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County officials say solar leases can trigger reclassification, higher property assessments
Summary
County discussion focused on how large solar projects and partial parcel use can change farmland to commercial status, how tax bills are issued, and what landowners should monitor to avoid unexpected tax consequences.
Deanna (board member) said she had been told that homeowners near a solar installation in Clark County saw an 86% increase in their property tax bills after the project was assessed.
Lisa (county assessor) told the board that parcels used for utility-scale solar are assessed by the project’s output and may be reclassified from farmland to commercial land if the portion of a parcel used for panels is not producing crops. "If that land is not producing a crop, that's not farmland. That's gonna be commercial land," Lisa said.
The reassessment discussion centered on a proposed Maggard solar field near Stratton that the assessor’s office counted as about 1,270 acres and roughly 200 megawatts. The office said it must compute a field-level value (assessed by megawatts) and then partition that total among roughly 25–27 parcels that contribute to the field. The assessor…
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