THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610040518
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BATTINTO BATTS JR., STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 46 lines
Cornelius Long is due a tax refund for waterfront property that the state sold him by mistake at a 1994 auction, city officials now say.
But Long may never get the $370.87 refund.
A city review of the sale, which revealed the property actually belongs to the Virginia Port Authority, also found that Long owes taxes on some other sites he owns in Portsmouth, city officials say.
Any refund he is entitled may be used to pay that debt, City Tax Assessor William Froehlich said.
``When we got into the process of looking at a refund on this property, the city treasurer informed us that (Long) owed taxes on another property,'' Froehlich said. ``There is an issue if the refund will be given to him or applied to outstanding taxes.''
City officials say they are in the process of determining how much in back taxes Long owes on the other properties.
Long, who has been in a two-year battle with the Port Authority over the property, says he has not been contacted by the city regarding the latest developments.
``I haven't heard anything,'' he said this week.
Long thought he had a bargain when he paid $250 for the Carolina Avenue parcel, which was assessed at $11,970.
Long said he planned to develop the site, possibly with a building that he would rent to businesses, to help the Portsmouth tax base.
But when Long went to see the land for the first time, he found it enclosed by a large chain-link fence and being used as an entrance to the Port Authority's Portsmouth terminals.
The records show the Port Authority became owner of the land after after Portsmouth sold it to the state in October 1983.
Froelich said Portsmouth erred recording the sale to the state in 1983. And because the Port Authority is tax-exempt, no real-estate taxes were paid on the site for 10 years. Thus, the land wrongly ended up on delinquent property tax list, city officials say.
Seeking to return the property to the tax rolls, the state auctioned the land in August 1994, when Long purchased it. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
At a 1994 auction, Cornelius Long was mistakenly sold property owned
by the Virginia Port Authority. by CNB