Judge allows Austin’s appraisal suit to continue,
State District Judge Tim Sulak issued a slate of orders earlier this week that, in part, allow Austin’s property appraisal lawsuit to continue winding its way through the court system — including a hearing on several subjects scheduled for next month.
One of those subjects is a filing by commercial property owner Junk Yard Dogs LP that seeks to clarify whom exactly the city is suing.
The city’s lawsuit stems from a challenge petition the city filed in June saying commercial properties and vacant land in Travis County were appraised below the market value. That was the last time the city explicitly stated which properties it believes should be reappraised, Junk Yard Dogs said in its filing.
The filing also said a list of defendants the city submitted included 3,151 properties that do not fall in the state-defined commercial and vacant land categories. That list included only properties in the city of Austin portion of Travis County.
Another 1,796 commercial and vacant land properties in the city — including the Austin American-Statesman, National Instruments and Samsung properties — were “inexplicably omitted” from the list, the filing said.
According to the Travis Central Appraisal District’s online database, most of the improvements for those three properties were listed as industrial, which is not one of the classifications targeted by Austin’s lawsuit. But each of those sites had one improvement listed as commercial, which Junk Yard Dogs attorneys say could make them part of the lawsuit.
“Of course we’re not saying anybody ought to be sued,” said attorney Bill Aleshire, who worked on the special exceptions. “We’re saying that the city’s got to get this mess straightened out.”
The city’s lawsuit seeks the reappraisal of commercial and vacant land properties and asks the court to declare part of Texas’ property appraisal system unconstitutional.
City officials and staff have told the American-Statesman multiple times since June that the challenge petition and lawsuit covered all vacant land and commercial properties in the county.
City spokesman Alicia Dean said in an email Friday, “The City of Austin received the property lists from TCAD (the appraisal district) and believes the information to be accurate.”
The city had attempted to remove from the case the thousands of commercial and vacant land property owners who are currently named as defendants, arguing in part that state law doesn’t require those property owners to be parties to the case and that serving the owners would be expensive. Sulak rejected the city’s request earlier this week.
Sulak also decided that six local homeowners who intervened in the case should not be allowed to participate.
And, Sulak denied a motion from Junk Yard Dogs to dismiss the city’s lawsuit.
Junk Yard Dogs has filed a second motion to throw out the lawsuit, which will be heard Nov. 6 along with the question of which properties are included; a request from Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, to dismiss the city’s claims against him; and a request from the Texas Association of Realtors, Lowe’s Home Centers and the Driskill Hotel to dismiss the “constitutional challenges” in the city’s lawsuit.