Property Appraiser Wins Suit Against Hotelier

ORLANDO-Orange County property appraiser Bill Donegan has won the first of five lawsuits he has filed against some of the biggest landowners in Florida who argue they should be allowed a lowered annual tax assessment because they planted pine trees on potentially valuable commercial land to help the environment. Growing pine trees makes their land fall into the lower-assessed agriculture category, they claim.

But Orange Circuit Court Judge William C. Gridley sees it differently. Gridley denied a claim by RH Resorts, owned by Harris Rosen, Florida’s largest independent hotel owner with 10,000 rooms. Rosen tells GlobeSt.com he will be appealing the judge’s ruling to the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach.

For Rosen, the ruling means his annual tax bill on 230 prime undeveloped acres in the tourist corridor will be $467,000 instead of the $26,812 he has claimed. Rosen bought 250 acres from Universal Orlando in 2001 for $29.6 million on $118,400 per acre. He donated 20 acres to the University of Central Florida.