Wind Colebrook South, LLC v. Colebrook

Citations

• 344 Conn. 150

Syllabus

Pursuant to statute (§ 12-64 (a)), the following property, if not exempted, shall be taxed as real property: ''Dwelling houses, garages, barns, sheds, stores, shops, mills, buildings used for business, commercial, financial, manufacturing, mercantile and trading purposes, ice houses, ware- houses, silos, [and] all other buildings and structures . . . .'' Pursuant further to statute (§ 12-41 (c)), ''[t]he annual declaration of the tangible personal property owned by such person on the assessment date, shall include, but is not limited to . . . [m]achinery used in mills 344 Conn. 150 AUGUST, 2022 151 Wind Colebrook South, LLC v. Colebrook and factories, cables, wires, poles, underground mains, conduits, pipes and other fixtures of water, gas, electric and heating companies . . . .'' The plaintiff, which owns and operates a wind to electricity generation facility in the defendant town, appealed to the trial court from the decision of the town's board of assessment appeals. The board had denied the plaintiff's appeal from the town assessor's allegedly improper classification of its two wind turbines and the equipment associated with the turbines as real property pursuant to § 12-64 (a), rather than personal property pursuant to § 12-41 (c), and its appeal from the asses- sor's overvaluation and overassessment of the plaintiff's property. The turbines, which each consist of a tower, a hub, a nacelle, and a three blade rotor, are located on one parcel of land and controlled by a remote computer system, which, along with its associated equipment and software, is stored on an adjacent parcel of land. The tower of each turbine is more than 300 feet in height, contains a control panel and other equipment accessible through an exterior door at its base, and is bolted into a separate concrete foundation. The turbines were designed to remain in place for twenty years, after which the plaintiff agreed to decommission them. On its 2015 declaration of personal property, the plainti