ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210062
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital has sued Montgomery County, claiming the county improperly assessed the real estate value of the hospital in 1991 and 1993-1996.
The county gauges real estate value for tax purposes. Aside from major additions and renovations, a countywide reassessment is performed every four years. The assessment gauges the land's value and the value of anything done to it, including buildings and infrastructure.
Montgomery County contracts the job to a private company; in the 1991 and 1995 general reassessments, Wingate and Associates in Roanoke did the work.
The hospital's lawsuit, filed this month, contests the assessed value of the improvements to the hospital's 32.2 acres, which were recomputed in 1991 at $11.5 million, in 1995 at $11.9 million and in 1996 at $12.5 million. The land's assessed value over that time was $1.02 million.
Based on the county's 1996 real estate tax rate of 70 cents per $100 of assessed value, Columbia Regional Montgomery Hospital paid $95,036 in real estate tax, according to Ed Combs, Montgomery County assessor. Combs said the 1995 increase was because of the general assessment; the 1996 increase includes the added value of the hospital's then-new 8,066-square-feet birthing center.
Milton Johnson, vice president of Columbia/HCA's tax department, said the company claims the county overestimated the hospital property value by at least $5 million in each of the years in dispute. Based on 1996 rates, that's a difference of $35,000 on the tax bill. The hospital is asking the court to assess the appropriate real estate value for those years and refund the excess tax the hospital paid, with interest. The hospital claims the tax discrepancy, without interest, is about $200,000.
The hospital lawsuit isn't expected to be heard in Montgomery County Circuit Court for several months, said County Attorney Martin McMahon.
A second lawsuit against the county, filed in November by Riner resident Margaret S. Smith, claims the county failed to properly notify residents of a 1995 public hearing to discuss the rezoning of 5.6 acres to build a convenience store.
County law states a sign should be erected within 10 feet of any public road that borders the property up for rezoning. The signs have to be in place at least two weeks before the meeting and have to be maintained and clearly visible from the road.
Smith claims the signs notifying residents of the X-Press Mart rezoning request were placed near two of the three roads that border the Riner property, but were about 60 feet away and had fallen. The property borders Virginia 8, Five Points Road and Tuckahoe Drive.
Smith is asking the Montgomery County Circuit Court to declare the 1995 hearing invalid and set a new one. The store has not yet been built, according to the county planning office.
The county is asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit because Smith didn't file a complaint within 30 days of the county's 1995 decision to approve the rezoning request, as required by state law. The county's request is expected to be heard in Montgomery County Circuit Court by next month, McMahon said.
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