The [Catskill] Town Board on Wednesday agreed to a $2.7 million assessment reduction for Home Depot that will keep the company’s property on state Route 23B valued at $6.28 million through 2012. The settlement was adopted during a Town Board meeting at which Supervisor Peter Markou said the case was one of several involving large commercial properties, causing potential legal costs to mount. “We have a whole bunch of certiorari cases on the books,” he said. “We’re trying to settle them rather than go to court because it’s too expensive to go to court.” Town Assessor Nancy McCoy reported in May that Home Depot had sought to have its 2009 assessment reduced from about $9 million to about $4 million. “I don’t know whether I’d call it a relief,” Markou said of Wednesday’s reduction agreement. “It kills me to do it, but fair-market value changes. You go to court and argue it, you might lose. We’ve spent a lot of money doing, and it seems to me to be the path ... of least expense.” The resolution adopted by the Town Board on Wednesday states that a “settlement proposal resolving pending tax certiorari litigation was recommended by (town lawyer) Daniel G. Vincelette ... (as) an expeditious and economic alternative to further litigation.”... Town Board members in May agreed to set the assessment on the Wal-Mart property on state Route 23A at $13.5 million, a $1.67 million reduction, covering 2010 through 2012. Other cases involving large commercial holdings in Catskill include:
• Holcim Cement Co. on U.S. Route 9W, from $10.1 million to $1.65 million in a 2008 challenge.
• Lowe’s on state Route 23A, from $7.1 million to $3.48 million in a 2008 challenge.
• Rite Aid, on state Route 23A, from $1.8 million to $500,000 in a 2009 challenge.