HANOVER — After a college-owned golf course was allowed to go untaxed for decades, Hanover’s new director of assessing is reconsidering the arrangement, especially in light of the college’s plan to develop the property.
Norm Bernaiche, who was hired last year in the wake of the town’s much-criticized 2018 property revaluation, said Monday that it is unclear to him why the now-closed golf course was completely tax-exempt.
The Dartmouth College golf team practiced there, and the course’s 120-year-old country club has historical significance, he said, but also had dues-paying members.
“At least some of it should have been taxable,” Bernaiche said.
The golf course, which had been home to the college-owned Hanover Country Club until it didn’t reopen for the 2020 season, spans about 120 acres on two parcels and is assessed at $12.8 million.
Under Hanover’s current property tax rate of $18.45 per $1,000 of assessed value, Dartmouth would have to pay about $237,000 annually on the parcel.
The college’s newly released master plan makes clear that with the golf course closed the property is likely to be developed as the campus expands northward along Lyme Road.
But in a letter to the town, Dartmouth has asked officials to continue to exempt the parcels from property taxes, describing the land as an “integral” part of the school’s outdoor offerings.
Even without golf, the land offers an “alternative outdoor space” close to campus and downtown Hanover, Daniel Justynski, Dartmouth’s director of real estate, said in a June letter.
“These lands have long been a gathering place for informal recreation and socializing by students, faculty and staff such as sledding, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter, to running, walking and dog-walking in the warmer months,” he wrote.
New Hampshire state law exempts college facilities, “including athletic fields and facilities and gymnasiums” from local property taxes so long as they contribute to the institution’s educational mission. College dormitories, dining rooms and kitchens enjoy a $150,000 exemption but otherwise can be taxed by a municipality.
Hanover officials have expressed skepticism that the golf course land is still serving its purported educational mission, especially since the college recently indicated that it could develop the site.
Dartmouth’s new master plan calls for a potential “mix of campus uses, such as academic, administrative, and graduate or professional student housing” along Lyme Road, aka Route 10. Other portions of the property could be used for a park-like space or recreational land, including possible cross-country ski trails or new golf course, according to the plan.
Bernaiche said the potential for development is likely to increase the property’s assessed value when the town has completed its 2021 revaluation.
“That is high-value institutional zoned land and (its value) will likely increase as opposed to a golf course, which is not its highest and best use,” he said in an email.
In its letter to the town, Dartmouth said its cross-country, track and skiing teams continue to train on the property. The Outdoor Programs Office also runs sledding activities there and set up a nine-hole disc golf course this spring.
“In all these uses, Dartmouth affirms its purpose and mission, which includes providing ‘a comprehensive out-of-classroom experience, including athletic, recreational and outdoor programs,’ ” Justynski wrote.
Bernaiche said a review of the golf course’s tax-exempt status started earlier this year when Dartmouth submitted an application asking to forgo payments in the coming year.
“That’s still in progress,” he said.
The town’s Advisory Board of Assessors is expected to make a recommendation, which will go before the Selectboard sometime in August.
Dartmouth’s argument that the golf course land serves an institutional mission as open recreation space is unusual from a tax perspective, said Marti Noel, president of the New Hampshire Association of Assessing Officials.
Most public parks are owned either by a town or state government, meaning their tax-exempt status is fairly easy to determine, said Noel, who serves as Milford, N.H.’s, assessor.
She said there is another way for the college to lower its tax bill, but it would constrain what could be done with the property.
“There is ‘current use,’ and if Dartmouth College isn’t using that land, they would have current use status and be assessed at a lot less,” she said.
Under New Hampshire’s current use program, landowners with 10 or more acres can apply to the state for a lower property assessment in return for a promise to keep forests and fields undeveloped.
However, Noel noted, to enroll in the program Dartmouth College would have to negotiate with the town on a provision of the law that says properties have to be left in their “natural state.”
The program also would require Dartmouth to pay a 10% penalty on the market value of the land if it ever did move forward with developing the former links.
“Certainly between Dartmouth and Hanover, that’s a discussion they need to have,” Noel said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.