Natural Resource Inventory and Assessment - Town of Guilford

Appendix
H-3a
Forest land
To be eligible for forest classification under the P.A. 490 program, tracts have to be twenty-five acres or
more in size bearing tree growth that meets certain standards as set by the State Forester as per statute. 4
Legislation passed in 2004, Public Act 04-115, updates P.A. 490 by requiring a forestry report prepared by a
certified forester to be submitted with a property owner’s application for forestry land classification to the
Assessor on an annual basis. These lands can be managed for timber production. Forest land is uniformly
assessed at 70 percent of $320/acre.
Open Space
Properties delineated in an adopted municipal open space plan as existing open space or proposed
open space lands are eligible for preferential tax relief as “open space land” under Public Act 490, as
provided in CGS 12-107 e. Additionally, land must be recommended for preservation as open space in a
town plan of conservation and development, under a process provided for in CGS Section 12-107 e (a), in
order to qualify under certain open space acquisition funding programs.
The classification of land as “open space land” is subject to some latitude at the discretion of the
Assessor in a municipality. In Guilford, the Town Assessor further defines eligible open space as:
all portions of tracts of land in Town that are, a) unencumbered by buildings or
structures and related site improvements, and, b) are in excess of either 80,000
square feet in area or twice the minimum lot size for the zone district in which the
parcel is located, whichever is less, provided however, that none of the following are
designated open space:
a. any building lot in an approved and filed subdivision
b. all land area in an approved and recorded Planned Residential Development,
except as such land may be unimproved and designated as Open Space on
the approved Development Plan; and
c. all land zoned for industrial or commercial uses on the Zoning Map of the
Town of Guilford, CT.
Under the forest or farmland classification, a 10 percent conveyance tax (commonly referred to as a
penalty) is exacted by the Town if the land is sold or the use changes within the first year of ownership or
classification, whichever date is earlier, with the penalty declining by one percent over a ten year period.
The same is true regarding open space land with the exception that only the date of classification applies.
No conveyance tax is imposed if these lands are sold or the use changes at the end of the ten-year period.
See CGS 12-504a-h for specifics.
Endnotes
1 figures used herein dated 8/6/03
2 CGS 12-107 c. Classification of land as farmland
3 Definition as per Guilford Town Assessor’s Numeric Land Use Codes; under 6, Use Assessment; 6-1 Farm use
4 CGS Sec. 12-107 d. Classification of land as forestland as amended by P.A. 04-115
Natural Resource Inventory and Assessment Town of Guilford, CT