Apland v. Butte County, 23874.
| Decision Date | 14 June 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 23875.,No. 23874.,23874.,23875. |
| Citation | 716 N.W.2d 787,2006 SD 53 |
| Parties | John APLAND, George Bean, Martin Bonato, Tom Cooper, Kim Cooper, Robert Crofford, Lorita Crofford, Tom Davis, Marlene Davis, Robert Ferrell, Janet Farrell, Harvey Garr, Valerie Garr, Paul Garr, Daniel Kane, Rosalie Fishel, Doug Johnson, False Bottom Livestock, Grace G. Kirksey, Eileen Randall, Kim Kling, Chris Kling, Terry Kudlock, Tim Kudlock Sharon Kudlock, K. Kudlock Family Trust, Herbert Lesmeister, Michael Lesmeister, Wayne Massie, Margaret Massie, Neal McCoy, Kevin Paradis, Jeral Shear, Dianne Shear, Robert Shear, Scott Stave, Susan Stave, Gary Steele, Kathy Steele, Travis Steele, Debra Steele, Wesley Thompson, And Cathaleen Wood, Appellants, v. BUTTE COUNTY, South Dakota, Appellees. |
| Court | South Dakota Supreme Court |
Kenneth E. Barker of Barker Reynolds Law Firm Belle Fourche, South Dakota, for appellants.
Robert L. Morris of Day Morris Law Firm, LLP, Belle Fourche, South Dakota, for appellees.
[¶ 1.] Apland and the other appellants (Apland) are appealing the circuit court's decision that affirmed the Butte County Director of Equalization's (Director) 2002 and 2003 assessments of rangeland property. Apland asserts that Director's methodology in applying SDCL 10-6-33.6 was clearly erroneous, and we agree. Director did not give appropriate consideration to appurtenant and nontransferable water rights.
[¶ 2.] In preparation for the assessment review for 2002, Director laid out a map of Butte County and proceeded to plot the land sales for 2000 and 2001. Director noted the sequence number and price per acre, not including any building value, on the map for each sale. Each of these forty-six sales were audited and approved by the South Dakota Department of Revenue. After plotting the sales, Director noted that the sales in the southern portion of the county were generally higher than the sales in the northern portion of the county. Director suspected that this difference was due to location. To see if his suspicion was correct, Director performed tests to determine whether the difference in sales price per acre was influenced by location.
[¶ 3.] Director performed eight pairings of northern and southern Butte County sales. He used sales similar in nature, considering factors such as location, soil quality, time of sale, use of property, and climate conditions. Director did not take into consideration appurtenant and nontransferable water rights or access to the Belle Fourche Irrigation District (BFID) in selecting these pairs. After preparing these pairings, Director made adjustments only for soil rating to isolate any difference in sales price for location. He did not make an adjustment for the value of the appurtenant water rights. After preparing the pairings and making the appropriate soil adjustments, Director determined that property located in southern Butte County would be approximately 150 percent of the value of the same property in northern Butte County.
[¶ 4.] At the conclusion of the testing, Director determined the difference in sales price was based on location. Director then went through the process of identifying possible market areas or neighborhoods within Butte County. Director considered characteristics including: population, towns, road systems, markets, employment opportunities, vicinity of the Black Hills, vicinity of other municipalities such as Sturgis and Spearfish, historic precipitation, available listings of properties in southern Butte County, and the larger competitive base (more buyers) interested in southern Butte County. As indicated, Director did not consider appurtenant and nontransferable water rights or access to BFID. Once these characteristics were established, Director mapped out two neighborhoods, the Southern Neighborhood and the Northern Neighborhood.
[¶ 5.] Pursuant to SDCL 10-6-33.6, Director then determined whether the median market value in each neighborhood deviated by more than ten percent from the overall county median market value. To determine the county-wide median market value, Director listed the 2000 and 2001 sales for the entire county with the actual price paid per acre (market value) and calculated that the median market value per acre was $284.00 for the county as a whole. Director then listed the fourteen 2000 and 2001 sales for the Northern Neighborhood. One sale included BFID water rights, but the acres with these water rights were located in the Southern Neighborhood. He determined the median market value per acre was $104.00 per acre, a -63.40 percent deviation from the county median market value per acre. Director then listed the thirty-two 2000 and 2001 sales for the Southern Neighborhood, of which thirty had BFID water rights. He determined the median market value per acre was $385.00 per acre, a + 35.60 percent deviation from the county median market value per acre. Based on these calculations, Director determined that there existed more than a ten percent deviation from the overall county median market value per acre in both the Northern and Southern Neighborhoods.
[¶ 6.] Based on this ten percent deviation from the overall county median market value, Director determined that SDCL 10-6-33.6 allowed him to establish a separate market value per acre for land within the Northern and Southern Neighborhoods. In order to ascertain this separate market value, Director used a top dollar value process for assessment. The top dollar value process worked off soil ratings that represent the productivity capability of a soil, with 1.0 representing the most productive soil in the county. Director performed a soil survey calculation for each sale in Butte County in 2000 and 2001 using the soil ratings provided by the South Dakota Department of Revenue. Director calculated the weighted average soil rating for each sale and took that times the sale price to determine the top dollar value for each sale. It was determined that the county-wide median top dollar value for all sales in 2000 and 2001 was $418.00 per acre.
[¶ 7.] Director then performed the same analysis on sales in just the Northern Neighborhood and determined that the median top dollar value was $241.00 per acre. Therefore, a parcel with a soil rating of 1.0 in the Northern Neighborhood would be assessed at $241.00 per acre. The same analysis was done in the Southern Neighborhood, and Director determined that the median top dollar value was $642.00 per acre. In other words, a parcel with a soil rating of 1.0 would be assessed at $642.00 per acre. Director determined that the $642.00 top dollar value of the Southern Neighborhood could mean that some parcels with lower soil ratings in the Southern Neighborhood could be overvalued, mainly rangeland properties.
[¶ 8.] Director then considered five sales, three of which included BFID water rights, of either rangeland or mostly rangeland, most with soil ratings less than.6 in the Southern Neighborhood. Director determined that the average top dollar value for rangeland soils in the Southern Neighborhood was $332.00 per acre. Using the Butte County Table 1.A soils ratings, Director determined that most of the rangeland soils in the county fell below a rating of .6. Because Director had determined that the top dollar value selected for rangeland soils in the Southern Neighborhood was $332.00 per acre and the top dollar value for the Southern Neighborhood was $642.00 per acre, he divided $332.00 by $642.00 to arrive at a 52 percent adjustment. This meant soil ratings of .6 or less were valued at 52 percent of the top dollar value in the Southern Neighborhood. Again, Director did not consider appurtenant and nontransferable water rights or access to BFID as factors.
[¶ 9.] To prepare for the assessment review for 2003, Director again laid out a map of Butte County and noted the sales on a per acre basis. None of the nine Northern Neighborhood sales had BFID water rights and all of the fourteen Southern Neighborhood sales had BFID water rights. Again, Director noticed that the sales price on a per acre basis varied between the Northern and Southern Neighborhoods. Director again suspected that the difference in price was due to location. Director performed seven rangeland pairings of Northern and Southern Neighborhood sales, considering various factors such as: location, soil quality, time of sale, use of property, and climate conditions. Again, appurtenant and nontransferable water rights and access to BFID were not considered as factors. Adjustments were made only for soil rating and time of sale. Based on these pairings, Director determined that there was anywhere from a 116 percent to 179 percent difference in per acre value as between Northern and Southern Neighborhood sales, with the higher land value being in the Southern Neighborhood.
[¶ 10.] Director next determined, under SDCL 10-6-33.6, that the median market value in each neighborhood deviated by more than ten percent from the county median market value. Director evaluated the nine sales in the Northern Neighborhood and observed that sale prices varied from $75.00 per acre to $140.00 per acre. Director calculated the median market value of the Northern Neighborhood to be $116.00 per acre. Fourteen sales occurred in the Southern Neighborhood, ranging from $175.00 per acre to $446.00 per acre. Director calculated the median market value of the Southern Neighborhood to be $345.00 per acre. Finally, Director calculated the countywide median market value per acre to be $253.00. Thus, the difference was -54.15 percent in the Northern Neighborhood and + 36.17 percent in the Southern Neighborhood. Based on the greater than ten percent deviation in each neighborhood, Director determined that SDCL 10-6-33.6 allowed him to establish a separate market value per acre for the land in each of the two neighborhoods.
[¶ 11.] Director calculated the median assessed value to sale...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Apland v. Bd. of Equal. for Butte Cnty.
...owned by Apland and other appellees (Apland). We must decide whether Director's recalculation on remand conformed to our decision in Apland I. The trial court held that Director did not comply with the directives in Apland I. We reverse and remand.FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND [¶ 2.] Apla......
-
Trask v. Meade Cnty. Comm'n
...to overcome the presumption."7 Apland v. Bd. of Equalization for Butte Cty. , 2013 S.D. 33, ¶ 9, 830 N.W.2d 93, 97 (quoting Apland v. Butte Cty. , 2006 S.D. 53, ¶ 16, 716 N.W.2d 787, 792 ). Taxpayers meet their burden to overcome this presumption by "produc[ing] sufficient evidence to show ......