Milford — The Milford Board of Selectmen on June 23 denied 10 property tax abatement requests after hearing presentations from property owners and town assessing staff, and subsequently denied four petitions that sought residential assessment treatment under RSA 75:11 for properties located in commercial or industrial zones.

Melvin Newton, president of the Crosby House condominium association, spoke to the board and provided a multi‑page submission arguing that heavy traffic at 159 Elm Street justified a large reduction in assessed value. Newton cited New Hampshire Department of Transportation counts and an outside appraisal he said supported a 27% reduction for his development.

"We need not look any further than the Crosby townhouse condos at 159 Elm Street," Newton said while reading a prepared statement to the board. He said DOT data showing 10,097 vehicles per day on Elm Street compared with 3,727 on a Warren roadway supported his comparative adjustment.

Town assessing staff and the contracted assessor’s representative told the board Milford does not make separate traffic adjustments to assessments. Marty Noel of the assessing office explained that, for condominiums, the market value of each unit already reflects location and shared amenities and that RSA 75:11 — the statute petitioners invoked — applies to land‑value adjustments for residential homes in commercially zoned locations. "RSA 75 11, which allows for the land value of a property that's being used as a residential home that's in a commercially zoned area to be assessed as, fully residential," Noel told the board.

Why it matters: property tax abatements and RSA 75:11 petitions determine how individual properties are valued for tax purposes and can affect the town’s tax base and individual taxpayers’ bills. Newton told the board one of the Crosby units had sold in 2024 for about $436,000 and argued that assessments did not reflect heavy traffic or local comparative adjustments used in other towns.

Board action and motions:
- Denial of 10 abatements: Selectman Paul Darje moved to accept the assessor’s recommendations to deny the 10 abatement petitions as presented; Selectman Dave Friel seconded the motion and the board carried the vote.
- Denial of four RSA 75:11 petitions: Selectman Dodji moved to deny the four applications that sought residential land valuation under RSA 75:11 for properties in industrial/commercial zones; the motion was seconded and carried.

Assessment office explanations and context offered at the meeting included:
- Condominiums carry no separate land parcel per unit; any land component is included in the unit’s market value and the assessor adjusts unit values based on comparable sales rather than a separate land discount.
- The town’s current equalization rate is about 0.675; assessors said individual property values will be rebalanced at the time of the townwide reevaluation to bring assessments closer to market level.
- One of the abatement cases mentioned by petitioners is already under appeal in the Hillsborough County Superior Court; the board noted that pending appeals may be handled through the court process.

Speakers at the hearing included property owners, representatives from the contracted assessor and town assessing staff. The board voted to deny the abatement petitions as presented and to deny the RSA 75:11 petitions for the four properties that had applied under that statute.