To: Morning Star Ranch Lot Owners
From: Christine Young
[Posted by webmaster from OCR of emailed pdf. You can find the full pdf at: http://www.msr-hoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MSR-Community-Association-2019-Annual-Meeting-Notice-Documents-Mailed-1.15.19.pdf
Date: January 9, 2019
Re: Agricultural Status for Property Taxes
I am writing to you regarding the Agricultural Land Status on the Morning Star Ranch Lots. Many of you may recall that you previously received communications from Steve Thomas on this subject. Steve has retired from the practice of law and I recently began representing Morning Star Ranch Development, LLC (MSRD).
Based on my review of the Santa Cruz County Assessor’s on-line records, it appears that every Lot in the Ranch currently has the grazing classification, either in full if the Lot is vacant, or in part if you have a residence on it. The basis for the agricultural classification is the Grazing Lease between MSRD and Mill Iron Cattle Co. LLC.
The importance of this classification is hard to overstate. For 2018, a vacant 36-acre Lot had an “appraised value” for tax purposes of $720. The 2016 appraised value on one of the Lots without the classification was $97,200. If there is a home on the Lot, those portions not occupied by it and any other improvements also were assigned a value of $20 per acre, while the rest of the land and the improvements were valued by methods generally applied to residential property.
A new Grazing Lease was just signed for the 2019 – 2022 period. Under the CC&Rs (as clarified by the Fourth Amendment adopted in 2010 to satisfy the Assessor’s requirements), during the current period of developer control of the Community Association, MSRD has the right to enter into a commercial grazing lease that covers the entire Ranch, regardless of ownership. Once this period ends, the right to lease will pass to the Community Association. Lot owners may only prohibit cattle from grazing within their “Building Envelope” (as defined by the Design Guidelines) by fencing it off.
The new Grazing Lease and the required Abstract of Lease were filed by MSRD on December 18, 2018, so there is nothing that you need to do in that regard. I have communicated with Edmo Acuna, with the Agricultural and Vacant Land Department of the Assessor’s Office, regarding these filings and the overall Agricultural Status of the Ranch. Previously, the Assessor sent letters to the owners of property within the Ranch advising them of the need to file the Agricultural Land Use Application (DOR 82916) and the Supplement Page (DOR 82916-S) to request continued Agricultural Classification. Based upon my conversations with Mr. Acuna, I understand the Assessor does not intend to send to the owners the letters and forms in advance of the deadline by which filings must be made for each Lot. Nonetheless, Mr. Acuna stated that the Assessor expects each Lot owner to file a new Application and Supplement Page no later than four years after the last filing (for the majority of the owners, this was in January 2015). Of course, it is up to each owner to ensure that the filing is timely made. We recommend that each owner file the Application and Supplement now. For your convenience, enclosed are copies of the current version of the Application and the Supplement or if you would prefer to download the forms in PDF format, which can be completed, printed and saved, they are available on the Arizona Department of Revenue’s website at http://www.azdor.gov/propery-forms/agricultural-land-use-application.
As it has been several years since you have gone through this process, I am providing some information below which may be useful in completing the forms.
Application:
- At the top, use the date that you expect to mail the form. Fill in Santa Cruz County. Fill in your name and the address where you want documents from the Assessor to go in the future.
- In the “Totals” box, use the Total Acres listed in the third column of Box A. For “Carrying Capacity-Animal AUM’s”, as a general rule, enter eight for each Lot you own. Based on the Grazing Lease and information in the Abstract of Lease, that is the correct number for 36 acres. If you exclude more than five acres for Homesite Acreage, reduce it to seven. If your Lot is more than 40 acres, increase it to nine plus one more for each additional five acres.
- In Box A, fill in the tax parcel number for each Lot you own. The number should be on the tax and other forms you have received from the Assessor’s Office. Generally, the number for each Lot in the Ranch is 112-39-lot number (adding zeros as needed to make it three digits, e.g., Lot 7 is 112-39-007). The Land Use code is GR for grazing. In the third column, state the total acreage of your Lot, less the number of acres in the next column, if any, for Homesite Acreage (as defined in the instructions). In the past, the Assessor has used five acres as the minimum. If you do not know your acreage, you can look it up at http://parcelsearch.co.santa-cruz.az.us/RWDataMartPropertyInquiry/Inquiry.aspx (leave out the dashes in the parcel number). Boxes B and C are inapplicable.
- The Affirm and Attest section has three boxes. The instructions state that you can add an attachment to explain why you have left any of them unchecked, but the Assessor generally has made it clear that he expects them all to be checked. I can understand your reluctance to check the second and third based on just your Lot(s), but I believe that this can be overcome by writing in “as part of Morning Star Ranch” after each box or below with an asterisk after the boxes referencing it. I understand that all of your applications will be considered by Mr. Acuna along with the one from MSRD for the majority of the acreage in the Ranch.
Supplement:
You can download the supplement at https://azdor.gov/forms/property-forms/agricultural-land-use-application-%E2%80%93-supplement-page
1. Fill in the information requested at the top.
2. In Section 1, check Box 2. You may not be the “landlord”, but your Lot is leased.
3. In Section 2, check “Portion”. This ties your Lot(s) into the Ranch.
The Assessor’s Office has stated that all owners must file their own Applications for the Lots. Please make sure yours is filed on time. Please copy me if it is not too much trouble so I know that it has been done. If you have any questions on this filing, you can reach Edmo Acuna, Santa Cruz County Assessor’s Office at 520-375-8030 or you can call me.