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Developers lose challenge over tax bill
By CARRIE JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer INVERNESS -- Former landowners in Sugarmill Woods were rebuffed in their attempt to overturn a judge's decision that would force them to pay the county back taxes. Love PGI Partners L.P. and Sugarmill Woods Inc. asked the 5th District Court of Appeal in October to dismiss a decision by Circuit Court Judge Barbara Gurrola. She ruled the developers were not entitled to an agricultural exemption that saved them $269,000 in 1997. In a June 21 decision, the appeals court rejected the landowners' petition, affirming the group was ineligible for the exemption because it did not file by the March 1 deadline. Property appraiser Ron Schultz said this means the landowners now have to pay the county for the uncollected tax. "It's an unexpected windfall," he said. "A delightful surprise." About half the money would be allocated to the Board of County Commissioners and the other half to the Citrus County School Board, Schultz said. But Tracy Carlin, a lawyer who represented the landowners in the case, said another appeal to either the 5th District or the Florida Supreme Court is not out of the question. She said her clients are still analyzing their options. The dispute began in 1992, when Schultz denied the developers an agricultural assessment after they removed their cows from 5,650 acres of south Citrus land the year before. Unlike other land classifications, such as residential or commercial, an agricultural exemption qualifies property owners for a much lower tax rate. The landowners lost when the case went to court in 1994, but won on appeal. The state Supreme Court ruled the landowners were entitled to the exemption for the 1994, 1995 and 1996 tax years because the county did not enforce the land use change. According to a brief filed by Carlin on behalf of Sugarmill Woods, the landowners did not believe they had to file for another agricultural exemption for the 1997 tax year because the case was under litigation at the time. But in September 2000, Gurrola issued a summary judgment ending the 1997 claim to an exemption. The land, which was rich with longleaf pines and home to many different species of wildlife, including the gopher tortoise, was later sold to the state as part of the Annetuliga Hammock purchase. -- Crime and courts reporter Carrie Johnson can be reached at 860-7309 or
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