Olive Lane Industrial Park, LLC v. County of San Diego

Olive Lane Industrial Park, LLC (Olive Lane), owned real property that was taken by eminent domain. Within four years after the eminent domain order, Olive Lane acquired another parcel of property. About five and one-half years after the eminent domain order, for purposes of calculating property taxes on its new property, Olive Lane filed a request with the San Diego County (County) tax assessor to transfer the condemned property’s base year value to the replacement property, as permitted by California Constitution, article XIII A (Article XIII A). The County denied Olive Lane’s request as untimely under Revenue and Taxation Code section 68.

Article XIII A, enacted through the adoption of Proposition 13, provided broadscale property tax relief by restructuring the manner in which property taxes are calculated. Proposition 13 “rolled back” the valuations of property (the base year value) to the 1975-1976 tax year; placed a cap on the percentage of the base year value that was taxable; and then allowed increases in the base year value to the current market value only in certain situations, including when there is a change in ownership of the property. Following Proposition…