Property owners have until July 7 to appeal their county-assessed values. That date is the end of the 45-day appeal period for those who’ve received assessment notices.
The Gilmer Assessors Office mailed out 34,459 real property, and more than 2,700 personal property assessment notices and Forest Land Protection Act (FLPA) notices in May.
At a June 15 board of assessors meeting, Chief Appraiser Theresa Gooch said close to 300 pending appeals have been received thus far, but more were expected.
“We normally start picking up a little more activity (before) the deadline,” Gooch said.
Appeals can be filed in person at the Gilmer County Courthouse, by mail or online at GilmerAssessors.com. If filing an appeal on the website, users must first click the Property Search link to locate the property being appealed.
In other news ...
﹣ Board members heard comments from owners of a soon-to-open winery concerning a potential conservation use breach.
When a new survey was done on property that now includes Roo Mountain Vineyards, a portion of the winery building extended onto a parcel under a CUVA covenant, noted Gooch.
“It created a split,” she said. “That type of commercial activity cannot be on CUVA property, and that CUVA property cannot stand alone and qualify.”
Property owner Michelle Raffaele told the assessor board the entire 200-acre property is split into different parcels due to liability concerns. The winery is on a little over 5 acres not covered under conservation use.
Raffaele said she was advised by the county planning and zoning office that it was OK to shift property “as long as we kept the same amount in conservation.”
“We took some, moved it over and kept the same amount in conservation. We were advised by the county and thought we were doing the correct thing,” she added.
The winery owners were advised by county attorney David Clark and assessor board chairman Bill Logan to appeal the board’s decision to recognize the breach, which will help the item to be revisited.
They will have 30 days to rectify the survey and show that none of the commercial property extends into the acreage covered under conservation use, Gooch noted. If not rectified in the 30-day period, the penalty for the conservation use breach is $26,406.