After Suing Green Cove, Reynold's Park Learns Its Taxes Will Double
Re-Appraisal Spurred by Green Cove Official
In a one-two punch, Reynolds Industrial Park received its notice of a big tax increase around the same time that it lost a lawsuit against the city of Green Cove Springs. The TRIM notification for Reynolds has its yearly taxes more than double, rising from $262,410 to $595,824.
Reynolds and its tenant Pegasus Technologies had sued Green Cove and a prominent county landowner over a proposed apartment complex approved by the city for a parcel that aligned with the Reynolds Airpark runway. Green Cove and the Virginia Hall family won the lawsuit in a ruling handed down in late August.
The Clay County Property Appraiser actually more than tripled the value of the 1,600-acre facility, but because of Florida’s 10 percent cap on annual property tax increases, the full impact of the new valuation won’t show up on Reynold’s tax bill immediately. The cap doesn’t apply to the school portion of the tax, so that amount will go from $98,000 to $276,838.
The re-appraisal was an indirect consequence of the lawsuit. The suit was about aviation safety, zoning and whether the city’s approval of the apartments was consistent with its formal land use plan. In their scrutiny of their lawsuit adversaries, however, city officials learned that Pegasus had built a $5 million administration building, which apparently had never been added to the tax rolls.
Counties in Florida are the taxation authorities, not cities and towns, so the discrepancy was brought to the county’s attention—some would say forcefully—by City Councilor and former Mayor Ed Gaw.
Earlier Story
In general, Gaw said, the 2022 assessment of $17.1 million was too low for a property of 1,600 acres, 90 buildings and riverfront. The county undertook a reappraisal.
“Let me make something very, very, very clear. That lawsuit and the appraised value of that property tax issue are two completely unrelated things, said Thomas Marcy, Clay County director of appraisal services. He said overlooking the Pegasus building had been a minor oversight, which had been corrected in the reappraisal.
Gaw declined to comment on the latest development. “Brother, this conversation is over,” he said.
After the initial article, however, Gaw had been slightly more talkative, confirming the accuracy of the comeuppance narrative. The author “got one thing right,” he said, “the part about, this wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t sue us.”
Tracy said much of the increase came as the result of a revaluation of agricultural status for nearly half of Reynold’s acreage.
“There are several factors at play. There was some agricultural classifications that were removed that will probably be put back in place upon review of a new (agricultural) management plan by the port,” he said. “They have filed an appeal on their agricultural classification, just to keep their window open so they can provide documentation to get everything in order.”
Reynolds Executive Director Ted McGowan did not respond to an email asking whether he wanted to comment.