probably did not mean to mislead you, but he might have had some misinformation. This is the regulation. M$. MURRAY: Now I find it doesn' t get filed with the County anyway. MR. MARKEL: Not until a piece is sold. MR. MURRAY: Then that must be what he meant. As long as you don' t build on it. MR. MANAREL: Are there any other questions you would like to ask? MR. MURRAY: I did make the point that it is farmland right now. MR. MANAREL: This will be given further study. Don't think this is the decision today. We will meet and go over this very carefully. Do any of the members have any other questions? MR. MARKEL: Yes I have one question of Mr. Murray. He made the statement that this is farmland. Does it meet the requirements of farmland as far as acreage. MRS. SCHWICKER: No. MR. MANAREL: I think the minimum is what? 10 acres? MRS. SCHWICKER: 10 acres. MR. MURRAY: I realize that. It was my understanding after dis- cussing how the assessments are reached that vacant land that may come under the 10 acre requirement that is not in farmland is assessed at a lower rate. MR. MANAREL: That' s right. MR. MURRAY: Therefore I am keeping it in farmland. MR. MARKEL: It doesn' t meet the requirements though. MR. MURRAY: Not of farmland, I realize that. MR. MANAREL: Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Murray. You will hear from us. MR. MURRAY: Thank you for your time. Towra of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 14 NO. 2. DOROTHY A. REIBLING MRS. REIBLING: I have pictures here of building construction and everything that was changed. MR. MANAREL: Okay, Lady and Gentlemen, we can get back to Mrs . Reibling. The form has been filled out now for overvaluation. She made her presentation about a shed that has been attached to the property. Does anyone have any questions of Mrs. Reibling? Is there anything else you wish to say, Mrs. Reibling. that we haven' t given you the opportunity to say? MRS. REIBLING: No, I don' t think so. Only that the shed was there when I purchased the property and it is still the same way with the exception of a new roof, because the roof was falling in, and I had to repair it. That is the way it is. When George Ahlers redid my property all the assessors: Mr. Terry, Mr. Fisher, everyone was down there. They knew of that existing shed all these years. All of a sudden I get an increase on something that has been attached to the house. It is not a separate entity. MR. MANAREL: Thank you Mrs. Reibling. My smile has to do with my shed which I built and what it cost me. I had to pay $5.00 for an occupancy fee for my lawnmower, so I sympathize with you. You will hear from us. NO. 4 - MATTITUCK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Main Road, Mattituck, New York. Lund.stedt & Foys, Esgs. , Main Road, Laurel, New York. GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT: Property is totally exempt. MRS. SCHWICKER SWORE IN EDWARD W. LUNDSTEDT, ESL MR. LUNDSTEDT: I had mailed all members of the Board a copy of rriy papers . MR. MATIAREL: Yes, we all have one. MR. LUNDSTEDT: I don' t want to be too long with respect to this. I think the arguments are set forth within. We are totally exempt. A Church is exempt. If a Church lends its property to a little theatre, the question is whether the little theatre is exempt also. I attached a case going back to 1956, a case relied on by a former Chairman of the Assessors, Mr. Martocchia when he took the property off the tax rolls in 1965. The case is still good law. It says the little theatre is for educational purposes. It is for mental and moral improvement of men and women and therefore it is within the purview of an exempt organization and not taxable. In fact, that the little theatne is a rentor or a leasee doesn' t mean mean that it loses the exemption as long as there is no profit to the church. The North Theatre uses the premises free of charge. There Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 15 is no rental whatsoever. There is .another case. Sisters of St. Joseph v. New York City which I attached. That makes it very clear. It makes it very clear. If you have two exempt organi- zations, an owner and a renter. If there is no profit from the rent, they are both exempt. If there is a profit through the rent then it isn' t exempt. For these reasons we feel that the exemption should be retained by the Board, and the assessors opinion should be overturned. I have with me today Mr. Richard Keogh, the President of the theatre, who wishes to address the Board. MR. MANAREL: I think the threatre has nothing to do with the parcel that we are talking about. We have nothing. . . .the threatre, fine, God Bless them, let them continue. They do not come into this case whatsoever. So that would just be extraneous material. We find that would be unnecessary. We believe what the threatre is doing. I don' t think that is really necessary. I think we can save the gentleman some time. MR. HEUSER: May I interrupt. I think it would be a good idea to bring Mel in on this assessment. MR. MANAREL: No, I think everything has been filed. We 've got everything. There is no use carrying things out. We have all the information. The gentleman elucidated on everything now. Everything is there. It is quite comprehensive. Thank you very much Mr. Lundstedt for appearing. Thank you sir. You will hear from us hopefully within a month one way or the other. NO. 5 PRESBYTERY OF LONG ISLAND OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 50 Hauppauge Road, Commack, New York. Lundstedt & Foy, Esgs. , Main Road, Laurel, New York. GROUNDS FOR THE COMPLAINT: Property is totally exempt. MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO EDWARD W. LUNDSTEDT, ESQ. EDWARD W. LUNDSTEDT: Edward W. Lundsted.t. I represent the Presbytery of Long Island. The Presbytery of Long Island is the regional organization of the Presbyterian churches in Nassau and Suffolk. It in essence through a trust theory has ownership of all the churches on Long Island. What happened back in the end of 1979 is that the Greenport Presbyterian Church, which is the premises in question, closed its doors through economic necessity. There was falling attendance, falling revenues, and the Presbytery of Long Island could no longer sustain the Church building by subsidizing the salary of the pastor and. the other expenses. So there was a decision made to close its doors. This is some 7 months ago. At that point there was a decision made what to do with the building. The only feasible thing to do was to put it on the market. It was listed with brokers in Greenport and. the brokers attempted to offer Towh of Southold Grievance Day - Page 16 the building for sale. The building naturally being a church building is possibly utilized only for that type of purpose. It is not feasible to convert, I guess, these buildings with cathedral ceiling into any- thing else. The brokers have turned up a buyer, another church. There is a contract of sale that has been recently drawn and mailed to the other church. The other church, expectantly, will sign the contract some time soon. Now in my grievance foria, set forth as exhibits 1, the letter from the Broker to the other church setting forth the terms of the porposed sale, and I have set forth a proposed copy of the contract of sale. These things went out approximately two weeks ago. The arguments that I have in essence are is that it is owned by a tax exempt organization. In the assessors' opinion it is no longer being used for exclusively religous purposes. In fact, the church is not being used for any purpose. The purpose of religion has abated because of economic necessity. The Presbytery f s trying to sell it to another church. Now we find ourselves with an assessment 1lere it may well void the deal we have with the other church when they find out, Gee Whiz, now it is on the tax roll. We have been contemplating something that is tax exempt, and now all of a sudden we find a situation that is going to cost X number of dollars a year. MR. HEUSER: May I interrupt, please? When you sell to the other church, it will revert back to an exempt property again. MR. LUNDSTEDT: Yes, it will, but I don' t know if we can get by the first year. I believe as of the law date today, that there will be one year' s taxes. I don't know what they would be exactly, but I do know it will be a couple of thousand dollars, I think. MR. MANAREL: Your timing here is essential. They had to close the temporary roll on June 1st.. And this opportunity to sell came after the date of June 1. MR. MARKEL: I have a question. MR. MANAREL: Go ahead. MR. MARKEL: This was built solely as a church. Is this an allowable situation or did the church make it one? MR. LUNDSTEDT: The name of the church interested is Our Lady of Sign. I understand it is a Greek Orthodox Church from Astoria Queens. In my papers I set forth subdivision 3 of Real Property Tax Law 421. In essense that statute addresses itself to a situation where a church or any other otherwise qualified corporation owns a piece of property, and they haven't built on it yet. They have plans to built on it or have not finished it yet. It is not at the present time say used for the purpose. It is not used as a church if the building isn' t built yet. It isn' t used as a hospital if the building isn' t built. That statute says there is a reasonable time to be given to the corporation to fulfill the purpose. To complete its plans and build its building so that the hospital or church can use it. The reason I set forth that statute is because we have an analogy here to that situation. The Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 17 Presbytery of Long Island has offered the premises for sale through a broker. We have a buyer. The contracts. . MR. 14ANAREL: May I interrupt you right there. You have a buyer and you are worried that the buyer may not buy because of the tax situation. MR. LUNDSTEDT: Yes sir. MR. MANAREL: Mr. Kelsey. MRS. SCHWICKER: This has been dormant for seven months only. Not a full year. MR. MANAREL: Is there any problem with the sale of this property going back to exempt status if it is a religious. There are no problems at all. So if you have any questions at the time of your closing or your buyers want to talk to Mr. Kelsey. He will be glad to talk to them. MR. MARKEL: One other thing. When this was offered to brokers for sale. Did the church stipulate that it must be sold to another church, did it? MR. LUNDSTEDT: NO sir. MR. MARKEL: Then the assessors were perfectly right in what they did. MR. LUNDSTEDT: Well, this is the basis of my argurment that is very important. My argument is that the legislature in drafting subdivision 3 of Section 421 in essence sets forth a reasonable length of time for an organization to fulfill its purpose. To build a building. The analogy here is that Presbetery of Long Island should have a reasonable length of time to market its property without being hindered by an assessment that may well void the contract because there is no way we can get around the taxes for this ensuing year without the reversal of this Board or the Court. If the Board makes this re- versal it will be within a month. If we have to go to court, it is going to be an appreciable length of time. In the meantime the building is deteriorating, and the Buyer may say he is going to wait until you fellows have a decision on whether it is taxable or not taxable. MR. MANAREL: You say you have a buyer. What is your time schedule for closing. MR. LUNDSTEDT: We expect to have a signed contract, which we do not have now, very shortly. The proposed contract of sale calls for a closing date of. . . . MR. IVIANAREL: Rule of thumb, what is shortly? Shortly doesn' t mean anything. It means something different to me than it does to attorneys. To attorneys some time shortly means 3 to 4 years. ' TowA of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 18 MR. LUNDSTEDT: The contract went out a little more than 2 weeks ago. From an attorney' s standpoint I would expect the contract to be received within a week from today. MR. HEUSER: Again with due respect to an attorney. What is your conception of a reasonable time? MR. LUNDSTEDT: I would say a year or two years. In other words what I am asking this Board is essence is to give us a by for this year so that we can market the property without the aura of tax liability in the background. If we don' t sell by this time next year I don' t think I can come back and ask for a reasonable length of time to accomplish this. MR. HEUSER: I have one question for Mel yet. If this property was sold in August. Can that assessed value be changed on the cards. MELVILLE KELSEY, JR. : Not the assessed value. At the time of closing it would be pro rata out, and then it would go back on the exempt rolls since it was sold to another church. MR. HEUSER: There could be a reduction in that tax? MR. KELSEY: Yes , absolutely. MR. HEUSER: Okay, I just wanted to clarify that. MR. KELSEY: It would only be for a short time if it was going to be closed within a month or two months. It would be a minimum bill. MR. LUNDSTEDT: I understand that the taxes do not begin until December 1st. If we close before December 1st. there will be no taxes whatsoever? MR. KELSEY: That' s right. MR. LUNDSTEDT: This is if they file for an exemption. I under- stand. What I am worried about though is that they may not want to go ahead unless we have the exemption at hand. MR. MANAREL: At that particular time why don' t you have those people come over here and talk to the assessors. I made that suggestion before. Mr. Kelsey will reassure them. I don' t know what else you can do . MR. MARKEL: There is one other question that maybe Mr. Lundstedt can clarify for me. He quoted a law giving the church a time limit. You used the word "build" . Now you are referring to the word "Market" . Are those two words interchangeable? MR. LUNDSTEDT: The law cannot possibly ,-have a statute to cover each and every situation. The only way you can glean the intent of the legislature is to look at something in the law which analogous. I think this is specifically analogeous if the law says "Look if you Towri of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 19 are going to build within a certain amount of time, we will keep you off the tax rolls. " To our situation if you have it on the market, you have a buyer ►in hand, you are going to sell it in a small amount of time , we are going to keep it off the tax rolls. To do otherwise would be unreasonable. Keep in mind the purpose here. We closed the doors in Greenport by economic necessity. We couldn' t make a go of it without taxes. MR. MARKEL: I just want to finish if I may. What I am just questioning is this. Suppose the deal does fall through. Then the broker comes to you with a commercial buyer, which is a good possibility. That would make a wonderful little theatre. In the meantime we have knocked you off the rolls. Do you understand my thinking? If a tax exempt organization buys it, they will not pay any taxes. MR. HEUSER: Excuse me, it wouldn' t go off the rolls until the sale was consumated, right? MR. MANAREL: That' s right. I think we are getting argumentative. I don't think we want to get into this. MR. WEINHEIMER: I have a question for Mr. Kelsey. The fact that while this church has been dormant it has been owned by the Presbytery of Long Island. As such, wouldn' t they continue to enjoy a tax exemption until such time they sold it to a commercial buyer? MR. MANAREL: Well, that' s the. . . . MR. KELSEY: You are going to have to go a little bit slower because I am hard of hearing. MR. WEINHEIMER: The fact that this church is dormant for the entire period of time it has been owned by the Presbytery of Long Island, a religious organization. As such wouldn' t they be entitled to a full tax exemption until such time as they sold it either to another church or commercial business. MR. KELSEY: It will off the tax rolls until December when they get their first tax bill. Then if it is sold to another tax exempt religous organization, then it would go back to the exempt status. I will have to check with Real Property Tax whether we can do that automatically on the day of sale or do we have wait until the following year. MR. MANAREL: I think that is a question we can discuss without holding Mr. Lundstedt up any longer. Thank you very much, sir. Again you will hear from us within a month. MR. LUNDSTEDT: Thank you all for your time. MR. HEUSER: Thank you. Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 20 NO. 6 - RAYMOND A. AND HELEN G. REICHERT, 930 Jacobs Lane, Southold, New York GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: Full market value of property: $65,000. 00; Assessed valuation of property: $8, 500. 00 . ; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $500 . 00; Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $8, 000 .00. MR. MANAREL: Mr. Reichert? MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO MR. REICHERT. MR. MANAREL: We are all ears, Mr. Reichert. RAYMOND A. REICHERT: My sole problem is I believe my place is overevaluated, on the assessed valuation. Working it out from the figuring it out from the figures you give it comes to a figure that the house and land are not worth. My point is the assessed valuation should be reduced a bit to bring it into a more logical prospective. I've been through some of your books, and I have find some comparable property worth more than mine assessed for less. That is not the point. The point is mine. I really do feel based on what I paid for the place, I paid $54 ,000. 00 for the house and land and I built a porch costing $4,600. 00. The result is that the house and land cost me $59, 000. 00. When I work it out on your figures, I come with a figure way up near $75 ,000. 00 . To me that is overvaluation. I don' t believe property values have appreciated that much, I don' t think they will appreciate that much. Therefore, I feel my assessed valuation is high. MR. MANAREL: Let me see the card. They have the forms down there. Do you have two extensions or one extension? MR. REICHERT: One extension. MR. MANAREL: There is a 5 ' x 16 ' extension on there other than the new extension which is 14 ' x 16 ' according to. . . . MR. REICHERT: No, that is not on my house. MR. MANAREL: Mr. Moisa, can you lucidate on this? There are 2 extensions on the house MR. REICHAERT: There are not two extensions. I built the porch on the back. MR. MANAREL: I may be reading the card wrong. MR. MOISA: This 5 x 16 is your mud room in back of the garage. MR. REICHERT: That was in the house when we bought it. MR. MOISA: That' s right. It' s okay ' Towh of Southold Grievance Day - Page 21 MR. MOISA: That was the original assessment that was put on there. This new one way added on when this was put on in 1978. MR. REICHERT: All the houses of that comparable type have that room. MR. MOISA: That' s right. They are all assessed at that rate. It' s called a mud room. In other words you have a washer and dryer. MR. REICHERT: That' s right. I do not see how that enters into it. The Frame of the house was put around it. MR. MOISA: It is still part of the house. MR. REICHERT: How does it make it an extension? MR. MOISA: It is not an extension, it is just part of the orignal house. MR. MANAREL: Thank you Mr. Moisa. As I say I misread it because there is another extension up here. They were just putting in the parts of the house with the new extension being the 14 x 16. That is 224 square feet. That makes a total assessment of $6939 . MRS. SCHWICKER: He is using the equalization rate of 11 .19% which is wrong. MR. MANAREL: That is the right rate according to . . . .What are you using? MR. REICHERT: 11. 19%. MR. MANAREL: That is what you just said. 11. 19%. As long as we clear it up that is the important thing. 1972 was $700. 00 and added improvementz . . . MR. MARKEL: Did you get a Temik notification? MR. REICHERT: I got none on the recent survey. MR. MANAREL: What is the request? MR. REICHERT: You can remove the staples. I just said see the attached sheets. MR. MANAREL: This is supposed to be filled out, Pat? MRS. SCHWICKER: Yes, it sure is even though he has an explanation attached here evidently that he feels he could not fit in there. I still feel the information should be there. The value of the property, his insurance. MR. MANAREL: We' ll give Mr. Reichert time to do that. Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 22 MRS. SCHWICKER: Why don' t you take that and fill it - in. We need figures there. If you need this to go buy, take it. We need to have this information here filled out. We need to see what you want the property decreased to. MR. MANAREL: Do you understand, Mr. Reichert? MRS . SCHWICKER: We have to know Mr. Reichert, how much you feel your property is overassessed. What type of reduction you wish. MR. REICHERT: If you take it on the gross value, I would say it is overassessed by about $10,000.00 . MR. MANERAL: Mr. Reichert, our problem is this. We are bound by law to our scope of being able to work. We are told by the Real Property Tax people, who give us our information, that unless the form is filled out, we cannot act. We can only act on what is on the form. MR. REICHERT: Oh, I'm sorry. MR. MANAREL: That' s all right. I just wanted you to know where we stand. MR. REICHERT: I have nothing but compliments for you people. You run a good town. I like Southold. MRS. SCHWICKER: We need a figure to go by. What you want a reduction of. How much you want your assessed valuation reduced. Not dollars, assessed valuation. The Board helped Mr. Reichert fill out his application so they could act on it. MR. MARKEL: Mr. Richert, did you find any comparable properties in the books. MR. REICHERT: Yes, I did. I found a couple. MR. MARKEL: Do you want to give us these MR. REICHERT: No, I don' t think that is fair. They are assessed lower than I am. I feel that is their good fortune. I 'm tying to do this entirely on my own merits. MR. MANERAL: Are there any other questions. MR. REICHERT: No, it is just pure and simple to me. I work it out to $75,000. 00. I don' t think anyone would pay that for this house. My location is not comparable to some of the houses I found. MR. MANERAL: Thank you very much, Mr. Reichert. You will hear from us in about a month. Town of Southold 0 Grievance Day - Page 23 MR. REICHERT: You will notify me then? MR. MANAREL: Yes, we will. NO. 7 - HELENE J. SCHMIDT, P. O. Box K, Greenport, New York GROUNDS FOR THE COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: OVERVALUATION. Full market value : $9 ,000. 00; Assessed valuation of property: $2 ,000. 00; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $700 .00; Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to$1,300 . 00 . MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO MRS. SCHMIDT: MR. MANERAL: Will you tell us Mrs. Schmidt, what is on your mind? HELENE SCHMIDT: I asked my husband to fill in the form. About farms I know very little. I know we have all together about 32 acres of farmland in Orient. 6 or 7. 88 acres have been added. I do not remember the year. How many acres was that? ERICH SCHMIDT: Originally 7. 88 acres. MR. MANERAL: It will be on the tax card that we have here. MR. SCHMIDT: I have the tax card here. MRS. SCHMIDT: We were assessed at a higher value because the taxes have been based on the value of 6. 88 acres, but we have been paying taxes on 7 . 88 acres all along. MR. HEUSER: In other words you figure there is double taxation? MRS. SCHMIDT: No, we have added to the farm 7. 88 acres . At what time I do not remember. It was years back. Now, the roll of taxes claims that a mistake was made that we have been paying an additional on 6. 88 acres, while in reality it is 7. 88. MR. MARKEL: You were assessed for less then. MRS. SCHMIDT: Yes. But in reality we have been paying on 7. 88 acres. We have been paying the correct amount. MRS. SCHWICKER: Let' s see the card. MR. HEUSER: You have been paying on 7. 88 acres. MRS. SCHMIDT: Right. MR. HEUSER: Now this says by survey made May 9, 1980. Town of Southold 0 Grievance Day - Page 24 MR. SCHMIDT: They rechecked it this year. MR. MANAREL: It was surveyed in May of this year, according to this card. It shows 7. 88. MRS. SCHMIDT: That is correct. MR. SCHMIDT: That is what we have been paying on for the past 12 to 15 years . MRS. SCHMIDT: We have been paying for that all along. It was established that we have been paying on 7: 88 acres instead of on 6 acres. MR. MARKEL: These both show 7. 88 acres. MR. SCHMIDT: They found out that the original acres before 1980 6. 88. That is not true. MR. MARKEL: That is not on his bill. MR. SCHMIDT: It was not on any of the bills. I have them all . MRS . SCHMIDT: Right. It was established we have been paying the wrong acreage. In reality, we have been paying the right acres. MRS. SCHWICKER: Excuse me, Red. If Mr. Schmidt is going to testify and give an opinion, he has to be sworn in. MR. MANAREL: That' s right, I'm sorry. MRS . SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO E.RICH SCHMIDT. MRS. SCHMIDT: We have been paying khe correct amount all along. MR. SCHMIDT: We have always been paying on 7. 88. I was told by the assessors office they checked it this year and they found we had paid always for 6 . 88 acres, which is not correct. MR. MANAREL: I'm sorry, but I cannot read this. Now, you have 9,000. 00 here. You have assessed valuation of, what is this amount? MR. SCHMIDT: That should be. . . . MR. MARKEL: That is the same assessed valuation. The tax rate went up. The assessed valuation didn' t go up. Look, it was $1700.00 there, and it is $1700 here. MRS. SCHMIDT: That was not the reason the taxes went up? MR. MARKEL: The tax rate went up. The assessors did not change it. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Pag'1 25 the assessment. . MR. HEUSER: The tax rate went up. MRS . SCHMIDT: We were under the impression the assessed valuation was increased. MRS . SCHWICKER: You were not reassessed. Your tax rate went up like eveyone else' s. MRS. SCHMIDT: One problem solved. I 'm sorry. MR. SCHMIDT: I was confused. MR. MARKEL: That ' s all right. MR. HEUSER: No problem at all. That is what we are here for. MRS. SCHMIDT: The second problem is my son and friends. MR. HEUSER: Now, wait a minute, do you have another claim? MR. MARKEL: Here it is. MR. WEINHEIMER: Sam, a new application, they have to be sworn in again. MR. MANAREL: Wait a minute, every piece of property is a different case. LET THE RECORD SHOW THIS APPLICATION WAS WIDTHDRAWN. NO. 8 - Helene J. Schmidt, P. 0. Box k, Greenport, New York. GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: OVERVALUATION. Full market value of property: $ ,000 . 00 ; Assessed valuation of property: $1,000.00; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $500 . 00; Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $1, 000 . 00. MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO HELEN J. SCHMIDT AND ERICH SCHMIDT. MR. MARKEL: Let' s see what this says. Market value : $5,000 . 00; MR. HEUSER: Reducation asked for $500. 00 . It should be reduced to $1,000 . 00. The Board held a discussion concerning the application figures presented. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Pages 26 MR. MANERAL: This says it was raised from $1700 to $2,000.00 . MR. MARKEL: That is on the other one. MR. MANAREL: Wait a minute, I am getting confused. MR. HEUSER: There is another card. MR. MANAREL: This is the wrong one. This is the card for the 7. 88 acres. That has nothing to do with this. That is the one you withdrew. MR. SCHMIDT: I see now where it was raised from $1700 to $2,000 .00 . You said before it was not raised. MR. MARKEL: According to those tax bills, it wasn' t raised. MR. SCHMIDT: This was the notice I got. MR. MANAREL: Regardless of the notice. When you put down your money and it is the same amount, what do you care about a notice . MRS. SCHWICKER: Can I have the papers please, the application? MR. HEUSER: To number 8? MRS. SCHWICKER: Yes . I 'm going to read the applications from now on. Then everyone will understand what is going on. MR. MARKEL: Read them to us so we can all hear what is going on. MR. WEINHEIMER: It is very difficult being down this end. MR. HEUSER: No. 8 is the one that is up for debate now, isn' t it? MR. MANAREL: Yes , No. 8. MRS. SCHWICKER: Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt claim they have full market of the property of $5, 000. 00. and that they have an overvaluation of $500 . 00. They believe the assessment should be reduced to $1,000.00 . Now that is $ value, they are not putting the correct amount down. Understand. MR. MARKEL: They are using their tax figure rather than assessed valuation. MRS . SCHWICKER: They are using the money figure. They want $1,000 . 00 off on their taxes. You can' t use the money value. Assessed valuation is the amount that we want. She says an overvaluation of $500 .00 . So that is what we should take. MR. MARKEL: Okay. Towp of Southold . Grievance Day - Page 27 MRS. SCHWICKER: That is what we should take. That is what they are claiming for a reduction. They say it is presently $5,000 . 00 if I understand this correctly. Now, she has market value. MR. WEINHEIMER: It should be market value. MRS. SCHWICKER: Now wait a minute. $1500 is the total assessment, the total assessed valuation. You want a $500 . 00 reduction on that or a $1, 000 .00 reduction on that? She wants a $500. 00 reduction on her assessed valuation. MR. MARKEL: Which would bring it down to $1,000. 00. MRS . SCHWICKER: From $11,500. 00 . MR. MARKEL: What basis are they using? MRS . SCHWICKER: Overvaluation. MR. MARKEL: Vacant land? MR. SCHMIDT: Yes , just bare land. MR. MARKEL: How big is the parcel? MR. SCHMIDT: 7. 88 acres. MR. MANERAL: No, no, you are mixing the two up again. MRS . SCHWICKER: No, this is only 2 acres. MR. HEUSER: Pat, can I see the card on it? MR. SCHMIDT: Oh, you are talking about the other one. MRS . SCHWICKER: This is the second application. It is 2. 411 acres. MR. HEUSER: It was purchased for 16 ,712. 00 . MR. SCHMIDT: There used to be a building on it. We added this to the farm. MR. MARKEL: How large is the farm? MRS. SCHMIDT: You see actually it was purchased from my son' s friend. It was his property. He wanted to sell it. MR. MANERAL: You paid $16, 712. 00 . MRS. SCHMIDT: Yes, we overpaid, but he needed the money. They were a young couple. So my husband helped him out. He purchased it and added it to the farm. Town of Southold ' Grievance Day - J0 28 MR. MARKEL: When you added it to the farm. On the tax map it has a separate number. Did you get a separate bill for this? MR. SCHMIDT: Yes, I did. For farmland, this is too high. MR. HEUSER: From 1973 until up to now it has never been increased. MR. MARKEL: That doesn' t apply as farmland. MR. SCHMIDT: It is too high. They claim it is farmland and operating it as a farm. MR. MANAREL: Are you farming it? MRS . SCHMIDT: Yes. MR. MARKEL: Then it is no good. MR. MANAREL: Are you talking about this piece? MR. SCHMIDT: But it is added to a farm which is 30 acres. . MR. MANAREL: But it is a separate piece of property. You don' t have one piece of property. MR. HEUSER: You cannot add it together. MR. SCHMIDT: What can we do? MR. MARKEL: You have got to apply through the planning board. MR. SCHMIDT: The County recognizes this as farmland. MR. MARKEL: I agree with you, but you are getting two separate bills. MRS. SCHMIDT: I know, I know, you get two separate bills . MR. MARKEL: We can't do anything. MR. MANAREL: Let' s not come to any decisions, please. MR. SCHMIDT: Nobody pays for farmland MR. MANAREL: Are there any other questions? MR. HEUSER: Mrs. Schmidt, before you do leave. When you get this small type of acreage, you cannot classify it as farmland. You must get it consolidated with your other piece of property. Sell it to your husband or sell it to yourself. MR. MANAREL: When you go out, talk to one of the assessors. Ask them about it. Ask them what can be done about your problem. Town of Southold 40 ' Gribvance Day - Paf 29 MR. SCHMIDT: They promise me every year they will check it out. They say they will reassess it. MR. MANAREL: Mr. Moisa is out there in the lobby and he will help you. He will help you with your problem. In the mean time you will hear from us within a month. MR. 9 . - PHYLLIS E. HALE, 200 Village Lane, Orient, New York GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: INEQUALITY: Full market value of property: $150 ,000 . 00. Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $14 ,008. 00. OVERVALUATION: Full market value of property: $15 ,000. 00; Assessed valuation of property: $14,600 .00; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $592 .00 (assessed valuation) ; Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $14,008. 00 . MRS. SCHWICKER: Let me read this. WILLIAM H. PRICE, JR. : For the record I am William H. Price, Jr. , attorney, with offices at 828 Front Street, Greenport, New York, I represent Phyllis E. Hale. MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO WILLIAM H. PRICE, JR. MRS. SCHWICKER: Mr. Price, your application must be filled out. MR. PRICE: It is filled out. It should say see rider attached. There is the rider. MR. MANAREL: Do you want to present your case for the full board, Mr. Price? MR. PRICE: What this application is all about is that particular piece of property was approved as a minor subdivision by the Town of Southold on February 7, 1977. One of the conditions that the Planning Board put upon granting this minor subdivision is that a large portion of the property, 8%, be set aside for possible dedication to the Town of Southold for the proposed or possible east west road running the hamlet of Orient. My clients have lost the total beneficial use of that property. It cannot be conveyed. It cannot be used. The proposed road is not connected on either side of this property. It therefore seems unlikely that in the near future that the road will ever be constructed. In that the Town of Southold through its Planning Board required this to be done three years we feel that the assessment for the land should be reduced commensurably with the amount that will have to be dedicated to the Town of Southold in the future. I would like to emphasize the fact that this dedication at the moment would have no beneficial use to this property. They are deriving no benefits from said. MR. MANAREL: Excuse me. May I ask you a question at this point? You said the Planning Board requested this property? MR. PRICE: Required this property. Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 30 MR. MANAREL: Did they buy it? MR. PRICE: No. MR. MANERAL: It was set aside? MR. PRICE: It was set aside. MR. MANAREL: When it is set aside, it is owned by whom? MR. PRICE: We have the title for the fee. But we have no way to use the property for anything. MR. HEUSER: That is common practice. Now, may I also ask a question. What year was that set aside? MR. PRICE: 1977. MR. HEUSER: At which time you had an assessed valuation on land of $7,400. 00. MR. PRICE: That' s right, but that assessment. . . . that was for the total acreage at that time. If you will look at the tax. . . MR. HEUSER: What is the total acreage today, sir? MR. PRICE: The total acreage today that we own the fee to is 7. 378 acres. MR. HEUSER: That' s right. MR. PRICE: Now, this is, if I may, this particular piece of property which included in the 7. 378 acres cannot be used by my clients. They cannot sell it. They cannot do anything with it. MR. MARKEL: How big is it? MR. PRICE: It is 50 feet by 457. 24 feet. MR. MANAREL: Let me ask this question. I am a neophyte here, on this particular point. When there is a development that takes place and part of the Planning Commission says to a developer that if you develop this land you must leave so much room for a road. Is this the case? MR. PRICE: Not particularly in this instance . MR. MANAREL: Okay, that is what I wanted to know. MR. PRICE: This is what was required of the clients for access for ingress and egress. This 50 foot right of way running down the property to the Main Road. As you will note it runs all the way down through the subdivision itself. It has nothing to do with this par- ticular piece of property. This is this proposed road. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 31 MR. MARKEL: That is a state road, isn' t it? MR. PRICE: No, as far as we know, it is still for a Town road. In addition for the record my clients went along with this proposed dedication of the road because it was economically infeasible to contest it. MR. MARKEL: Who would have to put that road in? MR. PRICE: The Town of Southold. MR. HEUSER: When you purchase property out here as I did. My property line runs to the middle of the road. MR. PRICE: In a subdivision, sir? Yes. MR. HEUSER: Therefore I am paying taxes on that yet I cannot use it either. MR. PRICE: There is a difference here. In a subdivision they put in streets so you can have ingress and egress to and from the subdivision. MR. HEUSER: That' s right. MR. PRICE : That is why you have title half way out into the street. MR. HEUSER: That' s true. MR. PRICE: If the road has not been dedicated to the Town at that time. . . . MR. HEUSER: They have the 7 feet. MR. PRICE: You have the interest in there. If you have a property owners association or developer they control those particular roads. for ingress and egress. In this particular instance this dedicated portion has nothing to do with the ingress and egress of the subdivision. The only reason this was required to be set aside because the Planning Board thought in the future it would be nice to have another east-west road running through Orient. We don' t need the east west road. We have ingress and egress along this 50 foot right of way from the Main Road right into this minor subdivision. MR. MARKEL: Do you own the land on both sides of it? MR. PRICE : Phyllis Hale, my client, own this- property. Barbara Hughes her sister, owns this particular parcel. MR. MARKEL: Okay. MR. PRICE: That is why as far as my application stated I could not come up with a market value because the two sisters inherited the property. MR. MARKEL: Would you say that is about a half acre that was to , Town of Southold Grievance Day - PagF32 be dedicated? MR. PRICE: I would say it would be about that, yes. MR. HEUSER: 50 feet by what? MR. MARKEL: 457 feet. Approximately a half acre. MR. MANAREL: Are they selling any of these lots? MR. PRICE: Not to my knowledge. MR. HEUSER: The access road that we previously discussed, is that a dirt road or a paved road? MR. PRICE: I believe it is a dirt road. MR. MARKEL: That is the other one they have to dedicate. MR. MANAREL: This is a boundary line. MR. HEUSER: This is the one he is talking about. MR. PRICE: Did you hear me down at this end? MRS . SCHWICKER: Yes. MR. WEINHEIMER: Yes. MR. MANAREL: What I was getting at. This is not complete. We have got to have all this information filled out. MR. PRICE: Are there any further questions? MR. HEUSER: There will be in a minute. MR. MANAREL: You have to make a guesstimate, an evaluation, whatever. MISS CORNINE: That is not his application. MR. MANAREL: That' s not his. I have Helen S. Price. MISS CORNINE: You are ahead of yourself. MR. MANAREL: Hale. That is the one we want. MISS CORVINE: There you go. MR. MANAREL: It is okay that you want overvaluation. But you have got to come up with figures here . MR. PRICE: I have the rider attached. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Pago 33 MR. MANAREL: The rider will not mean a thing to us unless you put down in black and white what you want. That has got to be done. MR. MARKEL: On the other copy, not this copy. MR. MANAREL: Can we see the copy. . . . . . MR. MARKEL: He can go over here and take the time to fill out this application. MR. HEUSER: Even if you pull them out some place. MR. PRICE: What is the equalization rate? MRS. SCHWICKER: 11. 19% MR. PRICE: What was that again? MR. MANAREL: 11. 19% MR. WEINHEIMER: What is the equalization rate? 11. 71%? MR. MANAREL: 11.19%. MR. PRICE: Why don' t you take these folks and I will finish this. MANAREL: Take your time there. NO. 10 - HELEN S. PRICE, Box 528, Mattituck, New York. GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT ON ASSESSMENT: OVERVALUATION: Full market value of property: $45, 000 .00. Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $1,500 . 00 . MR. MANAREL: Mrs. Schwicker will swear you in. Then we will ask you to complete this form. MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO HELEN S. PRICE. MR. MANAREL: Would you fill this figure in. This is what this young man sitting at the table is doing. We must have figures here. MRS . PRICE: Now, I truthfully do not know what to put there. I would have no idea whatsoever. I did not look at the other records of the neighbors. MR. MANAREL: We are bound by what the law permits us to do. We cannot act on anything unless you ask us to. The only way we can do it is for you to complete this form because you have here it is over- valuation. So you must give us an idea of a value. You know what your house is insured for, don 't you. MRS. PRICE: Yes, I insured it for what I paid for it. Town of Southold ' 0 Grievance Day - Pag'� 34 MR. MANAREL: Okay, then that is what the market value is. Would you like a pen. MRS. PRICE: No . I have one - thank vou. MR. MARKEL HAD TO LEAVE THE HEARINGS AT 10: 40 A.M. THE BOARD TOOK. A BREAK-AT 10 :40 A.M. and returned and convened the hearings at 10: 50 P.M. with the following present: Samuel Manarel, Theodore Heuser, Patricia Schwicker and William Weinheimer. NO. 10 - HELEN S. PRICE Let the record show that after Mrs. Price reviewed her application with Mr. Kelsey, the Chairman of the Assessors that she wishes to withdraw her application. NO. 2 . - DOROTHY A. REIBLING MR. HEUSER: According to the assessors if they so wished she could be assessed back taxes for all those years, as she was not charged for this particular shed. Therefore, it is my recommendation that her claim be turned down. MR. MANAREL: Any other opinion? MR. WEINHEIMER: I'm not supposed to vote, but I have just one question before. Does she not state there that when she bought the house that shed was already attached to the property? MR. HEUSER: Doesn' t change it. MRS. SCHWICKER: Evidently, they missed it. MR. HEUSER: You know why it was missed, Bill? They never went down to Howard Terry and got a building permit for it. MR. WEINHEIMER: You don' t mean her, you mean the former owners . MR. HEUSER: The former owners. So she has not paid taxes on it. The fact they caught it now was because some neighbor informed them. MR. WEINHEIMER: Recently? MR. HEUSER: That is what he intimated to me. MISS CORNINE: They were down there assessing and saw it. Town of Southold Gribvance Day - 35� MR. HEUSER: That is what is was. You are correct. MR. WEINHEIMER: Ted, the reason I am personally acquainted is that MRS. Reibling, she doesn' t live in that particular place on the beach. She lives in Laughing Waters. Apparently within the last year she built a fence between her property and the man next door, which obscures his view of the water. So it is very possible he is the one that turned her in. MR. HEUSER: He' s the one who turned her in. MR. MANAREL: Nevertheless, since we are dealing with factual information, and the facts seem to substantiate the denial, are there any other questions? Let the record show that Mrs. Reibling' s request has been DENIED. MR. HEUSER: Now do you want to stop and go back and do number 1? MR. SCHWICKER: Robert Cummins. NO. 1 - ROBERT CUMMINS MR. SCHWICKER: He is the one who has the property at Peconic, which is subdivided. MR. HEUSER: The land was subdivided into half acres at $500 .00 . MR. WEINHEIMER: They are one acres now though. MRS . SCHWICKER: Yes , one acre. MR. HEUSER: I have half acres. MR. WEINHEIMER: He has all one acres. MRS. SCHWICKER: I asked him if they had been half acres and were increased to one acre. MR. HEUSER: Isn't this the fellow with 24 lots? MR. WEINHERIMER: Yes. MRS. SCHWICKER: Yes. MR. HEUSER: He has half acre lots throughout. MR. WEINHEIMER: He has one half acre to acre. MRS . SCHWICKER: They were rezoned. They were origihally one half Town of Southold . Grievance Day - Pa# 36 acres and they went to one acre lots. MR. WEINHEIMER: Right. MRS . SCHWICKER: They are priced at $500 . 00 . MR. MANAREL: Per acre. MRS. SCHWICKER: Per acre. MR. MANAREL: For undeveloped land. MR. HEUSER: Does that give him 24 lots? MRS. SCHWICKER: He has a parcel of land that consists of 4 acres that he is being charged $1500 for. So he is getting one acre free. It is supposed to be $500. 00 per acre. MR. MANAREL: Then the cards do not reflect the fact that the lots have gone to one acre. MR. HEUSER: Every one is a half acre. MR. MANAREL: Everyone of them shows approximately a half acre. MR. HEUSER: Some a little over. MISS CORNINE: Do you understand the cluster concept? This is developed under a cluster plan.' MR. MANAFEL: Yes, no. Tell us please. MISS CORNINE: When you do a cluster review houses are built on half acre parcels. The other half acre is left undeveloped. MRS. SCHWICKER: It is sold as acre lots. MR. HEUSER: All the ,cards we have show half acres. MISS CORNINE: That' s right. The other half acre is left in undeveloped land. MR. MANAERL: You buy lot 1 to build your house on lot 1, but no house is built on lot 2. MR. HEUSER: Let me get this clear in my mind. He says he has 13 acres and 24 lots. MR. MANAREL: And 13 acres. MR. HEUSER: No, on 13 acres. MR. MANAREL: No, and. There is 13 acres. There is half acre Town of Southold • • Grievance Day - Page 37 subdivision. There is farmland to subdivision. Also there is 13-1/2 acres set aside, undescribed he called it at $300 per acre. MR. WEINHEIMER: On the 13 acres set aside. Is that for development of the roads and parks? MR. MANAREL: Charles Who has Peconic? Why don' t you both come up. MR. WEINHEIMER: Indian Neck Lane and the Main Road. MR. MOISA: Oh, I have that. MR. MANAREL: Okay, we are a little confused on proper identi- fication more than anything else. MR. MOISA: R.E.C. Realty Corp? MR. MANAREL: Yes, we are a little confused on proper identi- fication. The cards state that there are 24 approximately 1/2 acre lots. MR. MOISA: That' s right. MR. MANAREL: Then there is a 13-1/2 undescribed parcel. MR. MOISA: Right. MR. MANAREL: There is confusion here as to whether he is assessed at $500 per half acre or $500 per acre. MR. MOISA: Here ' s your acreage here. Here' s the assessment against the acreage. The reason is that this is undescribed is because there is no number attached to any of these pieces. This land consists of land that is around the perimeter of this sub- division, along the Main Road, along the creek and then there is a piece along Spring Lane. MR. MANAREL: It' s a fence in other words. MR. MOISA: It is a buffer zone . So that is what is involved in the described area. Thes here are lots as they are designated on the map. This is a subdivision. I can bring you the map if you want if you want to look at it. Maybe I had better bring it. MR. HEUSER: That ' s okay. $500. 00 on the subidivision, $300 . 00 on the land. MR. MOISA: Some of this as I say along the creek. . . .Let me get the map, you can understand it better. MR. WATTS: He called me twice on that. He called Henry twice on that. I said it is a filed subdivision. Town of Southold . Grievance Day - PagV38 MR.MANAREL: His main complaint. . . . MR. HEUSER: He thought they should stay as farm land because they have not developed yet. He thought it should stay on farm land rate. MR. WATTS: That' s right, that is what his complaint is. It doesn' t. Any subdivision changes. As soon as it is subdivided, you can sell any parcel you want, where you could not before. MR. MANERAL: Would you mind explaining cluster subdivision again. MR. WATTS: ; On a cluser, take Pebble Beach Farms, for instance. Pebble Beach Farms is a cluster development, and as such you have to put so many acres of that parcel aside for recreation and what- ever. That will never be built upon. That way they get a cluster development. If it is approved, it has to be approved. MR. MANAREL: When you have a cluser development - This fellow got half acres. Under the Town zoning laws, it says you have to build on acres . MR. WATTS: Yes, but in a Cluster zoning the Planning Board will at times give them persmission as long as they set so many acres aside of that land. MR. MOISA: Here is the subdivision. Subdivision as per numbered here, that is what these half acre lots are - some are better than half acre. The other described as I said are on the outside perimeter of this subdivision. Some of that is along the creek and all, and that is involved in the 13-1/2 acres. MR. HEUSER: Right. MR. MOISA: Plus the road. Somebody has got to own the road. Until they turn it over to the Town they are going to be assessed for this road. MR. HEUSER: He has 13-1/2 acres here exclusive of the subdivision? MR. MOISA: Yes. MR. HEUSER: Where are those acres again? MR. MOISA: This, this, this . MR. WATTS: I was explaining to them on a subdivision, Henry, that on a cluster subdivision like this, so much of the land has to be set aside. That is the only basis on which they will give them the sub- division. MR. MOISA: Yes. MR. MANAREL: They only build on a half acre? - - -- Town of Southold Grievance Day - Pa• 39 MR. WATTS: Right. MR. WEINHEIMER: In addition to this reserved space, everyone of these houses is really on a one acre plot of land? MR. MOISA: If you take all of the land into consideration. That' s the theory of the thing, you see. MR. WEINHEIMER: You pay taxes on the whole acre though. MR. MOISA: No, they will have to pay their proportionate share of the undeveloped land. They will probably form an assocation or something. We have that same set up in Pebble Beach. Only there, they have about 100 acres that is set aside in addition to the lots . MR. HEUSER: How many square feet in an acre? MR. MOISA: 43,560 square feet. MR. HEUSER: Why are these lots only 25,000 square feet? That means they are half acre then. MR. MANAREL: The correct amount is on the card. What they are saying is that as long as there is an undeveloped area, the Town will give them permission under certain consideration to build houses on half acres. MR. WATTS: Right. MR. MOISA: They have given it already. See, this map has been signed by the Planning Board. Young, sealed. MR. WATTS: His argument on the phone to me was the land is the same as when he bought it. It is not the same now. MR. WEINHEIMER: If everyone took all the acreage of the reserve area plus what is in there, if you divide the number of units into that total acreage you come down to about an acre apiece, doesn' t it. MR. MOISA: Yes. There is a formula when I was on the Planning Board which went like: 80% of the property will go into lots; 20% is left in abeyance for roads, playground or recharge basins or whatever. So actually about 80% can have lots for homes. It may be little small, because maybe 20% is a little more. MR. HEUSER: Thank you, Henry. MR. MOISA: That is the concept of it. MR. WEINHEIMER: But he had no plans of going into that develop- ment. MR. MOISA: It' s approved. It is a development. Town of Southold . Grievance Day - Pag�40 MR. WEINHEIMER: I mean factually or actually. I asked him a question if he planned on develop it. He said no. MRS. SCHWICKER: He said he would eventually. MR. WATTS: But he can do it tomorrow. MR. MOISA: As long as he sold the lots along Indian Neck Lane, he could get Building Permit because they have an access to a public road. Otherwise, for the interior lots, he has to put the roads in. MR. WEINHEIMER: If you bought this land, what proportion of the undeveloped land would you have to add to your taxes. MR. MOISA: Whatever deal he makes with this property owner. They uisuall make deals„ as you know. Maybe he is going to pay 1/24th of the taxes, because there are 24 lots there. MR. HEUSER: I think this is farily taxed, don' t you Sam? MRS. SCHWICKER: Yes. MR. MANAREL: What is the opinion of the Board. MRS. SCHWICKER: There should be no change on this . MR. WEINHEIMER: What is the assessment? MR. HEUSER: $500 on the half acres, $300 on the farmland. MR. MANAREL: Thank you very much. Then the consensus of this Board is that the Cummins property, the property represented here, the R.E.C. Realty Co. shall be denied. Any questions? NO. 3 - The property of Murray. MR. MANAREL: Murray was the gentleman if you recall that pre- sented himself here where he subdivided a parcel of land he bought because there was a farmer's road in it. MRS. SCHWICKER: How many acres does he have there? MR. WEINHERIMER: Is he the one with the four lots with 40,000 square feet? MRS. SCHWICKER: Were there four? MR. MANAREL: I 'm trying to find that. MR. HEUSER: He had 3 lots assessed at $500 each and he thought that was too hight. Again, that is subdivision lots. Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Pa$P 41 MR. MANAREL: He has 3. 017 acres. NRS. SCHWICKER: It was three and not four. MR. HEUSER: No, three. MR,. WEINHEIMER: We were wrong then, Pat. MRS. SCHWICKER: Yes, we were. MR. HEUSER: He was assessed at $500 an acre. MR'. MANAREL: Yes. MRS. SCHWICKER: It was four before the split, that is what it was. MR'. MANAREL: 3. 66 . NIRS. SCHWICKER: There is a building on one of them. On 1.166 there is a building. MR'. HEUSER: That would be it then. MR'. WEINHEIMER: What is the standard charge, $500? MR. HEUSER: Right. MRS. SCHWICKER: So, he is not being overcharged. MR'. WEINHEIMER: That is the normal. MR'. HEUSER: Now, these are acres, by the way. He is only being charged $500. 00. The other fellow is being charged $500 for half acres. MRS . SCHWICKER: I can' t understand that. Why the difference? MR',. WEINHEIMER: He has to pay taxes on the other land. MRI. HEUSER: This gentleman also brought up Temik. MR. MANAREL: Temik. MR'S,. HEUSER: We asked him if he had a well. He said no, but his neighbor' s well was bad. That does not mean anything. MRS. SCHWICKER: Doesn' t mean a thing. MR. WEINHEIMER: Is this the gentleman with the long winded description who possibly had Temik in the ground? That elderly gentle- man. . Tows of Southold • • Grievance Day - Page 42 MR'. MANAREL: I asked him specifically if it had been tested, and he said no. MRS. SCHWICKER: I can' t believe that would effect him. MR. MANAREL: What he was trying to explain is that his house is on a hill, and he has a shallow well that probably the bottom of the shallow well does not go deep enough to pick the run off from the lots. I think that is what he was trying to say. We all have Temik. Since Union Carbide has come in and they will give you the purifier, I think the question of Temik then becomes academic. MRS. SCHWICKER: He insinuated that because there is farmland around', him, there is a possibility of Temik in his water.: I have farmland behind me, and there is no Temik in our water. There is no Temik in our neighborhood at all, and we have all been tested. MR,. MANAREL: I think it is probable, but we cannot decide on that. We have to decide on facts. What is the Board' s pleasure? MR'S SCHWICKER: If someone comes in with the exact same situation as that, Murine, he had a letter from the Board of Health right on his certificate of occupancy that the water was not suitable for a ,pregnant woman or small children. That is a valid reason. MR. WEINHEIMER: No water around here is suitable for a young child. MRS. SCHWICKER: Sure there is. MR'. MANAREL: Can we get to a decision on this? MRS. SCHWICKER: I don' t think it should be changed. I think he is being fairly assessed. MR,. WEINHEIMER: No, that is fair. MR. HEUSER: We all feel the same. MR. MANAREL: The Board decides that this shall be denied, and the assessment will remain the same. NO. 4 - Mattituck Presbyterian Church. MR. MANAREL: Now, we have a very difficult one of the Presby- terian Church. MR. WEINHEIMER: You know Sam, what we do on this one is going to set a precedent on all the other ones. MR. MANAREL: I don' t think so. We have an opinion from the Town Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Pag�43 Attorney, and Mel told me that he has checked with the Real Property Tax People in Riverhead. Now it is all spelled out it. The main reasonthat I suggested the man from the little theatre did not speak is because it has no relevance to our situation at all. I think he was called in to try and confuse us. The property is not being used for church purposes, and according to the Town Attorney, Mr. Tasker, when church owned property is not used for religious purposes, it should goes on the tax rolls regardless of who uses it or how they use the property. Whether they let the little theatre borrow it rent it. That has nothing to do with it. The question is: it' s church;' property. Is it being used for religious purposes. This is according to the interpretation of the Town Attorney. The answer is no. I't is not being used for church purposes; therefore, it should be on the tax rolls. I'm no expert in this area, but I have to go along with the attorney' s decision. MR. WEINHEIMER: What did you get from Ryan? MR. MANAREL: Not to me, but they did to Mel. MR. WEINHEIMER: An opinion over the telephone? MR. MANAREL: Apparently. But I would guess, that Mr. Tasker, who quotes the same law that Mr. Lundstedt did. Section 421 of the Real Property Law provides as follows: "§421. Non-profit organizations . 1. (a) Real property owned by a corporation or association organized or conducted exclusively for religous, charitable, hospital, educational moral or mental improvements of men, women or children or cemetery purposes, or for two or more such purposes and used exclusively for carrying out thereupon one or more of such purposes either by owning corporation or association or by another such corporation or associa- tion as hereinafter provided shall be exempt from taxation as provided in this section. Subsection 2 of Section 421 of the Real Property Tax Law provides in part as follows: 2 . If any portion of such real property is not so used exclusively to carry out thereupon one or more of such purposes but is leased or otherwise used for other pur- poses, such portion shall be subject to taxation and the remaining portion only shall be exempt. " MR. WEINHEIMER: Pretty clear. MR. MANAREL: It is pretty clear to me. MR. HEUSER: Except there is no income from that building. MR. MANAREL: It-ldoesn' t make any difference. MR. WEINHERIMER: It says leased or for any other purposes. MR. MANAREL: This parcel is leased or otherwise used for other purposes. MR. HEUSER: Or otherwise used. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page*4 MR. MANAREL: It does not qualify for a tax exemption pursuant to §421 of the Real Property Tax Law. With respect to. . . . MR. HEUSER: That is going to come up later. MR. W$INHEIMER: I am inclined to believe that these people are all going to get together and have a common cause case in the courts. MR. MANAREL: I think it should, but since we . . . . MR. WATTS: There is a call for you. MR. MANAREL: Pick up the telephone? There isn' t one here. MR. MANAREL LEFT THE DIAS TO TAKE A LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE CALL REGARDING A POSSIBLE APPLICATION BEING FILED WITH THE BOARD. MR. MANAREL; The phone conversation went along something like this. I 'm in New York, and I can 't get to the grievance. I don' t have a grievance form. I want to send you a telegram to protest my assessment. I am not quoting, I am paraphrasing. It doesn' t agree with all of the people around me. I told him I didn' t think we could accept it. I suggested that if he had an attorney out here and they got the grievance form to us by 9 o' clock tonight that we could accept it and look it over. No personal representation was necessary, as long as he got the form to us. We would be acting on it in a couple of weeks. I told him I was sorry there wasn' t anything else that I could do. He thanked me, and we con- cluded the conversation. MR. HEUSER: You don' t know what he is going to do then? MR. MANAREL: He thinks he is going to send the wire anyway. I told if he wanted to go abhead, not being an attorney I could not advise him of any form at all. I thought that was the way the pro- cedure would end up. If he doesn' t have a regular form, we can' t act on it. MR. WEINHEIMER: That was brought up at the meeting. MR. HEUSER: I was going to ask you this question too. If you set a precedent with him, you will have to set a precedent with everybody else. MR. WEINHEIMER: I think your suggestion that he contact a local attorney is the best advice. MR. MANAREL: I would suggest this. When we write to the attorney representing the Mattituck Presbyterian Church that we state the opinion given by the Town Attorney, and under those conditions the request is denied. MR. WEINHEIMER: Then they can appeal to the Court. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page MR. MANAREL: That' s right, they can always appeal to the Court. If the court adjudicates in their favor, we have a precedent for the future. As long as our Town Attorney issues a statement, I think it would be wise on our part to follow his advice. Then am I to under- stand that this Board is unanimous in denying the request following the advice of our Town Attorney. NO. 5. - PRESBYTERY OF LONG ISLAND OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. MR. MANAREL: This has to do with the request of the Presbyterian Church in Greenport. I should say the Presbyterian Church property since it is no longer a church, or serving as a church. The request was made by Mr. Lundstedt. The opinion of our Attorney-I .think it is covered in this letter by the fact that the property "if any portion of such real property is not so used exclusively to-.carry out there- upon one or more of such purposes but is leased or otherwise used for other purposes , such portion shall be subject to taxation and the re- maining portion shall be exempt. " As I understand that this building is not being used as a church. It is not being used as anything. MRS. SCHWICKER: That' s right. It is just vacant. MR. MANAREL: It is vacant. MRS. SCHWICKER: It has been for seven months. MR. MANAREL: The Town Attorney is making the same adjudication on this property as he is on the property in Mattituck. MRS. SCHWICKER: Except for one thing. He said he fails, the Church feels, it might stop the Greek church from going into contract if the property is now on the tax rolls. They may feel it might be difficult to get it off the tax rolls. They evidently do not know it is an automatic thing. MR. HEUSER: I was just going to add that to your statement. I think we clarified it with Mel and the lawyer that in the event they were to sell it, they could tell the new purchaser that it would be returned to a church status on the tax rolls immediately. MRS. SCHWICKER: If it is done before the lst. of December. If it is done after December of this year. Therefore, they will have to pay the taxes for one year if it is done after the first of December. MR. MANAREL: We also advised the attorney if I remember correctly that if there was any complication with the purchaser of that building that he could take the purchaser right to the assessors, who would guarantee at that point that the tax would not carry on as long as it was being used for church purposes . Towp of Southold Grievance Day - Page �6 MR'S. SCHWICKER: you could probably get it in writing. MR. WEINHEIMER: May I ask a question? The consensus of opinion is that as long as that church has not been sold and is not used specifically for religious purposes at the moment, until such time when it issold to another religious organization, the Presbytery of Long Island must pay the taxes. As soon as the title is transferred to this Greek 'church, they would immediately have this tax exempt status, right? MRS. SCHWICKER: Right. MR. MANAREL: They would immediately have a tax exempt status if it became before December 1st. If it is on the tax roll, they would have to apply for this status. MR. WEINHEIMER: They might be subject to the first year' s taxes though. MR. MANAREL: Partially. MRS. SCHWICKER: The same if you bought a house mid year. Mit. MANAREL: It stands to reason, and it was stated here at the time, ', I believe that this piece of property could also be sold to a profit making organization. MR. WEINHEIMER: What is the assessed valuation of that property? Mkt. MANAREL: It is quite high. MRS. SCHWICKER: Here it is. MR. WEINHEIMER: How many dollars are we talking about? MRS. SCHWICKER: Here it is. $24,900 is the total assessed valuation. Mid. MANAREL: I have it differently on the card. MRS. SCHWICKER: No, 500 for the land and building, 24,500 . MR. MANAREL: I have a total on this card of 24, 423. 00 . MR. HEUSER: That is just the building. MRS. SCHWICKER: Then how did I get the $24, 900? MR. MANAREL: I 'm looking for total. MR. SCHWICKER: I have a total of $24, 900 on this. MR. MANAREL: $24,900 is correct, I 'm sorry. I stand corrected. MRS. SCHWICKER: $500 for the land. Town of Southold 0 Gribvance Day - Page*7 MR. MANAREL: I was looking at the wrong total. MR. WEINHEIMER: That is over $5,000.00 a year in taxes. MR. MANAREL: Yes. NR. WEINHEIMER: That is a pretty penny. MR. HEUSER: Put back on tax roll as;.)per advice of Real Property and Town Attorney. MR. MANAREL: Right. MRS. SCHWICKER: My comments on it were - They do not have a contract signed, even at this stage of the game. They do not have a contract signed, yet they want the property taken off the tax rolls .' I don' t believe it should be done until they have—if they gp into contract with the promise of closing before December lst. , 'then fine. MR. WEINHEIMER: Suppose you don' t have the closing before December lst. MRS . SCHWICKER: If they don' t have the closing before December lst. , they will have a partial payment. MR. MANAREL: Am I right in assuming that this Board would handle No. 5 the same way they handled the church property in Mattituck? MRS. SCHWICKER: Right, no change. MR. WEINHEIMER: Right. MR. MANAREL: There will be no change; therefore, it is denied following the advice of Town Counsel. MR. HEUSER: Would you care to make a comment that I made here. The tax could be adjusted if church premises were sold or transferred before' 12/1/80. MR. MANAREL: I don't think that falls in our purview. MR. HEUSER: Okay. NG. 6 - RAYMOND A. and HELEN G. REICHERT. MR',. MANAREL: He is the gentleman that had to go over his form because it wasn' t completely filled out. He made his statement and his form its here. He said he had no other statement to make and no one had any more questions to ask of him. MR. HEUSER: Did we make a decision on this? Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page418 MR. MANAREL: No, we didn' t. We' ll go to that form now. MRS . SCHWICKER: Just a second. Okay, as far as I can see. He had ani addition and then a sale. Right? It sold for $11,500 . Then they had an addition on there. Then a resale. MR. MANAREL: There is an improvement here. A $600 improvement here. This is 1978 in $600-improvement. That is from $7900 to $8500. MR'. HEUSER: He added to it there. MR. MANAREL: It sold for $58,000 . 00 to him. MR. HEUSER: It is assessed for $8500 . 00. They admit $65,000 .00 . If we use the factor that he uses, we come up with $68 ,000. 00. MR. MANAREL: What Mr. Heuser is saying here in the figures is that the full market of Mr. Reichert' s place is $65,000.00. The property is assessed at $8,500. 00 . Using the computation that the Town assessors use, the property. . . . MRS. SCHWICKER: What is the purchase price of the property? MR,. MANAREL: The proerty would come out to $58,000. 00 . Therefore, using Mr. Reichert' s figures, the property is under assessed rather than over assessed. The property was purchased for $54, 000 .00 and $4,660 coming up to a total of $58, 660. 00 on April 21, 1978 and it was a cash transaction. Using the figures there the Town assessors have assessed the property $660 less than the purchase price. MR. HEUSER: If you multiply this out, we come up with $68, 000.00 . We are using one-eighth, roughly right now. MR. MANAREL: Therefore, the property is assessed less than. . . . . MR. HEUSER: It is assessed for $68, 000. 00 . MR,. MANAREL: No, it is assessed at. . . . . MRCS. SCHWICKER: No, $68,000 is what he is assessed for. MR',. MANAREL: He is assessed at $8,500. 00 . MR,. HEUSER: But to blow it up to the value you have got to use the factor of 8 and multiply it. MR. MANAREL: That' s right. MR'. HEUSER: So he is underassessed. MR',. MANAREL: That is what I said. We are all agreeing. MR. HEUSER: Oh, I though you said he was over assessed. Town of Southold Grievance Day Page 41P MR. MANAREL: No, he is underassessed. If I said overassessed, it was a 'mistake. MR. HEUSER: 8 time $8500 is $68, 000. 00. That is his base assess- ment value. He is only worth $59, 000 . 00 . MRS. SCHWICKER: He is overassessed by his own market value which he claims is $58, 000. 00. He paid $58, 000 . 00 . He' s being assessed for $68, 000 . 00. MR. HEUSER: That' s right. I agree with you. MRS . SCHWICKER: Overassessed. MR. HEUSER: I don't like that factor. MRS. , SCHWICKER: No. MRS. SCHWICKER: I don' t understand how you can jump from 4 to 8 in two years. MR. WEINHEIMER: Wait a minute. If he paid $58, 000 .00 in 1978. There is no reason why the property is not valued at $65, 000.00 with a 10% ',inflation rate a year. Anybody' s value is going up every year. This calls for the current market value. Not the value he paid for house. We are not assessing people on the current market value are we? MR. HEUSER: YOu are assessing them on the 1965 costs . MRS. SCHWICKER: It is supposed to be the 1965 building costs. MR. HEUSER: Plus the factor. MRS. SCHWICKER: Then that should be 4 instead of 8. MR. HEUSER: That is the factor. That is what I say. MRS. SCHWICKER: It should be what we have been doing every year for the past 5 years, using 4 instead of 8. MR. HEUSER: I agree with you. MRS. SCHWICKER: He is doing it on almost a 100% value. MR. HEUSER: Right. MR'S. SCHWICKER: That is how come I said in two years it has increased from 4 to 8 percent. The Board proceeded to hold a discussion off the record. MR. HEUSER: I am talking about this. Towp of Southold Grievance Day - Page�0 MR',. HEUSER: I 'm talking about this. Concrete. Full basement. Wood shingles - wood shingles - fireplace - fireplace. Gable type roof. iThat doesn' t make any difference. Baths, two . Baths, one. Oak flloors - oak floors. Wall board - sheetrock. Heat, they both have baseboard heat. MR. MARKEL: That is a pretty good comparison. MR'. HEUSER: 6948 - 6939 - MR,. MARKEL: That is pretty good. MIS_S _ CORNINE: Can I have the name of the that you just used as a comparison. MR',. MARKEL: Richard Whitney. MR;. MARKEL: Didn ' t I pick a good one. MR. HEUSER: They are exactly the same. MR. MANAREL: What I want to know is the living area space the same. MR'. HEUSER: 6939 - 6948 MR'. WEINHEIMER: The living space area will be a different line. MR'. MARKEL: It is practically the same. MR',. HEUSER: They all lined up. MR'. WEINHEIMER: They are all on one acres. MR. MANAREL: Some of them are changed. MR'. HEUSER: Now this house is not comparable. It only has 4800 square feet in it. MR',. MARKEL: Well, okay. And it has a separate building in the back. MR'. HEUSER: It has a $3. 25 rate because it has not fireplace.• MR. MARKEL: It doesn't say garage on this? MR',. HEUSER: Baseboard hot water heat. MR'. MARKEL: There is a garage. MR'. WEINHEIMER: There it is over there. MR'. MARKEL: Okay. Towji of Southold Grievalnce Day - Page 51 Mit. HEUSER: He has his rate reduced by 25 cents because he has no fireplace. MR. MARKEL: Yes. MR. HEUSER: No argument at al. . MR. MANAREL: Then Ladies and Gentlemen. MRS. SCHWICKER: No change. MR. MANAREL: There will be no change due to the fact that we pulled comparable properties. MR. HEUSER: Now, wait a minute. Who was it again? MRS. SCBRICKER: Richard Whitney and Glassick? MR. MANAREL: Similar places. MR. HEUSER: Same base. MR. MARKEL: Practically the sante. MR. HEUSER: I don' t think he has any complaints. Do you think so? Do we have to put the machine on now? MISS CORNINE: The machine is on. MR. MANAREL: The machine is one. Therefore, the request of a change of assessed valuation for Raymond A. and Helen G. Reichert is hereby denied. Any questions? MR. MARKS: My questions have all been answered. NO. 7 - WITHDRAWN NO. 8 - HELENE J. SCHMIDT. MR. NIANAREL: No. 8 is the property of Helene J. Schmidt. MR. HEUSER: She couldn' t get that rate because there wasn 't enough acreage for farmland. MR. MARKEL: It is not a farm rate. MR. MANAREL: 2. 411 acres. She applied on the basis that they want it assessed on the same basis as f arms . are assessed. She says she doesn 't have the minimum of 10 acres. We cannot change the Town of Southold Grievance Day - Pag*2 assessment. MR. MANAREL: It should also be noted that it was recommended to Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt that they go to the assessors to see if they could consolidate the two pieces of property that they own so they could come up with better than 10 acres of land. Thereby, they could possibly justifying qualifying for the farm rate. MR. WEINHEIMER: What is the farm rate? $300. 00 per acre? MR. MARKEL: Right. MR. MANAREL: It is $250 . 00 if it is farmed and $300 if it is not farmed. MRS. SCHWICKER: $300 . 00 if it is just vacant property. MR. MANAREL: If it is not farmed it is $300 an acre. If it is farmed it is $250. 00 MR. WEINHEIMER: And if it is undeveloped? MR. MANAREL: That is something else. I 'm not sure about that. MRS. SCHWICKER: If it is undeveloped and a subdivision it is $500. 00. MR. WEINHEIMER: She has 2 . 4 acres and she is assessed for $1500. MR. HEUSER: Right. MR. WEINHEIMER: At $600 it would make $1500 . MR. HEUSER: That' s right. MR. MANAREL: But she is not farmland. We were talking farmland. MR. WEINHEIMER: That is the consensus on that, no? MR. MANAREL: The consensus was no because she did not have the necessary acreage. MR. MARKEL: She did not meet the criteria. NO. 9 - PHYLLIS E. HALE. MR. MANAREL: I will turn these over to our accountant here. MRS. SCHWICKER: This was the right of way. MR. HEUSER: His main complaint was on the right-of-way. Town of Southold Grievance Day - PageR3 MR. MARKEL: On the half acre that the Planning Board said had to be set aside for the possibility of a road. MR. MANAREL: That' s correct. MRS. SCHWICKER: 50 foot. MR. MARKEL: I think we ought to have a legal opinion on that. MR. HEUSER: He contended that was dedicated to the Town, but she doesn' t want to pay taxes on it. MR. MARKEL: It hasn' t been deeded over to the Town yet. She- still owns it. My own particular feeling is that is no different than the church property that is owned by an exempt organization and not being used for religious purposes and there still have to be taxes on it. If she doesn' t want to pay taxes on it, why doesn' t she deed it over to the Town? MRS. SCHWICKER: It is the same thing you run into with the water line thing on shore front property. On waterfront property where they have lost so much property because of erosion and everything else. They don' t want to deed that property over to the Town, and say okay you can have because if it ever changes and they gain that property back, they want to be able to own it. MR. MANAREL: Is this waterfront property? MR. MARKEL: No, this is a little bit different. MRS. SCHWICKER: They want to be able to own it. MR. MARKEL: This a little bit different. MRS. SCHWICKER: How is this different? MR. MARKEL: The Town has said you must do this . They won' t accept the deed to it. MR. MANAREL: Who says the Town won't accept the deed? MRS. SCHWICKER: Was it offered to them? MR. MANAREL: Where do we have proof that the Town won't accept the deed? MR. MARKEL: I have heard of a lot of cases. MR. 14ANAREL: I know, but we cannot go by hearsay here. Let' s find out. Who would know? Who in the Town would know if the Town has refused to accept the deed? MR. MANAREL: That must be the building division. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 54 MR. MARKEL: That would be the Planning Board. MR. MANAREL: (Reading from the Planning Board Minutes) "Said road reserved for possible future dedication to the Town. " It doesn' t say that the Town requested it. This sounds here as though these people decided on their own that this is going to be given to the Town at a later date. MR. HEUSER: It is still their property. MR. MANAREL: It is still their property. MR. MARKEL: It may sound like that, but I have attended many Planning Board meetings. MR. WEINHEIMER: Can they make that type of provisions? MR. MARKEL: That provision is made all of the time, subject to the adjoining properties getting the same kind of commitment. When they get them all together, they it is deeded to the Town. Let' s get Mr. Kelsey. MR. KELSEY ENTERS THE ROOM. MR. MANAREL: Our question here Mel is this road. Let me turn this around so you can see it better. This road according to the Hales has been for all intensive purposes condemned by the Town for future use. It has not as yet been deeded over to the Town. They want it taken off the tax rolls. MR. MARKEL: Can they build on it? MR. MELSEY: No. MR. MARKEL: They can' t do anything specifically with that property? This is if they want to live up to the agreement they made with the Planning Board, right? This is when they went for a minor subdivision. MR. KELSEY: Well, they still own it and it is taxable land. If it is worthless to them, let it go for taxes. MR. HEUSER: But it part of their property. MR. KELSEY: That is their property. I don' t make the laws. MR. HEUSER: Can you let part of some property go for taxes and retain the remainder? MR. KELSEY: No. MR. HEUSER: You can' t do that? MR. MARKEL: You would lose all the property if you don' t pay the taxes. Town of Southold Grievance Day Page*5 MR. MANAREL: What I would like to do with this is as long as long as the girl from the Planning Board went home sick and we cannot get any information from the office today, is to hold this over until we make our final determination on all the rest. MR. MARKEL: I know you are familiar with this Mel, so am I. In the days of John Wickham, when he was on the Planning Board, they decided in the event these lands were going to be subdivided in the future, they wanted another road plus the North Road going east and west. So what they said to all these people in similar situations, and I attended several meetings like that. In order for us to grant you the right to subdivide, we want you to place in escrow this piece of land which cannot be developed until such time that we get the adjoining pieces and that road will go in. At that time I think it will be dedicated. Now, that would not necessarily mean they would have to put that road in. They have to maintain this road. MR. MANAREL: This piece of property is odd shaped. MR. MARKEL: That might benefit from it. MR. MANAREL: Then when this road goes in this piece of property will probably double in value. MR. MARKEL: Possibly. MR. MANAREL: Then why dhouldn' t they being paying for it now. They are going to take advantage of that road when it becomes a road. MR. MARKEL: Yes, but they are still being forced into a situation. MR. MANAREL: They probably aren' t being forced. There are no condemnation proceedings going on. MRS. SCHWICKER: They agreed to it in order to have a subdivision, didn' t they? MR. MARKEL: Excuse me. MRS. SCHWICKER: They agreed to it in order to have a subdivision. MR. MARKEL: Yes. That was the only way they could get it. MRS. SCHWICKER: But they knew they would have to pay taxes on ` that property at that time. When they agreed to it. They knew the conditions ahead of time. MR. MARKEL: I think we should get a legal opinion on it. MR. WEINHEIMER: Do you think the Planning Board minutes would indicate that they were aware of their responsibility for paying taxes on it? MR. MANAREL: Let the minutes show that we have tabled this matter Towjn of Southold 0 Grievance Day - Page 56 for the next time that we meet when we can obtain more background information as to the agreements reached at that time. MRS. SCHWICKER: Is there any way we can find out today if that was in the Planning Board minutes. MISS CORNINE: You can get a copy of the minutes from the Town Clerk. All the original minutes are filed in the Town Clerk' s office. The Board held an extensive discussion off the record. MR. MANAREL: After much deliberation and reseach of the Planning Board minutes and maps, the Board has decided that the property still belongs to the complainant, Phyllis E. Hale. It has not been deeded over to the Town nor can we find any restrictions on the use of that property by Phyllis E. Hale. Therefore, a request for a reduction has been denied. MR. HEUSER: Just do rile one favor. Leave that map out for when Henry Raynor calls, I can talk to him. NO. 10 - HELEN S. PRICE. MR. MANAREL: Helen S. Price withdrew her application after consulation with one of the assessors. 12: 20 P.M. The Board of Assessment Review went to lunch. 1: 10 P.M. The Board of Assessement Review reconvened with a full Board present. MR. MANAREL: We are now dealing with No. 11. From now on we will read the mail into the record. NO. 11. J. W. MORRIS, 2760 Yennecott Drive, Southold, New York, The form is incomplete, and therefore, we can not act. NO. 12. - JOSEPH T. MACARI and HERBERT INGBER, c/o Santemma, Costigan and Murphy, P.C. , 114 Old Country Road, Mineola, New York 11501. The Form is incomplete; therefore we cannot act. - Litigation. NO. 13. - joseph t. macari and HERBERT INGBER, c/o Santemma, Costigan and Murphy, P.C. , 114 Old Country Road, Mineola, New York 11501. The form is incomplete; therefore, we cannot act. Litigation. Towp of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 57 NO. 14 - JAMES W. B. BENKARD and MARGARET W. S. BENKARD, (NO #) Private Road, Fishers Island, New York 06390 This application is under litigation; therefore, we cannot act. NO. 15 - GRENVILLE T. EMMET III and PATRICIA B. EMMET, P. 0. Box 131, Fishers Island, New York 06390 . This application is under litigation; therefore we cannot act. NO. 16 - GRENVILLE T. EMMET III and PATRICIA B. EMMET, P . 0. Box 131, Fishers Island, New )York 06390 . This application is under litigation; therefore we cannot act. NO. 17A- WESTBURY EQUIPMENT CO. , INC. , 31 Tennyson Avenue, Westbury, New York 11590 . This application is under litigation; therefore we cannot act. NO. 17B- WESTBURY EQUIPMENT CO. , INC. , 31 Tennyson Avenue, Westbury, New York 11590. This application is under litigation; therefore we cannot act. N0. 18A-WESTBURY EQUIPMENT CO. , INC. , 31 Tennyson Avenue, Westbury, New York 11590. This application is under litigation; therefore we cannot act. NO. 18B-WESTBURY EQUIPMENT CO. , INC. , 31 Tennyson Avenue, Westbury, New York 11590. This application is under litigation; therefore we cannot act. NO. 19 - JOESPH FREDERICK GAZZA, Gardiners Lane, Hampton Bays, New York 11946. MR. MANAREL: East Marion. This is the land-locked parcel. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page*8 MR. HEUSER: Yes, I don' t understand that. They say land- locked. No access. He has 2 acres in one place and. . . MR. MARKEL: Landlocked means no access. MR. HEUSER: I know that, but why would he buy property? MR. MANAREL: What we have to check is this. Maybe they had access, and a storm closed up the acess and now it is landlocked. Mel, maybe you can help us. MR. KELSEY ENTERS THE ROOM. MR. MANAREL: Lanlocked. Dam Pond, East Marion. Now, is that one of these situations where there was an inlet to a pond and then it closed up, and now he is landlocked. 'Is that what he is talking about. I can' t make that quite clear. MR. KELSEY: Do you have the card? MR. MANAREL: Here is the card. MR. HEUSER: The other Gazza is the same thing. MR. KELSEY: I would imagine this involves some sort of right- of-way. I would have to check on the map. MR. HEUSER: He is claiming it on two pieces of property, Mel. MR. KELSEY: Yes, there are two parcels worth $8, 000. 00 . Let me check with Jack Sherwood on these. MR. MANAREL: We will by on No. 19 and No. 20 and come back to them. NO. 21 - ARTHUR and ANDREA TILLMAN, RD #1, Box 139B, Mattituck, New York. MR. HEUSER: On this one, there is a possibility there ' is litigation. Do you remember them, Pat? MRS. SCHWICKER: Yes. MR. HEUSER: It hasn' t been changed since 1978. He got a reduction of $600. 00. The reason he got it was upstairs was not completed, but the assessors walked by and saw curtains in the windows ,and assumed upstairs was finished. MRS. SCHWICKER: It was two years ago. Town of Southold . Grievance Day - Page 59 MR. HEUSER: Now it is litigation so we cannot act on it. NO. 19 - GAZZA MR. MANAREL: The land has gone from farmland to idle land and therefore has been changed from $250 to $300 which is in keeping with the regulations of the Town of Southold. The change is denied. NO. 20 . Joseph Frederick Gazza, Gardiners Lane, Hampton Bays, New York 11946. MR. MANAREL: This property is probably like No. 19. It looks like they have the same complaints as in the other application. The land went from farm land to idle land so the assessment was changed which is in keeping with the regulations of the Town of Southold. The change is denied. NO. 22 - PARTRICK F. GORMAN, Box 196, RD #1, Depot Lane, Cutchogue, New York. MR. MANAREL: His form is not filled out properly and the only reason he wants a reduction is because it is illegally assessed, which is incorrect, because it has Temik. The Board cannot act on this one. MR. MARKEL: We have no jurisdiction over Temik. NO. 23 - EYLENE H. KING, Box 63, Rocky Point Road, East Marion, New York 11939. This application is under litigation; therefore, we cannot act. MR. KELSEY: Mr;\. Chairman, this is a photographer from Suffolk Life and he would like to take your picture. MR. MANAREL: We are at your pleasure. MEL, before you go, I think these two are in litigation if I am not mistaken. MRS. SCHWICKER: What numbers are those? 23 and 24? MR. WEINHEIMER: We are doing No. 23 now, aren't we? MR. HEUSER: Who is that now? MISS CORNINE: No. 23 is in litigation, I think. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page 60 MR. MANAREL: That is right, 23 is in litigation. Thank you, sir. REPORTER: I have to get all the names, now. NO. 24 - JON HARVEY KLASFELD, 690 Golden Harbour Drive, Boca Raton, Florida 33432 MR. MANAREL: Overvaluation. It is farmland. The full market value is $110, 000 . 00. May I have the opinion of the Board. MR. HEUSER: It can stay where it is now. MRS. SCHWICKER: I agree. MR. MANAREL: Any questions? MR. MARKEL: Does he have to file, is that a rule? MR. HEUSER: Under the agricultural program, he did not file for 1980-81 so they put the value back. MISS CORNINE: You have to file for that exemption before -ffay 30th of each year. MR. MANAREL: Therefore, the request has been denied. NO. 25 - DONALD G. KING, Rocky Point Road, East Marion, New York 11939. This application is under litigation; therefore, we cannot act. NO. 26 - GEORGE J. W. HUSING, 2 Barteau Avenue, Blue Point, New York 11715. MR. MANAREL: This property is located in Laurel. Part farm. Assessed valuation appearing on assessment roll is $6200 . I don' t have a card for this one. This form is not filled out correctly; therefore, the Board cannot act. NO. 27 - FRANK, LEONARD L. & OTHERS, 358B Mid-Island Shopping Plaza, Hicksville, New York 11802 MR. MANAREL: The claim here is inequality. The full market value of the property is $4,000. 00. He used the State equalization rate of 11.19% and he thinks his property' s assessment should be re- duced to $400. Town of Southold 0 Grievance Day - Page 61 MR. HEUSER: May I interject? MR. MANAREL: Please do. MR. HEUSER: 1965 was the last time he was assessed. That was for $1200 and it stayed that way ever since. MR. MARKEL: How much property? MR. HEUSER: 1/3 of an acre to answer your question, Sam. MR. MANAREL: See what we are coming up against is that every year they change this equalization rate. They change the full value and ask for a reduction. MR. HEUSER: The deed was made out in 1969 for $4,000 .00. The total land value was never changed. MR. MANAREL: He has 140 feet on the bay, and 140 feet on the road, and the proerty is 140 feet deep. MRS. SCHWICKER: This is wetlands. MR. MANAREL: property is within Tidal Wetlands pursuant to action of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Land use regulations on Tidal Wetlands, pursuant to Environmental Conservation Law restrict use and development of proerty and reduce market value. MRS. SCHWICKER: Buyer beware. MR. MARKEL: He claims it is wetlands. MR. MANAREL: The assessed valuation has not changed since 1965. MR. HEUSER: You see what happened in 1965 that new wetlands thing went in. MRS. SCHWICKER: No change. MR. WEINHEIMER: No change. MR. MANAREL: Sam, you feel the same way? MR. HEUSER: No change. MR. MARKEL: I don' t think I can make a decision on that one without more information. MR. HEUSER: Are any of the assessors there? MR. MARKEL: This fellow says it is wetlands. Have the assessors in the past. . . . Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page b2 MR. WEINHEIMER: Where is the property located? MR. HEUSER: Bay Shore Road in Greenport. MRS. SCHWICKER: We don't rule on wetlands. MR. 14ARKEL: Then he doesn' t have a valid complaint. MRS. SCHWICKER: Buyer beware. MR. HEUSER: To quote Mabel Lytle. MRS. SCHWICKER: That' s right. wetlands we cannot do anything about the wetlands. We' ve been going through this for 5 years. MR. MARKEL: Well, I am new so I have to learn. MR. HEUSER: That' s right. You are entitled. MR. MANAREL: Mel, we have a question here. This person claims that his property in part is assessed illegally because it comes under the heading of New York State Environmental Conservation. The law restricts use and development of property and it reduces market value. MR. MARKEL: In your opinion, is that a buildable lot? MR. KELSEY: I would have to go back and look on the maps . MR. MARKEL: Well, it is a third of an acre. ; 100 feet on the waterfrontl; 100 feet on the road; and 145 feet deep. MR. KELSEY: Well, it is probably a buildable lot, but in that area, there is a lot of clay and you cannot use it for drainage pur- poses, cesspools. Am I correct in that? There are a couple of other ones like that: Mid-Island Shopping Center and Greenport Shores has the same problem down there. MR. HEUSER: Greenport Shores is mentioned here. MR. KELSEY: Greenport Shores is adjacent to this on the west. I think you have a grievance form from Greenport Shores also. I am going to have Jack Sherwood explain it to you because he drew the map. Let me go and get him. MR. MANAREL: Fine, go and get him. MR. MARKEL: I know these areas pretty well. Let' s go to No. 2.8 while we are waiting for Jack Sherwood. NO. 28 - MID-ISLAND SHOPPING PLAZA CO. , 358B Mid-Island Shopping Plaza, Hicksville , New York 11802 MR. MANAREL: They are claiming inequality. They would like. . . Town of Southold • • Grievance Day - Page 63 Theysay the full market value of their property is $54 ,000 .00 using the State Equalization Rate of 11.19%, Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $550. 00 . MR. HEUSER: They have been paying or been assessed for $9600 since 1960. ' MR. MANAREL: They also claim it is illegally assessed. Property is within the Tidal Wetlands pursuant to action of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) . Land use regulations of Tidal Wetlands,etc. MR. SHERWOOD: Please, you honor, I didn' t do it. I plead for mercy. MR. HEUSER: All right. MR. MANAREL: Do you know everybody here, Jack? MR. SHERWOOD: Yes. MR. MANAREL: Okay, fine. NO. 27 - FRANK, LEONARD & OTHERS, contd. MR. MANAREL: We have been requested by this Complainant and the Mid-Island Shopping Plaza Co. , to reduce the market value $4, 000 and the complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $400 . Part of the claim is based on the claim that they think it is illegally assessed to' begin with due to the Tidal Wetlands. MR. SHERWOOD: I will give you the background of this whole thing. This whole property was orignally known as the "clay banks" . When they bought, I don' t know if they knew there was clay under there or not, but there is 30 to 40 feet of clay there. They bought this in the boom, right after the war. They built maybe 6 or 7 little houses and could not get cesspools in. They used to run the sewage out into the bay. That is trivia, but a fact. Then maybe they built another 4 or 5 houses along the bay. Now those cesspools will not drain at all. It is like being in an iron pit. So they have to have them pumped out about every 3 weeks. The rest of the land they have, they have just about abandoned. They bought this in the early 1950 ' s . Some of this land is still laid out in lots and the rest of it. . . . . Now. they were going to put in their own sewer plant in there. They were going to sewer this particular development. It would have cost them a lot of money and they would have had to form a sewer district. One thing led to another, so they never did anything. They just really walked away and left it and haven' t done a thing with it since. My own personal opinion is they are using it as a tax write off as far as their business is concerned. MR. MARKEL: Jack, they didn ' t buy this land after the wetlands Towp of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 64 act? They bought it before? MR. SHERWOOD: They bought it 30 years ago. Now, DEC comes into the act. Tidal Wetlands, Environmental Conservation and all that. They grab hold to that as an excuse for saying for it not being buildable. It hasn' t been buildable since they bought it. It is not any recent thing. MR. MARKEL: Okay. MR. KELSEY: The last time we were down there was 1977. MR. SHERWOOD: Now, they have what they feel is a valid excuse, because DEC says you cannot build on it. Now DEC is not worried about the sewage disposal. They only worry that part of it is wetlands. MR. HEUSER: Is clay wetlands? MR. SHERWOOD: No. That is where the tide rises and fall. Spartina and all. MR. HEUSER: So you are talking about two different governmental agencies. MR. SHERWOOD: The Health Department would not let them build down there because they cannot dispose of the sewage . MR. MARKEL: They would not let them build before the wetlands? MR. SHERWOOD: No. Whether they knew that was all clay when they bought it, I can presume that they did. MR MARKEL: That was ridiculous. MR. SHERWOOD: Sure it was. You can go down there to walk on the beach and it is so slippery you cannot stand up. I don' t know what you want to do about it. In all probability even if they could build on it because of the clay, some of it the DEC would not let them build on. MR. MANAREL: Has that been taken into consideration? MR. HEUSER: It hasn' t been touched since 1965. MR. SHERWOOD: That is a minimum. What we have on those lots. See, some of this is still in lots. 5o foot lots. We have a minimal assessment on them. We are bending over backwards for them and they are now complaining about the other two described pieces which are partly wetlands and partly low. Some maybe could be developed. MR. HEUSER: 14 . 65. Here it is. It is wetlands out to the west of it. As long as they bought them under the same category. He has not been increased since 1960. Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 65 MR. MANAREL: That is No. 28. MR. HEUSER: That is the preceding one. MR. MANAREL: They are the same owners. Any other questions we would like to ask these gentlemen? Thanks very much. MR. KELSEY: I told you. He' s a walking atlas. MR. MANAREL: No. 27 and No. 28 are the sante thing. They are apparently from the same owners. But we are dealing with them separately. NO. 27. LEONARD L. FRANK & others. MR. MANAREL: What is the pleasure of the Board on this? MR. MARKEL: Deny. MR. HEUSER: Deny. MR. WEINHEIMER: Deny. MRS. SCHWICKER: Deny. MR. MANAREL: No. 27 shall be denied since the property has not been reassessed since 1965. NO. 28 - MID-ISLAND SHOPPING PLAZA CO. MR. MARKEL: Deny. MR. MANAREL: The property has not been reassessed since 1960. The same conditions exist as previously expressed in application No. 27. It is the veiw of the Board that this shall also be denied. NO. 29 - GREENPORT SHORES, INC. , 358B Mid-Island Shopping Plaza, Hicksville, New York 11802. MRS. SCHWICKER: When was that assessed last? MR. MANAREL: May, 1960. Is this part of the same. MR. HEUSER: They are involved in it. MR. MARKEL: Same deal. Tower of Southold • • Grievance Day - Page 66 MR. MANAREL: Their reasons are exactly the same. They want to go from $7,500. 00 to $750. 00 . That is $7, 500.00 for full market value, and they want to be assessed at $750.00 . They are using the DEC umbrella. MR. HEUSER: Now, Sam, now that you are conversant with this . Is this Greenport Shores property adjacent to the rest of this? MR. MARKEL: Yes, that's right. MR. MANAREL: It is all part of the same thing. Franklin L. Frank is making the request again under a different name. Therefore am I right in assuming that the Board denies this one also for the same reasons? MR. HEUSER: Right. MR. MARKEL: Yes. NO. 31 NO. 30 - LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY, 250 Old Country Road, Mineola, New York 11501. MR. MANAREL: They are using a wrong figure. They are using 11. 70%. Exclusive of land. They purchased the property for $577,516. 00. There is no mortgage apparently on the property. They say the full market value is $362, 638. 00. Using the State equalization rate which seems to vary slightly on every application the complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $42, 429 (exclusive of land) and $45,629 (Including Land) . MR. HEUSER: May I interject, Sam. I think I can be helpful on this particular matter. MR. MANAREL: I 'm confused on this one. MR. HEUSER: They are very complicated by the way. MR. MARKEL: In 1966 theis property was rezones to business property. MRS. SCHWICKER: Rezoned for what? MR. MARKEL: Business property. Actually in 1967 it went down $3,400. 00. In 1976 which was 11 years later it went up to $49,500 and then in 1978 it went to $64, 500 because of improvements . MR. HEUSER: What went up the building or the property? MR. MARKEL: Wait a minute. The land actually went down. The building went up which is understandable. MR. HEUSER: Because of Improvements? Town of Southold 1 • Grievance Day - Pago 67 MR. HEUSER: Where is that on the north road in Peconic, Sam? MR. MARKEL: On middle road? A DISCUSSION OF THE BOARD WAS HELD OFF THE RECORD. MR. MARKEL: The land is $48, 000.00. The improvements are $3200. There are no pictures. We don' t know the square footage or anything else. MR. WEINHEIMER: Doesn' t the card show how they compute it? MR. MARKEL: They do, but they don't. They don' t tell you the square footage there. MR. MANAREL: I have a good suggestion. It that card shows they are being assessed at how much? MR. MARKEL: On the land only they are being assessed at $3200 . MR. MANAREL: Theyare asking to be assessed at $42, 429 and I think they ought to grant it. MR. MARKEL: I don' t think there is any objection. MR. HEUSER: This is the building? MR. MANAREL: I was just figuring their land. MR. HEUSER: Their building is $61 ,300 . MR. WEINHEIMER: This is about $3200. MR. MARKEL: We have no figures on the square footage for the building. MR. HEUSER: What about the improvements? MR. WEINHEIMER: They want to reduce this to what? Down to $42, 429. MR. HEUSER: I 'm not trying to drag this out, but they were raised $15,000 this year. You and I don' t know why? MR. WEINHEIMER: In 1978 theyv/were reassessed. MR. MARKEL: What is the ratio for the rate in percentages? MR. HEUSER: No, it went from $50, 000 to $65,000 . MR. WEINHEIMER: About 15% based on a $1, 900 alteration. That is 50%. MR. MANAREL: They are coming in with another .card in a minute Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Pa9#68 if you want to hold that and ask them about it. We wil hold No. 30. We will just put everything on hold. THE BOARD ADJOURNED AT 3: 50 P.M. FOR DINNER. 7:07 P.M. Mr. Manarel, the Chairman called the meeting to order and the full Board was present. MR. KELSEY: I don' t understand why LILCO filed a grievance, because they tell us what they are going to be assessed. We do not interefere with their figures. I don' t know what to tell you. I will take that up with Tom Ryan. This is the first time this has ever happened and I have been on the Board since 1973. MR. HEUSER: I never saw one before. MR. KELSEY: They are grieving about their own figures. They give us the breakdown of the figures. We spread the assessment over all of the areas. The larger areas get more and the smaller areas less. MR. MANAREL: Then we could say in reality that this Board cannot act on this application, because as we understand it Long Island Lighting Company sets it own assessment rate. Therefore,_ we feel they have grieved on their own figures. We suggest that they use a different vehicle to satisfy their own requests. MR. MARKEL: Maybe they have to go through this . Maybe they made an error and they have to go through this. MR. KELSEY: I would check with Tom Ryan just to make sure. As I say I have never seen one before. MR. HEUSER: I have never seen one before either. I never knew that condition existed. MR. MANAREL: I suggest we break for dinner, come this evening, and in the meantime it will give me an opportunity to check with Tom Ryan and find out what the story is and I will report back this afternoon. NO. 63 - ST. PETER'S LUTHERAN CHURCH, 68465 Main Road, Greenport, New York 11944; George C. Stankevich, Esq. , representing the church. Let the record show that Mr. Stankevich has brought with him a Court Reporter who sits next to him in the audience. MR. MANAREL: That form is not filled out. Town of Southold • • Grievance Day - Page 69 MR. HEUSER: Is there a reason down there? MISS CORNINE: What about all this over here? They don' t have to do this? MR. MANAREL: Apparently not if they consider this. That is right. It is not a question of assessment. It is a question of an exempt property. MR. HEUSER: Mr. Chairman, May I at this point say I must remove myself from the Board since I am a member of Pastor Coleman' s church. MR. MANAREL: Okay, fine. You have signed the withdrawal which will be kept with the records. MR. HEUSER: Yes, I have signed it- MR. MANAREL: Any other questions? GEORGE C. STANKEVICH: Good evening, I am George Stankevich. MRS. SCHWICKER: Would you take an oath for me, please? MR. STANKEVICH: No, I 'm an attorney, I am just speaking. MRS. SCHWICKER: Anyone who submits information must be sworn in. MR. STANKEVICH: I know that. MR. MANAREL: Would you mind taking the oath? MR. STANKEVICH: Because I am an attorney, and the information is going to be submitted by the Pastor of my document. I am not a witness . I just want to introduce myself. I am the attorney for St. Peter' s Lutheran Church. What we would like to do is just lay out briefly our position and then I would ask Pastor Coleman to supply the evidence. And we have documents we will have marked in evidence so you can under- stand the basis for the application. The first application will deal with parcel 1000-0045-0002-0010. 1. This is vacant land at the northeast corner of Chapel Lane and Main Road, Southold, New York. Application was filed to obtain an exemption and continue the existing exemption on that property. It was rejected by the Assessors and grievance was filed today, and I wish to speak to that point. The land that we know is owned by St. Peter' s Lutheran Church, and it is acquired and being held for the purpose of constructing , MR. MANAREL: I 'm going to interrupt you at this point. If you are going to proceed along that line, we want to swear you in. MRS. SCHWICKER: You have to take this oath. Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Page 70 MR. MANAREL: Otherwise, we will not listen to you. MRS. SCHWICKER: You are giving information here. MR. STANKEVICH: No, this is an opening statement. MR. MANAREL; If you would not mind, please. We have had attorneys here before. MR. STANKEVICH: Fine. (Mr. Stankevich raised his right hand. ) MRS. SCHWICKER: Do you solemnly swear that the information you give herein will be given accurately and truthfully to the best of your ability. MR. STANKEVICH: I do. MR. MANAREL: Thank you. MR. STANEVICH: That all applies to what I have said already. The land was acquired for the purpose and is being held for the purpose of building San Simeon on it. That is to be a rest home complex for the elderly. The present owners of that land is St. Peter' s Lutheran Church, a Religious Corporation. The ultimate developer and owner of that land, when it is developed, will be a non-profit corporation The question I think that has arisen in this case arises out of lack of information and the limited nature of the legal opinion that was given to the Assessors regarding the treatment of the particular par- - cel of property. What I am referring to is an opinion that was rendered by the Town Attorney June 22, 1979, which I will ask to be marked in evidence as our Exhibit 1. A copy of which will be furnished to you. (The copy of the letter was marked as Exhibit A by the Court Stenographer. ) And the opinion was addressed to Mr. Kelsey by the Town Attorney con- cerning various exempt parcels owned by religious corporations. In the opinion the Town Attorney indicates that the basic section of the New York State Real Property Tax Law covering situations like this is Section 421, and he is correct in stating that that section provides that if land and used by a religious corporation for that purpose it is exempt. However, in his opinion he states at page 3 "As to the fourth parcel, namely the 39.5 acre parcel at the corner of Chapel Lane and Route 25 owned by St. Peter' s Lutheran Church, since the property is vacant and is not in fact being used for a senior citizen housing facility, I do not believe that it qualifies at this time for an exemp- tion. " In that regard he is totally in error. The cause of his error is that he did not go on and cite to Mr. Kelsey, Section 421, subdivi- sion 3. Because that section says as follows: "Such real property from which no revenue is derived shall be exempt though not in actual use therefor by reason of the absence of suitable buildings or improvements thereon if, (a) the construction of such buildings or improvements is in progress or is in good faith contemplated by such corporation or association. " Then there is a subdivision (b) that doesn't apply. So Town of Southold Grievance Day - Pag#71 what the Town Attorney did not tell the Assessor is that even though the property is vacant if it is held by a- religious corporation or non-profit corporation and that corporation is in the progress or in good faith contemplates such use, then it can still remain exempt. The second sentence of page 3 of the Town Attorney is also in error. He states, "In addition, to the best of my knowledge, there is no proof that the St. Peter' s Lutheran Church under its charter is per- mitted to engage in activities other than religious activities. " I think he is reaching rather far into a field he knows nothing about. Because he does not know anything about the charter of St. Peter' s Lutheran Church and if he did he would not have made this statement. I suggest. . .why is he reaching so far, we will get to that later. But the fact is we have here the By-laws and Constitution and it does provide for that church as part of its charge take care of the elderly, succor to the needs of the community. So, there is no merit to that type of statement. At this time I would like to call Pastor Coleman as a witness, and have him sworn so he can give testimony to you as to the contemplated use of that property and exactly what is in progress . If anything, because you have a right to know that. You should know that. Pastor Coleman. MR. MANAREL: You can stand anywhere you want. MRS. SCHWICKER: Do you solemnly swear that the information that you give herein will be given accurately and truthfully to the best of your ability. PASTOR WILLIAM A COLEMAN: Yes, I do. MR. STANKEVICH: Now, Pastor Coleman, could you tell the Board your relationship to St. Peter' s Lutheran Church. PASTOR COLEMAN: I am the Pastor of the parish and the spiritual and papal head of the parish. MR. STANKEVICH: In that capacity are you familiar with the use to which the subject land is now put and the intended use? MR. COLEMAN: Yes. MR. STANKEVICH: And could you tell us what San Simeon is? PASTOR COLEMAN: A number of years ago the parish received a bequest from an individual in the community who was not a member of the parish, and at that time the congregation had a big decision to make, to use the money it received for its own personal interest or to try to use that seed money that would benefit the larger community. And a study committee was appointed to see what the needs of the community and the church were and in talking to local pastors, we found that one of the problems in the community is that there was a lack of senior citi- zen housing in the community that was made up of a large number of re- tired people. It was the decision of the congregation really to allocate this money to purchase property adjacent to the church to develope a senior citizen housing complex for the residents of Southold Town. This Town of Southold • Grievance Day - Pag�72 was begun in 1975 and upon celebrating a Eucharist at the Eastern Suffolk Nursing Home two years later in 1977, Mr. Frank Salamone, the owner of that facility said to me, knowing what your project is , would you like to buy this facility? After having gone through zone changes and through numerous Planning Board sessions and expending architectual fees to the amount of $40, 000.00 on the property, we put he housing on the back burner temporarily to expend all of our efforts to obtain the Eastern Suffolk Nursing Home. Seeing this would be a very unique pro- ject under not-for-profit auspices of four levels of care for the elderly that I think is unique in New York State. We would have con- tiguous and under one sponsor a skilled nursing facility, a health related facility an adult home and cottage living units. As you I think are aware after two and a half years of dealing with state officials and with County officials, we obtained the Eastern Suffolk Nursing Home and opened it as San Simeon by the Sound, phase 3 and 4 on the lst. of September. So I think we have demonstrat6d to the community our sincere intention to follow the mandate of the parish to develope levels of care for the elderly in our community. MR. STANKEVICH: Just to clarify that. When ;did the. . .possibly what year did the church acquire the property? PASTOR COLEMAN: 1975. MR. STANKEVICH: And the decision was made prior at that time to devote the property to San Simeon senior care and housing? Then zoning applications were made to the Town? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes. MR. STANKEVICH: How long did they take? Approximately in years. PASTOR COLEMAN: A year and a half. MR. STANKEVICH: Approvals were obtained from the Town of Southold? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes. MR. STANKEVICH: And architectual services were retained? PASTOR COLEMAN: Were retained and are still being retained. I think the last bill that we paid the architect was just about a month and a half ago. MR. STANKEVICH: And as the project developed the opportunity occurred to also acquire the existing nursing home to the north? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes. ment? MR. STANKEVICH: And it has been acquired under a lease arrange- PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes, it has. y Town of Southold Grievance bay - Pagel# MR. STANKEVICH: And the church is at the present time continuing with the planning and investigating financing for the financing of the construction stage of the San Simeon? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes. MR. STANKEVICH: And I hand you these documents. Are they a list of the expenditures with cancelled checks underneath for most of them that the church has expended showing the progress and showing also its contemplated use? This is not merely a figment of someone's imagination but they put big bucks into a development and it is on going. Can you read the expenses and the dates? Start at the top. PASTOR COLEMAN: 1974: 9/16/74 Rod Van Tuyl, zone change $150 . 00; 9/18/74 Irving Price, zone change; 10/15/74 Austin Burt, back and drain- age $50. 00; 11/7/74 Agway, seed; Agway 12/3/74 seed; 12/24/74 Briarcliffe Landscaping - seeding; 1/16/75 Roderick Van Tuyl, survey; 8/18/75 -soil mechanic drilling; drilling of bore holes; 9/15/75 Koch Johnson Associa- tion, Associates, Phase A-zoning board; 10/28/75 - There is a dollar figure to all of these $14, 280 . 25 Koch Johnston - phase A Zone Board. ; 11/20/75 Roderick Van Tuyl - area calculation $48.00; 11/25/74 Koch Johnston Associates, phase A Zone Board; 12/15/75 Roderick Van Tuyl revision of map $40 . 00; 12/15-31/75 Koch Johnston Associates, phase A Zone Board $5, 184. 00 ; 2/25/76 Koch Johnston - phase A Zoning Board $3,675 .50; 3/4/76 variance from Town $30 .00; 11/30/ Koch Johnston - phase A. Zoning Board $5,277. 03; 5/19/77 Ed's Landscaping - seeding $500; 4/15/80 Koch Johnston -plan $278.50. MR. STANKEVICH: Now I would like this marked as a unit. We will provide you with a copy. MR. MANAREL: I think that is unnecessary. You can do as you like, but. . . MR. STANKEVICH: I don't think it is. With litigation and suits I want to make sure these documents have been presented to you. . . . MR. MANAREL: Fine. MR. STANKEVICH: Not that your attorney probably won't want to look at them. MR. MANAREL: As you wish. It is perfectly all right with us . (The list of bills that Pastor Coleman read was marked as an Exhibit by the Court Stenographer) . STENOGRAPHER: Where do you want me to stamp this? MR. STANKEVICH: Just stamp it right on the back. Now Pastor I have handed you a document. What is that document? PASTOR COLEMAN: It is the constitution and by-laws of the parish. Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page* MR. STANKEVICH: Photocopy of one page of it? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes, an original document. MR. STANKEVICH: Could you read the part that says Section 7? PASTOR COLEMAN: This addresses itself to the purpose of the congregation. Under Section 7 - Social Ministry: The purpose of the social ministry committee shall be to extend christian compassion and helpfulness to the ill, the aged, the orphan, the underprivileged, the imprisoned, in general to persons of all ages in need of aid in body or soul. It shall strive to enlist in these efforts as many possible of the individual members and organizations of the congregation. This committee shall further have a duty to study social conditions , primarily in the local community in order to bring the cleansing and giving light of christian love to bear upon critical problems to christian discussion of facts and issues. MR. STANKEVICH: Now when that constitution says "that the purpose of the committee shall be to extend christian compassion and helpful- ness to persons of all ages in need of aid in body and soul, does that include providing nursing home care and the like. PASTOR COLEMAN: I think if you check back in the history of all the nursing homes in this country you will find that began by christian institutions sponsoring them. And many christian nursing homes today once began as orphanages. I would dare say the orphans of our times are not those under the age of two, but those over the age of 80 . MR. STANKEVICH: And is it sir correct to state that St. Peter's Lutheran Church at this time is in the progress and in fact in good faith contemplating the completion of San Simeon? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes. MR. STANKEVICH: An the ultimate developer of San Simeon will be a not-for-profit corporation? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes. MR. MANAREL: Can you give us an approximate date when you expect to get that completed? PASTOR COLEMAN: NO. MR. STANKEVICH: Why? You should ask why, and I think you are entitled to an answer. The reason simply is it took over a year and a half to get it through your own Planning Board. And there are multi- levels of approval to be obtained for such type of institution. You have got not only to get it through the Planning Board, you have got to get it through County authorities, State authorities if you give such care. After you get all of that done you have got to get it through your bank. You cannot really go to the bank until put in pieces. Just look back in our mere history in the last six months Town of Southold Grievance Day - Page* what has happened in lending. You can never tell. MR. MANAREL: Well, I asked the question because I have had some- thing to do with building state buildings and regardless of how long it takes you do have a projected date you are shooting at. I was just wondering if that is what you had. PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes. MR. STANKEVICH: I think they have already over-extended their projected date. They will move ahead as fast as they possibly can under the complexities, and it is a complex project. May I ask you sir how many units will ultimately go there. PASTOR COLEMAN: 150 cottage units; and a domiciliary area of the adult home of 84 . MR. STANKEVICH: How does that compare in size with anything like it that exists on Long Island? PASTOR COLEMAN: There is nothing like it on Long Island. MR. STANKEVICH: So? PASTOR COLEMAN: One of the problems we have because this is really the first of its kind of complex in New York State that we know where four levels of care are contiguous to one another in one complex. We are really blazing a trail. But I think St. Peter' s Church shows its good intention not only in the purchase of the property, but also what it has been able to do in terms of obtaining the nursing home, and the nursing home was obtained for the primary purpose of offering people who come to the cottages that security to know when they are no longer able to take care of themselves that we have another facility to which they can go. MR. STANKEVICH: Now, I think I should in good faith draw to your attention that when the Town Attorney wrote this letter presented as Exhibit 1 on June 22 , 1979, it was sent naturally to the Assessors and a copy to the Supervisor. And the Supervisor at that time, our be- loved Albert Martocchia, who is no longer with us , but he was an Assessor and he knew about such things. And he made the notation in the lower right hand corner "I have read this , but I don' t agree. I have another question. Obviously that year nothing was done. This year something was done. The exemption was denied. And we think wrongfully because of lack of information. To cap our presentation there are many many cases on this. You do not have to take my word, you should not. You should ask for assistance. MR. MANAREL: You can be sure of that. MR. STANKEVICH: But just to read some of the synpses of these cases. Cases that are contained in McKinneys. The first one is .9 of Section 421. "Vacant lots acquired by a missionary board for the pur- pose of erecting thereon purely for missionary purposes, which erection Town of Southold Grievance Day - Pagett has been temporarily delayed but which is in good faith contemplated and from which no income has been derived by the realtor, meaning the owner, are exempt from taxation Board of Foreign Missions v. Board of Assessors 244 NY 2d. 42 (1926) . MR. WEINHEIMER: Do you have a page on that? MR. STANKEVICH: Page 126 of McKinneys. Thereafter there are at least 20 cases given this and the Courts rule continually up. You as assessors, or you as members of the Board of Review have got to look at all of this, and make a judgment. If it was just hot air oh, we are going to do something, we have been tlaking like this for 20 years, and haven' t spent a nickel on it, that is one thing. But here you have got proof positive that large sums of money have been paid for the on going planning process, really large sums of money by anybody' s stan- dards. Over $50, 000 . 00. And certainly a very large commitment in acquiring the nursing home as the keystone for the entire project. It is a million dollar obligation. I do not think any reasonable person and I don' t think you will quibble that there is real progress here and in fact there is good intent. We leave it in your hands. PASTOR COLEMAN: I would just like to say too, it shows St. Peter' s good faith, first of all St. Peter' s church, I think you should know this, does not engage in any fund raising activity from the community for the church. It does not rent its facilities, it does not run chicken barbecues, it does not run clambakes, it does not run yard sales or expect the community to pay for the support of the church. It runs a German Festival, it runs an Octoberfest, Harvest Festival and every penny from every German Festival and every Harvest Festival has been deferred to the project that will benefit the whole community. MR. STANKEVICH: That is San Simeon? PASTOR COLEMAN: That' s right. I have been keeping track over the last number of years on other churches that rent their facilities and list in their annual reports,, which I get a copy of, as rent. I sit on the hospital board and am concerned about the hospital appealing to the Town for tax relief on a business they operate for revenue pro- ducing purposes. They have an Opportunity Shop which is a store, and have received tax relief for that part of the business. We have never quibbled about paying taxes on St. Peter's garage. Can you tell me if there is a difference between that and the Opportunity Shop? I didn' t force the lease situation on the nursing home. We bought the lease hold interest. We are paying something like $55,000 dollars a year in taxes to take care of 22 Lutherans and the rest of the people from each and every parish in this community. 150 all together. MR. STANKEVICH: What Pastor is saying is that transaction on the nursing home could be structured in a fashion where this Town would not get $55 ,000. 00 in taxes. PASTOR COLEMAN: And with the way we have been treated I am now going to pursue that. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Grievance Day - Page 77 MR. MARKEL: Would you give me an example of another church in Town where the Pastor would get copies of all these reports. MR. STANKEVICH: I think I would ask him not to get involved in other church' s business. If you just look around you will find out. I think. Let me leave it at this. I think you ought to think about how did it come about and why? It sticks out like a sore thumb. I don' t mind saying so because I know it was built on quicksand. It could not be more obvious than the books and the cases and proof. But it gives you some type of insight into what motivates certain people, personalities, politics. Whatever it is. Al Martocchia was a good supervisor. PASTOR COLEMAN: Fair man. MR. STAN=- CH: He knew he could not go along and advised against it. Dig into the background as to why somebody would do something so blatant. I think you would get a very interesting educa- tion. We rest. MR. MANAREL: Are there any questions? MR. MARKEL: I would just like to point out although Al Mar- tocchia was a good supervisor and fair man and everything else I don't think you can prejudge Billy Pell in this case. MR. STANKEVICH: Oh no. MR. MARKEL: As being a part of this situation. MR. STANKEVICH: No. PASTOR COLEMAN: Not at all. MR. STANKEVICH: He has not been involved in any way, sense or form. MR. MANAREL: May, I interrupt here. May I say that we leave the personalities out. The politics out. I think we are sitting here as a Board of Assessment Review to be of help to anyone in the community. You presented your case. I want to know if there is anyone on the Board who has any further questions of the group. If not, we will take everything you said. We have it on the machine here. MR. WEINHEIMER: I have a question. What is the financial require- ment for people to gain admission to the retirment community. PASTOR COLEMAN: We haven' t gotten that far yet.. MR. WEINHEIMER: Will there be a financial requirement? PASTOR COLEMAN: Yes there will be. We ' re talking about something that is structured in other places called a "life tenancy" . TOWN OF SOUTHOLD j Grievance Day - Page4 off into a non-profit corporation. PASTOR COLEMAN: The corporation that runs the nursing home is non-profit. What we actually did was to buy Mr. Salamone' s right- his lease hold interest. In that contract there is the opportunity to buy at any time at a certain price depending upon the year. At the end of the lease hold to buy at a fixed price. MR. MANAREL: What we are saying in effect is that the nursing home is owned by an individual or corporation. PASTOR COLEMAN: It is owned by , a not-for-profit corporation. MR. STANKEVICH: The land is still owned by an individual. It is not tax exempt. MR. MANAREL; Correct. PASTOR COLEMAN: But we pay the taxes and we are assessed for that by our Landlord every month. He does not pay that. MR. MANAREL: I would guess that. MR. STANKEVICH: I think one other item we should have marked as Exhibit 3 would be these plans for San Simeon by the Sound. PASTOR COLEMAN: They are on file in the Building Inspector' s office. MR. MANAREL: We can find them. MR. STANKEVICH: Again, it doesn' t weigh very much. PASTOR COLEMAN: The Planning Board' s approval for site plan. MR. STANKEVICH: Can you mark that? MR. MARKEL: What is the title on that, George? MR. STANKEVICH: "Site Plan Retirement Complex, San Simeon by the Sound, a Retirement Community drawn by Koch Johnston Associates, Inc. interior design and Planning. " Okay? MR. MANAREL: Anything else? Pat? MRS. SCHWICKER: No. MR. MANAREL: Thank you very much for your presentation. We will try to study the case as best we can, know how, render a decision and let you know in approximately one month. MR. STANKEVICH: We have another one, but I would just like to take a break and make one phone call. You can take somebody else. I will TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Grievance Day - Pageq*l MR. MARKEL: Yes, there are five all together. MRS. SCHWICKER: We have a problem. MR. MANAREL: What is the problem? MR. HEUSER: Are you representing someone, Bill? MR. SCHRIEVER: Yes, I am representing. . . . MR. HEUSER: Clifford Van Cleef. MR. SCHRIEVER: I am representing four people besides myself. There are five applications there. You will have 4 more when he gets in there. MRS. SCHWICKER: He still has a problem. He has to fill in the full market value and he has to state what he wants it reduced to. MR. MANAREL: Why don' t you swear Mr. Van Cleef in, then we can. . The form is not filled out correctly. If you would like to come up. MR. SCHRIEVER: I'm Bill Schriever, . I 'm representing Van Cleef. MR. MANAREL: Mr. Schriever, would you step over here and be sworn in, please. NO. 66 - MR. AND MRS. CLIFFORD J. VAN CLEEF, Main Road, Box 111, Orient, New York 11957. Applicant believes the assessment should be reduced to $60 . 00. He has no market value filled in. Under Part III of the form the applicant has checked that the paroperty is specialized and complainant is prepared to submit detailed facts con- cerning the property. MRS. SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO WILLIAM SCHRIEVER. MR. MARKEL: I don ' t think the recorder is on. MR. MANAREL: Yes, it is. I had Pat swear Mr. Schriever in. The form is not completeley filled out and it has to be filled out before we can act on it. MR. SCHRIEVER: What for-?- MR. MANAREL: What for? Because we are obliged by the State Tax Commission that if a form is not properly filled out, we may not act on it. MRS. SCHRIEVER: I 'm sorry if it isn't. I want to correct it. MR. MANAREL: That is what we are trying to get straightened- lout. You have so many forms we are trying. . . TOWN OF SOUTHOLD t Grievance Day - PageR MR. SCHRIEVER: I thought I did it correctly. MR. MARKEL: We have to check them all , Sam? MRS. SCHWICKER: Do you want to explain to him what has to be done? Mr. Schriever, would you come here for a moment? MR. SCHRIEVER: Yeah. MRS. SCHWICKER: What we need here is the full market value. This is what it is assessed for. MR. SCHRIEVER: Right. MRS. SCHWICKER: They want the amount you wanted reduced. You want it reduced from $600? This is on the assessed valuation? MR. SCHRIEVER: That is correct. MRS. SCHWICKER: The property has no market value? The property has no value on the open market? MR. SCHRIEVER: There is no market for the value. That is why I am here. MRS. SCHWICKER: What is the purchase price of the Property? MR. SCHRIEVER: It wasn' t purchased. MRS. SCHWICKER: What is it insured for? MR. SCHRIEVER: It' s not insured. It ' s just wetlands. It has no market. MRS. SCHWICKER: This is the land, but it has no house on it. There is no market value because it is wetlands. MR. MANAREL: Well, unfortunately, you have put a market value on it when you reduced from one price to another. Even if it is 10 cents. You said you wanted it reduced to $60.00. You put a market value of $60. 00 on there. Therefore, you have to fill out these forms . Because we are entrusted by law if this form is not filled out properly we cannot act on it. We will just say no to you because we are obliged by law not to act on it because it is not filled out properly. So we want to be of help, but you have to fill out the forms properly be- fore we can be of help to you. MR. MARKEL: Bill, you could sit here at this table and fill out the forms. MR. SCHRIEVER: There is no market. I have a whole appraisal here. MR. MARKEL: Then why don' t you use the apprisal value as the TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Grievance Day = Page 83 market value? MR. SCHRIEVER: It is an appraisal of wetlands in general, it is not an appraisal of these particular parcels. MR. MANAREL: You can do as you like. MR. SCHRIEVER: I want it reduced to $60 .00. MR. MANAREL: No, we are not going to take anything. The onus is on you, sir. We do not want to argue, but I am just trying to tell you what we are charged with so you do not walk out of here and get a letter saying sorry we could not act on your request because your forms were filled out correctly. We are giving you the opor- tunity to fill them out, so we can be of help to you. MR. MARKEL: I am sure Mr. Kelsey or someone else will be glad to help you if you like. MR. SCHRIEVER: I will put a number in there. It has no bearing on the argument. MR. MANAREL: The form has to be filled out. MR. HEUSER: You see this condition has existed since 1972 . I believe it existed before that. This was before us last year be- cause here is the map with the lines running across it showing the wetlands. MR. SCHRIEVER: You know I 'm sworn under oath to tell the truth. I do not know what the truth is. I object to this procedure. MR. MANAREL: Sir, you can do as you like. I was only trying to point out to you that under the law we cannot act on any complainant' s request unless the form is properly filled out. I am telling you that ahead of time instead of just accepting what you handed me and writing you a letter two weeks later saying we are sorry we cannot act on what you gave us. I am just trying to be of help. MR. HEUSER: Our alternative would be just to reject these forms. snd just mail them back to you and say the form is incomplete. That would not be a very courteous way of handling it. MR. MARKEL: Why don' t you go out and talk to Mr. Kelsey? MR. MANAREL: I think that while Mr. Schriever fills out the forms, we can bring Mr. Stankevich back and finish that. NO. 64 - ST. PETER'S LUTHERAN CHURCH, 68465 Main Road, Greenport, New York. George C. Stankevich, Esq. , representing the church. Let the record show that Mr. Stankevich has brought with in a Court Steno- grapher who sits next to him in the audience. TO OF SOUTHOLD j Grievance Day - Page 84 MR. MANAREL: Mr. Stankevich, would you like to proceed. MR. HEUSER: Mr. Chairman, may I at this point say I must remove myself from the Board again since I am a member of Pastor Coleman' s Church. I have filled out the withdrawal form to be kept with the records. MR. STANKEVICH: I would like to speak to property now in District. MR. MANAREL: Would you please come and be sworn in again? MRS. SCHWICKER: Do you solemny swear that the information you give herein will be given accurately and truthfully to the best of your ability. MR. STANKEVICH: I do. I wish to speak to District 1001, Section 0007, Block 0004 , Lot 0002. Sixth ' Street, ' Greenport,_New York. It is a vacant house. This house was acquired by St. Peter' s Lutheran Church by gift. And er, it is being held by St. Peter' s Lutheran Church as the potential or possible site for an assistant minister, which is actively being sought by the church. Under those circum- stances it most certainly falls within Section 421 of the New York Real Property Tax Law in that the property is being held and actually used by a non-profit corporation in this case a church, exclusively for religious purposes. This house though it is vacant temporarily is a potential site for a home for an assistant pastor that the church has been seeking and will be seeking until it is successful. It should not be removed from the tax rolls. What I would to do is . . . MR. MANAREL: Do we have the complaint form on that one? MR. STANEVICH: I would like to just give you some brief chronol- ogy from the minutes of the parish that indicate what I have stated is a fact. MISS CORNINE: Did you find it? MR. MANAREL: I don' t know which one is the house or the vacant land? MISS CORNINE: This is the one. MR. MANAREL: That is what I thought. MISS CORNINE: This is the one they just did. MR. MANAREL: This is the one we are doing now. MISS CORVINE: Yes. MR. STANKEVICH: On April 17, 1978, there was a meeting of the TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Grievance Day - Page—85 Council of St. Peter' s Lutheran Church at which the so called premises the "Nickles" house was discussed. And on that April 17, 1978 meeting the minutes reflect. "reported that our insurance agent has been con- tacted and $30 ,000 fire insurance coverage placed on the property with liability coverage included in our blanket insurance policy for the church. It was noted that the property committee ' s original feelings were to hold the property - to consider renovating the house for use possibly by an .assistant pastor administrator. The property committee is presently continuing its assessment. " An additional meeting was held on April 7, 1980, of the council of St. Peter' s Lutheran church. At which the minutes reflect the following, " Assistant Pastor: The selection process of one seminarian for St. Peter's assistant pastor begins with recommendations from the forty member church leaders panel . Each member will be asked to fill out a questionnaire. These written opinion will then be evaluated by the Pastor to select a single name. The congreation will then approve the selection at a special congrega- tional meeting to be held as soon as possible. MR. MARKEL: This is not in conjunction with this card. MR. MANAREL: I have them both here. MR. STANKEVICH: At that same meeting. . . MR. MARKEL: This is the right one. MR. STANKEVICH: the minutes . reflect that the first candidate to be selected by the parish council decided not to come to Southold Town. And the process was. then restarted to further go through this process all over again to select a candidate. The Church is involved with that right now. Now this house as presently standing has not been rented. There are no tenants in there. No commercial money to be gained for the use of those premises. It is not the circumstances you have possibly had with other churches in the Town. They have a piece of property and they rent it out. The house and whatnot and it is taken off the roles . I think you might know what I am referring to. No gain has been gotten from the premises, they are in the process of finding someone to fill it. MR. MARKEL: We are talking about the house on Sixth Street, is that right? PAIR. STANKEVICH: Yes sir. MR. MANAREL: Here is the card and the folder. Sorry, go ahead. MR. STANKEVICH: It is no different than had a house, had a minister. That' s our case. If the poor chap died and had to move away for his health. It would be vacant for a while MR. MARKEL: When did you buy this Pastor? MR. MANAREL: 5/30/80. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD0 j Grievance Day - Page 86 MISS CORNINE: It doesn' t day. MR. MANAREL It doesn' t say? MISS CORNINE: No. PASTOR: I think it was in 1977. MR. S`1'ANKEVICH: I think February of 1977 was possible. We are checking these, sorry. MR. MANAREL: That' s okay. January 17, 1978. MR. MARKEL: At any time after you bought it were there tenants in the house? PASTOR COLEMAN: No. MR. STANKEVICH: No it has been vacant. No attempt has been made to derive revenues or keep a caretakeer there or anything. MRS. SCHWICKER: It has been vacant all the time? MR. MANAREL: It has been vacant for 2-1/2 years . Are there any questions? Again, thank you very much-, for -your prentation and we will do our best to try to apply the proper decision, with your prayers, Reverand. MR. MANAREL: Have you seen these Sam? MR. MARKEL: Not since they have been gone over. MR. MANAREL: Pat, take a loop at that. MR. HEUSER: On everyone of these applications he has shown the assessed valuation as what he wants it reduced to? MR. MARKEL: He is allowed to do that, isn' t he? But what about on page three. He has nothing filled in on that particular page. MR. MANAREL: That' s right. Well, I think he substantiates. . . MR. MARKEL: Well, in this , yes , but this is not a part of this . MR. MANAREL: I really could not answer that. That would be a legal question. I don' t know about that. Ted, are you satisfied the way this is filled out. You have more experience than I do. MR. HEUSER: I don't like it. MR. MANAREL: Pat, are you satisfied with the way this is filled out? TOWN OF SOUTHOLD j ' Grievance Day - Page* MR. MANAREL: Pat, do you feel the applications are corrected enough? MRS. SCHWICKER: Pardon? MR. MANAREL: Do you think these are filled out enough. You have been on this Bord longer than I have. MRS. SCHWICKER: It is my feeling he does not know how to fill it out. There is no building on this land. MR. MANAREL: It is just land. MRS. SCHWICKER: He says there is no value on it because it is wetlands. MR. HEUSER: He can' t make any judgment. MRS. SCHWICKER: If you cannot sell it there is no market value. This is wetlands. MR. HEUSER: Page 3, is, what I think should be filled in. That' s the tough part. MRS. SCHWICKER: Purchase price? MR. HEUSER: How much can you take. MRS. SCHWICKER: It had to be bought at one time or another. MR. HEUSER: Every one of these things is at a 1972 appraisal. I mean tax base. MR. MANAREL: They haven' t been touched since 1972 . MRS. SCHWICKER: Okay, we have a purchase price here. In 1966 , the property was purchased for $30,000 .00. MR. MANAREL: The whole thing? MRS . SCHWICKER: Van Cleef, Main Road, Orient, on the bay. One and three-quarters acres. This is the property in question? Right? MR. SCHRIEVER: Pardon? MRS. SCHWICKER: Is this not the property in question? MR. SCHRIEVER: It wasn' t bought for $30, 000 .00 . MRS. SCHWICKER: It sure was. MR. WEINHEIMER: Which side of the road was it? TOWN OF SOUTHOLD 0 it ' Grievance Day - Page 88 MRS. SCHWICKER: That lot number you state her. sir. They have a sales price on there of $30,000.00 . This is the number right here on the front of your papers. MR. SCHRIEVER: Well, you see, these properties include their residences on our side of the street. These wetland Pieces are on the south side of the road. MRS. SCHWICKER: I believe we saw a map of this a couple years ago MR. SCHRIEVER: Right. and my guess that the $30,000 is for the house and lot on the north side and the piece of the property on the south. These pieces have been traded as a pair. They certainly would not pary $30, 000. 00 for this. MRS. SCHWICKER: This includes access to the water. MR. SCHRIEVER: There is no access because thereis a creek. MRS. SCHWICKER: There is access to the creek, isn' t there? MR. SCHRIEVER: If you want to go to the creek, I guess so. MRS. SCHWICKER: Then there is access to the creek. MR. MARKEL: These are separate parcels? MRS. SCHWICKER: Okay, MRS . SCHWICKER ADMINISTERED THE OATH TO MR. SCHRIEVER. Now, you have to state that this property across the road is all one part. MR. SCHRIEVER: I gather this is the property of Mr. Van Cleef you are referring to? MRS . SCHWICKER: Yes, it is. This property has wetlands on it. Across the road. Those wetlands go into a creek. MR. SCHRIEVER: They encompass the creek. They go across it. MRS. SCHWICKER: When the people bought the property, this is the existing condition it was in? It has always been wetlands. MR. SCHRIEVER: Yes, it has been wetlands since long before either oen of us was born. MRS. SCHWICKER: The property was purchased in 1966 for a cost of approximately $30, 000. 00. MR. SCHRIEVER: Yes. MRS. SCHWICKER: Therein, you have your market value. MR. SCHRIEVER: I will point out how this works. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD j Grievance Day - Page089 MR. SCHRIEVER: This is Mr. Van Cleef' s residence. This is his piece here. This is Mrs. Silverstone' s residence, and this is her piece. MR. HEUSER: That is the map we saw. MRS. SCHWICKER: That 's right. MR. SCHRIEVER: These five parcels are tied to residence property across the road. This property is not suitable for residences. It is just to protect the view of these lots over here. There is no market in and of itself. They will always trade as a part of the other property. They are separately assessed, but in fact, tie in. In fact, if you look at all the propertyacross the bay, you will find in every case this piece is part of that, this piece is part of that, etc. MRS. SCHWICKE: But what I am trying to get at is when the property was purchased, you said you are an owner of one of those parcels? MR. SCHRIEVER: Of one of those parcels. MRS. SCHWICKER: Okay, when it was purchased, you knew the property across the way went with the purchase of the other property. It was all purchased at one time. MR. SCHRIEVER: I , did not purchase it. My wife inherited it so there was no purchase price. MRS. SCHWICKER: But it all came in one package? MR. SCHRIEVER: Right. MRS. SCHWICKER: You knew that taxes would have to be paid on that property. MR. SCHRIEVER: That 's correct. The taxes at that time were. . . . MRS. SCHWICKER: In spite of the fact it was wetlands and useless to you. MR. SCHRIEVER: At that time it was useless. You have to under- stand and that is the point I am trying to make here in this presentation. At that time that property was not restricted by the Town Wetlands Ordin- ance, it was now restricted by the New York State Wetlands Act. You could dig that out and put a marina there and make some money. The situ- ation has changed drastically since 1971 when the Town enacted the Wet- lands Act, which blocked the use of that property. The State then pro- ceeded to do it in a much more elegant way. Now it is just absolutely sewed up. You cannot build on it because you cannot meet the require- ments. MRS. SCHWICKER: In other words if you didn 't do anything to that property before 1971, you cannot do it at all? TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Grievance Day - Page 90 MR. SCHRIEVER: That is a fact. MRS. SCHWICER: I would say that was your choice. You didn' t choose to do anything before then. After 1971 came and put in the Wetlands Acy you were stuck more or less . Right? MR. SCHRIEVER: What they did really was they condemned the property without payment. That is what they did So what they did in the law to compensate you in a certain way was to specify you should get your taxes reduced. They are continuing to support this reduction in taxes. Nassau County has done had done this over the whole county with ;no problem. In fact they did it before the act was completed. For some reason or other I have not been able to con- vince this Board of that or the Board of Assessors that this is a fact. I have more material this time than I have everyhad before and I would like VERY MUCH to make my presentation. MR. MANAREL: Go ahead. MRS. SCHWICKER: Go right ahead. MISS CORNINE: Just one thing. You are going to treat each one of these applications separately? MR. SCHRIEVER: I have here a survey of the property which was done by Mr. Van Tuyl. MR. MANAREL: We have to treat each one as a separate entity. Each one of these you are referring to. MR. SCHRIEVER: I submitted them separately. However, the presen- tion is identical. In that what is stapled on there in every case so the presentation applies to all the properties. MR. MANAREL: So what we are saying is that you will make one pre sentation for ohe piece of property and we are to understand that same presentation goes for all the others. MR. SCHRIEVER: If you wish to take it that way. MISS CORVINE: So when you do this presentation you will just deal with the Van Cleef property. MR. SCHRIEVER: I would just as soon deal with my own than with the Van Cleef property, if you don' t mind. MR. MANAREL: That is your choice. MISS CORNINE. Then let' s reverse the order of the applications, and I will adjust the minutes. MR. SCHRIEVER: The last time I made a presentation for the five together, but I will do it. MISS CORVINE: Due to court cases and everything, it is easier TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Grievance Day Page 91 if we keep all things separate. LET THE RECORD SHOW: William Schriever is doing a presentation for Application No. 69 standing in the name of Mr. and Mrs. William W. Scriever, Main Road, Orient, New York. The following presentation is also to be considered for the following applications, to wit: No. 66 - Mr. and Mrs. Clifford J. Van Cleef NO. 67 - Rose 0. Silverstone NO. 68 - Clement J. Welles NO. 70 - Margaret E. Aha. MR. SCHRIEVER: I will do my own parcel and at my invitation I will extend that to the other property. MISS CORNINE: One more thing. He has to be sworn in for his own application No. 69 as he has just been sworn in for Application 66 . MRS. SCHWICKER SWORE IN MR. SCHRIEVER FOR APPLICATION NO. 69 . MR. SCHRIEVER: This is a survey of this property that was prepared originally for a scenic easement application. The scenic easement was granted on these parcels of John Tuthill. There was no hearing or any grant ever made on these parcels. My property is this piece here, the larger one of the bunch. This is 135 feet back, this line here. I have sketched in here an outline of the upland portion, that is the marsh grass and the bog begins here. This is dry land, but very low. This is just high enough to stay dry. This is the creek out here, going through here, the mud creek. I guess it is 2 feet deep at mean tide, This is more marsh land and this is the beach. This is sort of a barrier reef out there. That is a survey of the property. MR. HEUSER: When the original purchase was made, was there any proviso or any thinking of how you were going to get to your beach? Could you get to your beach? MR. SCHRIEVER: Well, the property. There was at one time, and I don' t know. . . I remember seeing pieces of this think in the early 1950 ' s It was finished in the 1954 hurricane. This property was divided up right after the 1938 hurricane, when the Mt. Pleasant house, which is located about here was severdly damaged, and the Miller family that owned the house divided up the property and sold it off to the people across the road, and of course the Mt. Pleasant house property included a part of what is now our property. A piece was sold to my wife 's parents and then these other lots were generated out of the Mt. Pleasant lot. MR. HEUSER: Just to repeat my question, sir? When you purchased this property, with so much dry land on the road, then beyond the marsh- land, beyond the creek and then the beach. I was questioning the access- ability of that beach when you purchased the property. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD ' Grievance Day - Page�2 MR. SCHRIEVER: There was no access over this property. The point I was just trying to make was thatithe Mt. Pleasant house at the time of this. . . .there used to be a walk way that went down across here just about where this line goes. There were some boat docks down here where people kept their boats. If you remember Ed King, he was the Captain of one of the Boats, Mr. and Mrs. Stern' s boat that they kept down here. MR. HEUSER: There were three boats down there to my recollection. MR. SCHRIEVER: Well, I know Alma Vail Knox had a piece, which is not shown on this map. MR. HEUSER: That is what made me question the acaessibility to the beach. MR. SCHRIEVER: This walk way was the only access to the beach. You can tet to this beach by going down the Main Road about a mile and coming back on the barrier beach. The property really extends over to Section 23 although they are indexed as part of Section 17 . If you Look at section 23, which is Exhibit B you will see the remainder of the property. MR. HEUSER: How many acres have you got usable on your property? MR. SCHRIEVER: By usable, you mean dry? MR. HEUSER: Okay, yes. MR. SCHRIEVER: The upland portion there is 3/4 of an acre. . MR. HEUSER: In other words there is 4 acres on your property and only 3/4th of an acre is usable land? MR. SCHRIEVER: Right. The parcel that you can walk on is 3/4 of an acre. That parcel does back 135 feet back from the Main Road. MR. MARKEL: Unless this has been split by the assessors and they consider there is actual soil there. MR. HEUSER: You have 243 feet on the road? MR. MARKEL: On the general road. MR. HEUSER: How deed is it? MR. SCHRIEVER: 135 feet is the dry land portion where you can walk. MR. MARKEL: Does that include the house he lives in? MR. SCHRIEVER: No, that is not correct. We get two tax bills there. These properties are all assessed separately. I don' t understand how they put that $30, OOOJ00 down on that piece of property. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD • • Grievance Day - Page 93 g MR. MARKEL: Okay, that clarifies that fact for me. MR. SCHRIEVER: In fact that is an error. These parcels are in the A Residential and Agricultural District, which is the thing that covers farmland and so forth. None of the parcels have enough upland to build a house on under the zoning ordinance. In other words, to build a house on any of these parcels, you would have to get an area variance. You would also on most of them have to get a width variance. My parcel is about is as good as any. It is 135 feet back from the front line to the back of the parcel . The second fact in the Town Ordinace is tht it is a state highway and you can guess they will want to honor the setback. This setback is 50 feet. You subtract 50 from 135 and you get 85 feet. The tidal wetlands act treats the upland portion of this parcel, which is known as adjacent land. Any land that is adjacent to tidal wetlands is restricted under the Tidal Wet- lands Act up to 300 feet from the boundary of the title wetlands or up to any man; �made structure which is at least 100 feet long, substantial, and all these things . You can find it in one of these exhibits. That means that all the land from the edge of the tidal wetlands up to the edge of the existing road defined in the act is adjacent land under the Wetlands Act. Adjacent land under the Tidal Wetlands Act ban be used. It is not prohibited. But it is usable only under the conditions of the act. The act provides that any structure erected on this land must be set back 75 feet from the boundary of the Tidal wetlands Remember we had 85 feet ack from the Main Road and 75 feet back from the wetlands and we now have 10 feet left in which to erect the principal residence. In order to build on this property you would have to get not only a variance from the Town which would be extremely difficult, but you would also have to get a variance from the Tidal Wetlands people. Now the probability of this happening is zero. The act provides specifically in the language that if such a variance is not gotten it cannot be assumed to exist and the land must be taxed as though it were not buildable. That is right in the act. The quote is in one of the exhibits. Now what this means is that these properties are not house lots under the law and cannot be taxed as houselots under the law. It doesn' t matter if they are 100 acres they do not meet the requirements for a house lot, cannot be sold as a house lot and cannot be taxed as a house lot. So they must be taxed as adjacent land, and they must be taxed as wetlands. The provision of the act which I reference here, ,; if you look at Exhibit H, which is in the back, it is a Tidal Wetlands - Land use regulations and it says that this act . . .these maps showing these properties have been distributed to the assessors and so forth and so on, , and that has been done as a matter of fact. The map was provided to this office in late 1977. The act went into effect on September 14, 1977 ordering bringing this act as Exhibit B. Sheet 2. (Mr. Schriever read from the Environmental Conservation Law ) Now what that means is you cannot tax land as a house lot if it is not used as a house lot. Number 2 you must take into account that the property is restricted. In effect it has a scenic easement on it. I want to show you. . MR. HEUSER: These are not necessary. MR. SCHRIEVER: These are the land use regulations. . TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Grievance Day - Page 94 and this thing was taken out of this. I would like that back eventually when you get done with it. You will find Exhibit H is a direct quota- tion from those regulations. Also I have enclosed here in Exhibit C. this is the General Municipal Law, Section 247. This is the section that provides for scenic easements. Here it is called acquisition of open spaces and areas. When the Town of Southold grants a scenic easement it does it under this Law. What this regulation I just read� you says is that for the purpose of property tax valuation it is he same manner as if an easement or right had been acquired under the Gneral Municipal Law and that assessment is based on restricting regulations. MR. MANAREL: Now, Mr. Schriever. . . MR. SCHRIEVER: Excuse„me, just let me make a point. My argument is this there are properties in the Town which are subject to a scenic easement. The property of John B. Tuthill which is adjacent to these properties and shown on this tax map is subject to a scenic easement. In those cases there has been a 50% reduction roughtly in the assessment of the land because of the scenic easement. My argument is this law provides these properties here should be given the benefit of that 50% reduction, the same reduction that the other properties that have scenic easement enjoy, but this act provided that these properties do have scenic easements, and it says so right here. MR. HEUSER: Mr. Chairman, there is one point I would like to clarify with Mr. Schriever: The last assessed valuation of this property was in 1972 on each one of these lots. Is that right. MR. SCHRIEVER: I presume so. At one time the assessments were almost doubled on the property. MR. HEUSER: This assessment has existed for 8 years. MR. SCHRIEVER: Yes. MR. HEUSER: That was the point I wanted to make MR. SCHRIEVER: This is the fourth time I have come into this Board. MR. MANAREL: I think that your presentation is well made and you have must material for us to peruse when we go over these, Mr. Schriever. Are there any questions from the Board? MR. MARKEL: I would like to see if an assessor is here. MR. MANAREL: If you want we will bring him in, but I don' t know what for. MR. MARKEL: I just want to ask him how he arrived at the figures. MR. SCHRIEVER: Before I quit if it is at all possible, I have one more argument to make having to do with the assessment of the wetlands. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD • Grievance Day - Page 95 And I would like to do that. I have here if you want to look at it this. is the original print from which the picture of the wetlands is taken. If you want it? MR. MANAREL: Is someone coming in? MR. HEUSER: I want to raise this question and we have gone over it for three consecutive years now. These so called wetlands, these so called wetlands that were presented when they got the Orient Point Road, the land to,,�the south of the Main Road, you have given that wetland evaluation all the way down, or the equivalents thereof? MR. KELSEY: Jack handles all that wetland business. MR. HEUSER: Part of it is not wetlands. MR. KELSEY: Some of if is buildable. MR. MARKEL: None of it is buildable according to Mr. Schriever. MR. SCHRIEVER: There are other parcels that are buildable. John Tuthill is suitable for building, right next to it. It is assessed at a 1/3 fo the rate these are. MR. KELSEY: The card says no change in 1979 . MR. HEUSER: The card says 1972. The last assessed valuation was 1972. MR. KELSEY: Right. I would suggest you hold this in abeyance and discuss this with Jack Sherwood. MR. HEUSER: I would like to make that a motion. MR. MANAREL: No question about it. MR. MARKEL: Mr. Kelsey, please look at this card and see the acreage and look at Mr. Schriever' s card and look at the acreage. Tell me how you ascertain the difference between 2 acres at 800 and 4 acres at 700. MR. KELSEY: Based on the waterfront, they are charged a different rate. MR. MARKEL: Why is one $7 and one $8? I just want to get your ideas. MR. KELSEY: It is done on the depth of the property, not the acreage. MR. HEUSER: We have run across that before. The road frontage and the depth influences the rate. MR. KELSERY: If the road frontage on two parcels is the same, TOWN OF SOUTHOLD • . M Grievance Day - Page '96 but the depth is difference, they will have different rates. MR. HEUSER: We ran into that in Cutchogue. MR. MANAREL: Thank you. Are there any other questions? MR. SCHRIEVER: I would like to finish my argument. This is the fourth time around, and I -would really like to get this finished. If you donft mind. I think I have a point here and I really would like to make it. I have taken a sample of some farmland in Orient. This is plain old ordinary farmland. It has no scenic easement on it. It is just farmland. It belongs to H. M. Demarest & Sons. They farm it in Orient. I have five parcels here, and I just checked these again and some of these have changed area and the values have changed, but the general result is the same as it was before. The farmland is being assessed at $250. 00 an acre. I 'm told by the Assessors Office that is a fair assmption. Then if you take the Exhibit B which is the second of the two tax maps on there you will see I have given the assessed value of the property, the acreage of the property as shown on the assessment roll, which may differ from the tax map acreage, this is what is shown on the Town's roll, and I divide the assessed acrage into the assessment and I get an assessment per acre. Now the property of John Tuthill on this Exhibit B is divided into two parts. There is a piece that is north of the creek and a piece that is south of the creek. You will see the one to the southwest is visible completely there to the Van Clee.f property. The one to the north you have to look up on the Section 17 map to see all of it. Those are the two large parcels here. The one to the north of the creek is farmland. If you look at the photograph, which is the Exhibit E, party of the wetlands map, that part of the wetlands map was created by taking an ariel photo- graph and then marking the lines on it. If you look at the part marked John B. Tuthill you will see the rows of the farm there. You can see that is not wetland, that is buildable property. It is a pretty good piece there. Ed Latham farms it and he has a farm stand on the north end of it. Then you will tee the creek and across the creek you will see the other parcel of John Tuthill ' s property, which is clearly wet- lands. If you look back in Exhibit B, you will see the part north of the creek, the farmland is being assessat at $132. 00 an acre or $3,200. 00 divided by 24. 20 acres. If you take 50% of the farmland acrds, which i $250. 00 per acre, which we have already established using the Demarest property, you take $50% of that because this is subject to scencic easemeAt, you should get roughly 1/2 of $250 which is $125. This is $132. You can see that the Town is assessing farmland subject to a scenic easement at 1/2 rate that they are assessing farmland now subject to a scenic easement. My argument is that the uplands portion of my parcel and by implication the other four parcels is at best farmland and therefore should not be assessed at a figure greater than $125 or $132. 00 per acre. , because that is what other property of the same or better character is being assessed at. John Tuthill' s property is almost entirely farmland in that north parcel . It has road frontage galore and it is high and dry and buildable and he is being assessed $132.00 an acre. So he is subject to a scenic easement. The uplands portions of our parcels are not nearly so high and dry, but they can be walked on. They TOWN OF SOUTHOLD " Gritevance Day - Page 97 are not buildable and we are being assessed at the average rate of $400. 00 per acre including the creek bottom which we don' t even own and the creek frontage we cannot get to. My first argument concludes that the upland portion should be assessed at $125 per acre based upon the comparison with other similar property in the Orient area, which I believe I have established beyond a reasonable doubt. Now what about the wetlands portions of the property. Well, there just aren' t any sales of wetlands to speak of and in order to get something to go on, the Department of Environmental Conservation had a study made. They commissioned a study. I have the complete report of the study here in four volumes. The Town was given this one volume, which they have. I have the borrowed from the DEC the entire studay, and I will leave it with you. I think you will find it interesting. There are. . . this includes all of the trades of the wetlands or combines wetlands and other property that have occurred in New York including Long Island. MR. MANAREL: Mr. Schriever, . . . . MR. HEUSER: The Assessors called me out with the request that we put a time limit on your particular pi6ce. MR. SCHRIEVER: I am almost done. MR. HEUSER: There are other people waiting here that we have to take care of. They have been sitting here for an hours. We cannot give and hour to everybody. We accept your presentation. We realize that, but the Assessors are asking us to curtail it. We are not cutting you short. MR. SCHRIEVER: Can I get two more sentences in? MR. MANAREL: Two sentences, go ahead. MR. SCHRIEVER: I would like to loan this appraisal to this Board to look at and the appraisal and the conclusions which are in this top bolume. You will see that this Pomeroy came to the conclusion after analyzing all these sales that wetlands should be assessed at 15% of the value of the adjacent wetlands. and it is on that basis that I make my assessment. Thank you. MR. MANAREL: Thank you Mr. Schriever. NO. 70 - VOID SISU DEVELOPMENT INC. , Mr. Stankevich Withdrew this . NO. 71 - JOSEPH TOWNSEND, JR. and ARNOLD GARDNER, 215 Main Street, Greenport, New York 11944. BASIS OF COMPLAINT: Inequality: Using the 11. 70 rate of TOWN OF SOUTHOLD • "Grievance Day - Page 98 Equalization, which is incorrect. OVERVALUATION: Ffull market value of property: $23,000. 00; Assessed valuation of property: $6, 300. 00; Amount of overvaluation claimed: $3609 .00 ; Complainant believes the assessment should be reduced to $2691. 00 MR. MANAREL: Please come up. Are you both going to speak or is one. JOSEPH TOWNSEND: I think we both will. I will probably start off. MR. MANAREL: That is all right. Why don't you both come up here. If you will step over there, Mrs. Schwicker will swear you both in so you can both speak. MRS. SCHWICKER SWORE IN MR. TOWNSEND AND MR. GARDNER.- MR. MANAREL: Go ahead. MR. TOWNSEND: We are questioning the assessment on a couple of basis' l but primarily on the basis of the actual market value of the property. Last December, 1979, we purchased this at a public bid for $23,000. 00, which I feel and Mr. Gardner feels represents the market value of that property. It had been to bid two times before that and had no received and higher bids than ours. The assessment that the Town of Southold has given the property is $63Q0. , and then using the rate of equilization that brings it almost to $54 , 000. 00. MR. GARDNER: That is at the 11. 70%. MR. MANAREL: We don' t use that figure in this township. That is a state figure and they use it for state equalization purposes. MR. TOWNSEND: What do you use it for? MR. MANAREL: They tell us to multiply the assessed valuation by 4 and we come up with what the figure they use. MR. TOWNSEND: The state feels that the 11% is fair. MR. MANAREL: That is used mainly for school taxes. MR. TOWNSEND: This is the Village of Greenport taxes, and you can see they rate the property at $2800, which is very close to what we feel it should be. They, of course, were involved in the sale. MR. HEUSER: Thi is the Southold one? MISS CORNINE: They have their own County Tax Map numbers. MR. MARKEL: What we have in effect is two assessors who give two different assessments? MR. TOWNSEND: I thought the Village used the Town assessors. aTOWi1 OF SOUTHOLD r • Grievance Day - Page 99 MR. MARKEL.: Who assesses down there now? MR. TOWNSEND: I don' t know because when I was involved, it was a Ed Fox. He retired though. That is the heart of our presentation. However based on the property values, we look at the adjacent property, for instance, Hommel, which is on a corner lot, on the main street is assessed for $7900 , the building is approximately. MR. MANAREL: This is the old Town Hall. MR. TOWNSEND: That' s right, the old Town Hall. The approximate area in their building is 3500 square feet which is about twice what ours is. They have a corner location on Main Street. They have not only 86 feet of frontage on South Street, where we have 30 feet of frontage, they have 30 feet on Main Street which is the primary business area and still their assessment is only $1600 higher than ours. MR. MARKEL: Are you talking about Village or Town? MR. TOWNSEND: Town, right now. The property is two times as beig as ours. Their taxes are only. . . . MR. WEINHEIMER: How much did you say Hommels was valuated at? MR. TOWNSEND: Land and buildings $7900 .00 . Our total is 6300. They have twice the building size, a much better location and we feel that in litigation that the property we own is overassessed. The other property right next to ours and previously owned by Watson. I don't know the name of the new people. I assume the taxes have gone up since then because they have improved the property. He is putting a couple of. apartments plus a storefront. Last year the building and land were assessed at $2300. That property is almost a direct equa*alent to ours. It is residential, but the income from that property is going to be twice the amount we derive from our property. Our income is going to be $4800 per year based on one rent at $400 .00 per month. MR. MARKEL: That is gross income. MR. TOWNSEND: That's right, gross income. MR. MARKEL: You are not applying on that basis are you? MR. TOWNSEND: We did, put it down. We 're not experts in this . MR. HEUSER: Let me ask you something. Why are there two different tax bills on the property. MR. MANAREL: One is the Village of Greenport. One of them is the Town of Southold. MR. HEUSER: I see. MR. MARKEL: They pay an extra tax. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD 4 • 'Grievance Day - Page 100 MR. HEUSER: You pay an extra tax? MR. GARDNBRC, That' s right. MR. TOWNSEND: Yes. MR. MANAREL: We get you one way, they get you the other. MR. TOWNSEND: Right. The Town takes out something for their taxes, and they really add more than their share. MR. HEUSER: I am really at a loss though when comparing the purchase price versus the assessed valuation. MR. TOWNSEND: The purchase price of $23,000. 00. MR. HEUSER: You were very frank in putting your price. We appreciate it. MR. TOWNSEND: It was a public bid. MR. HEUSER: But we probably would not have known the difference. MRS. SCHWICKER: What do you have it assessed for? MR. TOWNSEND: It is irreplaceable we feel, but we put $65, 000 .00 on it. This is not related to market value. I think the movie theatre property has a replacement value in excess of $200, 000 .00. MR. HEUSER: If we have an assessed valuation of $5700. 00; $600 for your land and $5100 for your building. You have it down here for $6300 . 00. MRS. SCHWICKER: He probably means $5700 for the building. MR. MANAREL: $5700 all together on the card. MR. MARKEL: That must be an error. MR. GARDNER: We took it off the role this afternoon. MR. TOWNSEND: Do you have $5700 on there. MRS. SCHWICKER: I thought I saw it. MR. KELSEY: That was the old Town Hall. There is no date when it was last inspected, and I questioned even if they assessed it on the tax roll in the first place. Since I have been Chairman of the Board, I have tried to keep tract of all execmpt property such as your schools and all knowing they are not going on the tax rolls to have a basic or real figure for real assessed valuation. MR. MANAREL: What was your question here? TOWN OF SOUTHOLD ''Grievance Day - Page 101 MR. HEUSER: How do you explain your assessment compared to what the Village of Greenport has this assessed for? This is a substantial difference. MR. KELSEY: Well, I cannot explain for the Village of Greenport, but we were down there. They don1t have an assessor for the first thing. MR. HEUSER: Oh. MR. KELSEY: They take most of their information from our cards. MR. MARKEL: Sam, didn' t we meet the assessor from Greenport at the meeting? MR. KELSEY: There was one man there, the new man. They have had difficulty in getting an assessor. Ed Fox was the assessor at one time. Tony Blados from Shelter Island also did it at one time. MR. MARKEL: Do you think it would be possible Mr. Kelsey to see Hommels card? MR. TOWNSEND: Can I go on. MR. MANAREL: Surely. MR. TOWNSEND: We have several things that are indicative of the fact that we are over assessed. Such as Marie Benko who is located on the corner of South Street and 2nd Street has property that is 60 feet by 80 feet. The building, there are two buildings which pretty much dominate the whole property. There is aonly an alley and a driveway that are not covered by a building. They have 80 feet on South street and 60 feet on Second Street. Their building is 4800 square feet, although it is not two stories all the way around. It includes the liquor store, tailor shop and the house. The building is approximately 3 times what our building is and their assessment is the same . MR. HEUSER: They depreciated that building 35% before they put it on the tax rolls MR. MANAREL: For comparison purposes here is the Hommel card. MR. MARKEL: Square footage of the building is what we want to know. It also has a depreciation factor. MR. MANAREL: They give you a 35% depreciation figure on that building. MR. HEUSER: Okay, let' s see where we are now. You have 700 more feet for occupancy then they do. MR. TOWNSEND: Occupancy? What do you mean by that? TOWN, OF SOUTHOLD • Grievance Day - Page 02 MR. HEUSER: You have more living area. Upstairs and clown stairs. You have 700 more square feet in your building than they do. We're talking out Clinton Hommel. MR. MARKEL: You have a second story. They have a second story. MR. MANAREL: What is the length of the building? Square footage? MR. HEUSER: We figure you 34 feet by 58 feet. But now, don 't for- get to double it. They count both floors. MR. GARDNER: That' s about right. MR. TOWNSEND: I don' t understand. If you look at the buildings you will see. MR. KELSEY: We take the outside measurements on the ground floor. The difference between the one story and two story is deducted in the rate. We don' t go by cubic feet. MR. MARKEL: I know, square footage on the ground floor. MR. TOWNSEND: There is only section of approximately 25 feet that is above these doors. MR. KELSEY: It should mention that on the card. Whether it is one story, one and one half stories or two stories. MR. MARKEL: See the rates are different. MR. HEUSER: The second story has got 9 feet less in length than the top floor of the old Town building. The extension has 19 feet less in length than the Town building. All the same width. MR. MARKEL: 74 feet by. . . . this is going to be hard, because there is a different rate for each one. This building is definitely larger. MR. TOWNSEND: It occupies the entire lot which is twice as large as our lot. There is not probably one square foot of property that is not occupied by that building. Their lot is twice as large as ours. MR. HEUSER: Is there a new survey? MR. MANAREL: on the sides of the building, you are maintaining this building is larger than yours. MR. TOWNSEND: I am maintaining it is almost twice as large as our building. There are parts of it that may not be the same, but over-all they have a larger building. MR. KELSEY: Here is some square footage. Add that and it will tell you. MR. HEUSER: There is your square footage right tere. 'OWN OF SOUTHOLD 9 • Grievance Day - page 103 MR. KELSEY: I was there when we measured them, so those figures have got to be right. MR. MANAREL: Why don' t we just take these and have a measurement made to make sure that we come up with the right measurements because the descrepancy that seems to exist will be erased. MR. TOWNSEND: I don' t want to put my whole case on this. The property formekly owned by Watson has a two story frmae building which they are not only going to get two apartments plus a store rental and their assessment last year was $2300; of course it wasn' t being used. Ours really wasn' t used last year either. Our building is in better shape I cannot deny that. We are talking about an assessment more than two times as great. Their income is going to be higher than our income. This is the property to the left of ours as you look at the picture. They say that is a residential property versus our commerical, but the income will be larger than ours. They can put a store in and attract a lot of business. I don' t want to take up more of your time than necessary. MR.MANAREL: That' s alright. MR. HEUSER: That' s perfrctly all right. We are heare. MR. TOWNSEND: Did you want to add anything, Mr. Gardner? MR. MANAREL: I think the doors are closed any1 e. These are our last hearings of the night. Does anyone on the board have any further questions? MR. MARKEL: I would like to have that measurement made, Sam. I think it should be done. MR. GARDNER: I would like to make just one point. On the valuation of the properties themselves. Based on the actual value of the property it must be determined by the sale made in December, which is a little more than 6 months ago, at $23,000. 00; this is not the first time it was offered for sale. It was offered twice before, we bid in at $23 ,000 and it was the highest bid. MR. TOWNSEND: We bid for it to prevent from becoming a warehouse. If Mr. Hommel felt it wasn 't worth more than $21, 000 . I would be really suporised if he bid based on what you have us assessed for. MR. MARKEL: He has property on Main Street, which is assessed at $1000 a foot. MR. TOWNSEND: We had a schecule of other properties with no expla- nation whichwe were going to submit. We wanted to make a copy of it and leave it. MR. MANAREL: I' ll tell you what will be even simplier, make a copy and bring us one tommorow. You will be here anyway. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD • urievance Day - Page 104 NO. 73 -KEVIN & LORRAINE QUILLAN, P. OB. BOX 42, Greenport, New York 11942. BASIS FOR COMPALINT ON ASSESSMENT: INEQUALITY: Full market value of property: $36 ,000.00; Complaint believes the assessment should be reduced to $4800 . 00. KEVIN QUILLAN: I purchased the house around January, 1980 and the appraiser from the house came down and appraised my property and advised it was assessed at far more than it was worth. and in com- parison with the neighbors. I paid $36,000. 00. MR. MANAREL: Can we back up a second and ask you something. Who was the bank? MR. QUILLAN: Southold Savings Bank. MR. MANAREL: Southold Savings Bank. MR. MARKEL: Were you applying for a mortgage? MR. QUILLAN: yes. MR. MANAREL: Who was the person at the bank who made that statement? MR. QUILAN: I don' t know? MISS CORNINE: Lance Larsen? MR. QUILLAN: I don' t know. MR. MANAREL: That' s who it was? MR. QUILLAN: I guess so. MR. MANAREL: Go ahead. _ MR. QUILLAN: I purchased mine for $36, 000. 00 in comparison who purchase his house for $70, 000. 00. He is only paying $200. 00 more than I am for taxess. That doesn' t seem right. MR. MANAREL: Let' s say this to you. We have nothing to do with taxes here. This is just a matter is assessed too high or not enough. We don' t know anything about taxes. , MR. QUILLAN: Okay, it is assessed too high. MR. MANAREL: Okay. MR. HEUSER: 4820 square feet. Is that right? MR. QUILLAN: Right. TOW T OF SOUTHOLD • Grievance Day - Page 105 MR. HEUSER: That includes your garage. MR. QUILLAN: Right. MR. MANAREL: 4343 is the square footage of the living space. Then a garage for 480 square feet. MR. HEUSER: The rate is all right. MR. QUILLAN: The house is in the state of dilapitation right now. It needs roofing, gutters and it leaks. It has all second hand lumber in the place. MR. HEUSER: Sold by A. Coppola to K. Quillan. MR. QUILLAN: That' s right. MR. HEUSER: $65, 000. 00. MR. MANAREL: No, 36, 000. MRS. SCHWICKER: Subject to an $18, 000 . 00 mortgage. You are not reading that right. MR. HEUSER: This is not a 4? MRS. SCHWICKER: That is a dollar sign. MR. MANAERL: There is no descrepancy about purchase price. That is what I wanted to ask you. MR. QUILLAN: My neighbor just purchased his not too long back His is a $70,000. 00 home and he is only paying a couple hundred dollars more than I am. MRS. SCHWICKER: What is your neighbor' s name? MR. QUILLAN: Ernest Stilley. MISS CORNINE: Is that Bob Brown ' house? MR. QUILLLAN: Yes. MR. HEUSER: You are bounded on the east by a party named Loeb ? MR. QUILLAN: Yes. My whole point is he paid double for his house yet only pays $200. 00 more in taxes than I do. MR. MANAREL: We' ll see when the card comes in. You are not sure what he paid for it? MR. QUILLAN: He paid $70,000 . 00. TOWN OF SOUTHOLD • `Grievance Day - Page 106 MR. HEUSER: It is assessed at $6500. since 1970 and you are assessed at $5400. We turn over the page. MR. MARKEL: 0665 over here and what is the acreage over here. MR. HEUSER: 0332. MR. MARKEL: Okayy that is about a third. MR. HEUSER: They both have full basements of cement, wooden shingles , he has a brik couse. , fireplaces they both have. He has one and a half baths. Both have oak floors. Sheetrock and hot water heat. What is your heat? MR. QUILLAN: Hot air heat. MR. MARKEL: A 4100 difference. MR. HEUSER: We are talking about the assessment here. MR. MARKEL Look at that. MRS. SCHWICKER: Look at that. MR. HEUSER: The building is a $500 .00 difference on the assess- ment. MR. MARKEL: It is a brick building against a frame building. MR. MANAREL; Okay, we heard your comments, we did the comparison and we heard your comments, and we will come up with a decision. We will be notifying you in a couple of days. Thank you. NO. 32 - Oscar J. Bloom , etal. -,801 Mt. Sinai-Coram Road, Mt, Sinai, New York 11766 No. 33 - ST. AGNES ROMAN CATHOLICCHURCH AT GREENPORT, Front Street, Greenport, New York 11944 NO. 34 - ST. AGNES ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, Front Street, Greenport, New York. NO. 35 - ST. AGNES ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AT GREENPORT, Front Street, Greenport, New York TOWN OF SOUTHOLD . 'Grievance Day - Page 07 NO. 36 - ST. AGNES ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, Front Street, Greenport, New York. NO. 37 - VERA MAYER, c/o Koeppel Sommer Lesnick & Martone, 155 First Street, Mineola, New York 11501 NO. 38 - 235 MILL STREET, INC. , c/o Koeppel Sommer Lesnick & Mar- tone, P.C. , 155 First Street, Mineola, New York 11501 NO. 39 - S & E REALTY CO. , c/o Koeppel Sommer Lesnick & Martone, P.C. 155 First Stret, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 40 - VERA MAYER, c/o Koepell Sommer Lesnick & Martone, 155 First Street, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 41 - DEBORAH PENNEY c/o George H. Furman, P. 0. Box 509, Patchogue, New York 11772 NO. 42 - VANTAGE PETROLEUM CORP. , c/o Matthew Cronin, Esq. 1539 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 43 - VANTAGE PETROLEUM CORP. , c/o Matthew J. Cronin, 1539 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 44 - HODOR-STALLER AND KASPET, ET AL. , c/o Matthew J. Cronin, 1539 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 45 - CUTCHOGUE JOINT VENTURE, c/o Matthew J. Cronin, Esq. 1539 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 46 - ARSHAMOMAQUE ASSOCIATES, STALLER ASSOCIATES, INC. , c/o Matthew J. Cronin, Esq. , 1539 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York 11501 TC OF SOUTHOLD • Grievance Day - Page 108 NO. 47 - ARSHAMOMAQUE ASSOCIATES, STALLER ASSOCIATES, INC. , C?O Matthew J. Cronin, Esq. 1539 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York 11501 NO. 48 - S & E REALTY CO. - c/o Matthew J. Cronin, Esq. , 1539 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 49 - DAYSMAN AND NAN MORRIS, Southold, New York. NO. 50 - DAYSMAN AND NAN MORRIS, Southold, New York. NO. 51 -ALAN A. CARDINALE c/o Hyman & Hyman, P.C. 1050 Franklin Avenue, Garden City, New York 11530 NO. 52 -THE SOUTHLAND CORP. , 2828 N. HAskell, Dallas, Taxas 75204. NO. 53 - ALFRED J. BARTOSIEWICZ and JOAN BARTOSIEWICZ, Box 169, Soundview Avenue, Southold, New York 11971 NO. 54 - EDWARD MAGUIRE, 338, 74th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11209 . NO. 55 - MARVIN & LILLIAN QUALLS, Box 115, Laurel, New York 11948. NO. 56 - STEPHEN & ELLA SCHMIDT, 340 Bay Haven Lane, Southold, New York 11971. NO. 57 - HANS H. and FRANCOISE A. REIGER, Orient, New York 11957 NO. 58 - MARJORIE NEZIN, 487 Guy Lombardo .Avenue, Freeport, NY 11520. NO. 65 - THE HARRY MITCHELL FAMILY - c/o George C. Stankevich, Esq. Horton' s Lane, Southold, New York 11971 GO OF SOUTHOLD rievance Day - Page 109 NO. 59 - GERARD H. EGGER, 2000 Pequash Avenue, Cutchogue, New York 11935. NO. 60 - SALVATORE & MARIA C. IANNOLA, 194 Arlington Street, Mineola, New York 11501. NO. 61 - STRONG OIL COMPANY, INC. , P. 0. Box 277, Water Mill, New York 11976. NO. 62 - STRONG OIL COMPANY, P. 0. Box 277, Water Mill, New York 11976. The meeting was seclared closed by Chairman Manarel at 9: 30 P.M. Respectfully submitted, �BABETTE CORNINE Secretary }