AN ACT AUTHORIZING MUNICIPALITIES TO ABATE TAXES ON OPEN SPACE LAND.

This bill sets conditions under which municipalities, including boroughs and special taxing districts, may abate property taxes on open space land. This abatement is separate from the property tax benefit available to open space land owners under the 490 program.

The bill allows municipalities meeting very narrow criteria to adopt specified zoning regulatory techniques. Its authorization applies to municipalities exercising zoning powers under a special act, that have a mayor-alderman form of government, and that were incorporated in 1784. (New Haven is the only municipality that meets these criteria. ) The techniques are floating and overlay zones and flexible zoning districts. A municipality that chooses to adopt these techniques must do so under its zoning regulations and comply with the bill's restrictions.

*Senate Amendment “A” eliminates a criterion for determining if land qualifies for the property tax abatement and added provisions authorizing zoning regulatory techniques.

*Senate Amendment “B” changes the requirements for (1) determining the abatement amount and period and (2) transferring the abatement to other taxable property.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2006 and applicable to assessment years beginning on or after that date.

Municipalities can abate the taxes for open space land, including forests, if preserving or restricting its use would:

1. maintain and enhance the conservation of natural or scenic resources;

2. protect natural streams or water supplies;

3. promote soil, wetlands, beach, and tidal marsh conservation;

4. enhance the public value of abutting or neighboring parks, forests, wildlife preserves, nature reservations or other sanctuaries, or other open spaces;

5. preserve historic sites; or

6. promote orderly urban or suburban development.

Municipalities that choose to offer the abatement must do so by adopting an ordinance to implement it. The ordinance must authorize the abatement if the property's owner agrees to transfer the land's development rights to the municipality or give conservation easements or right-of-way to the land. The ordinance must specify how owners may apply for the abatement and require that the land's value be appraised with and without the development rights.

The town may set the abatement for an amount that is up to the open space land's fair market value and determine the time period during which the taxpayer may claim the abatement. The land's owner may transfer the abatement to any other property he owns in the town.

The bill allows municipalities exercising zoning powers under a special act and meeting other narrow criteria to adopt certain zoning techniques. The techniques depart from traditional zoning methods, which divide a municipality into districts and impose different requirements on how people can develop and use the land in each district. Floating and overlay zones specify requirements without anchoring them to any specific area until the zoning commission approves a project that meets those requirements.

Flexible zoning districts also depart from the traditional practice by emphasizing general goals instead of strict regulatory requirements. They allow developers to plan and develop projects involving a mix of different uses as a single entity. They include planned development districts, planned development units, special design districts, and planned area developments.

A municipality's zoning regulations must establish regulatory standards for floating and overlay zones and flexible zoning districts. The flexible zoning districts must benefit the municipality, its floating and overlay zones, and the neighborhoods in which the districts are located. A flexible zoning district regulation may establish a zone within an existing residential neighborhood, but the new zone's requirements must be at least as restrictive as the underlying zone's.

Flexible zoning district regulations must not allow someone to expand a preexisting nonconforming use. A nonconforming use is one that does not conform to the current zoning requirements but was allowed before they were adopted or changed (e. g. , a gas station in a residential zone). Read literally, the bill also prohibits a zoning commission from approving planned development districts in residential zones.

By law, tax assessors must classify farms, forests, and open space land under the 490 Program and assess them based on their current use value without regard to their potential resale or fair market value (i. e. , the highest and best use one can make of undeveloped land). Assessing land based on its current use yields a lower assessment and, consequently, a lower tax bill than if it were taxed based on its fair market value.

Yea

Nay

(03/17/2006)

Yea

Nay

(04/11/2006)