The Belmont Board of Assessors has decided to appeal the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board’s decision to award the Belmont Country Club a “significant” property tax abatement.
“Since I’ve been on the Board of Assessors, which is June of this year, discussing what to do in light of this decision has been one of our principal activities,” said Board of Assessors Chair Roy Epstein.
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According to court documents, the state’s Appellate Tax Board handed down a decision in February that resulted in refunds owed to the Belmont Country Club on two of its parcels for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023, totaling roughly $337,000. State law also stipulates 8% interest on the refund amount per year, from the time of payment of the original tax bill or the due date of the tax, whichever is later.
“All told, if you took the abatements and the interest at face value, you come up to $487,000,” Epstein said. “And that’s just fiscal years 21, 22, and 23.”
According to court documents, the Belmont Country Club encompasses about 197 acres of land across Belmont, Arlington and Lexington. The two parcels with land in Belmont are located at 171-181 Winter St. and 181 Winter St., totaling 70.5 acres and 59.5 acres, respectively. School officials previously confirmed the Belmont High School golf team uses the country club for practice and matches at no cost to the district.
In addition to the 18-hole golf course, the club features an outdoor pool, fitness center, tennis courts, and a clubhouse. Members pay initiation fees of $75,000 to $100,000, according to court records. In his testimony, Andrew Coleman, the general manager and chief operating officer of the Belmont Country Club, described the club in court documents as a “premier boutique country club in the Boston area.”
Through Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 61B, owners of certain types of land defined as recreational can apply for and receive a 75% cut in property taxes. According to town officials, the Belmont Country Club is the only entity in town that applies for and receives the reduction.
With that 75% reduction, the assessed land value per acre, per the Belmont Board of Assessors, was about $100,000 for fiscal year 2022. The state’s abated assessed value per acre, meanwhile, was about $20,000.
“The difference is so striking it’s one of the reasons the Board of Assessors felt we had an obligation to appeal this decision,” Epstein said.
According to Epstein, outside legal counsel believes there are “significant appealable errors in that decision.”
“The preference is always to settle things when you can, but we were not making any progress in trying to settle this, so the Board of Assessors really feels it’s our fiduciary obligation to the residents of the town if we feel there’s an error in this decision, we have to proceed with the appeal and take our chances that way, ” Epstein said.
Epstein said if there is no progress on settlement, there would likely be a trial sometime next year.
“We think [the decision is] legally erroneous; it’s economically flawed,” he said. “In terms of impact on the town, if a taxpayer’s property tax is reduced by $100,000, the town’s budget is not going to change. The town’s expenditures stay the same. The $100,000 simply has to be recouped by raising the taxes on everybody else. So there’s a distributional issue the Board of Assessors also thought was significant.”
Epstein added that in August, the club filed appeals for fiscal years 2024, 2025, and 2026. He previously explained the Appellate Tax Board’s assessments are “presumed valid” for two fiscal years following a court opinion.
Representatives of the Belmont Country Club previously said the club does not comment on news stories.