Chamblee is suing DeKalb County over allegations that county officials are misusing airport land for business purposes and cutting the city out of tax revenue.
On Feb. 1, Chamblee filed a legal complaint in DeKalb County Superior Court alleging that the county is using DeKalb-Peachtree Airport’s property to offer tax-free land for non-aviation-related businesses like office buildings and restaurants. As a result, the city claims it has been denied certain tax revenue since at least 2014.
The legal complaint lists multiple parcels that have no appraised property value and others that saw their appraisals vastly increase after the city began asking questions. The city estimates it’s been shorted at least $83,000, but since several of the city’s open record requests have been ignored, the city said it can’t accurately calculate the city’s loss.
“The city has detailed our concern that the City of Chamblee, DeKalb County School System and DeKalb County Board of Commissioners are not receiving the full taxable value of property at the airport due to this situation while certain lease holders may be receiving an unfair competitive advantage due to the fact they are not paying full taxes,” Jon Walker, Chamblee’s city manager, said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “As this is pending litigation, we will refrain from further statements.”
The lawsuit’s defendants — which include DeKalb County, DeKalb commissioners, the county’s Board of Assessors and DeKalb Tax Commissioner Irvin Johnson — either declined to comment on the pending litigation or did not respond before publication.
»Read the full legal complaint document at the bottom of this story.
DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, commonly called “PDK” after its official FAA designation, sits on roughly 730 acres of Chamblee land, which is more than a third of the city’s total land area. It’s the second busiest airport in the state, typically used for private jets instead of commercial passenger flights.
In October 2017, Chamblee and PDK’s director discussed the city’s concerns that airport land was not being properly taxed. The airport is owned by the county, but the city claims DeKalb is leasing out airport land for purposes other than airport operations.
Fincher Denmark LLC, the law firm representing Chamblee, said it found the county and PDK Airport entered into multi-year leases with several private firms since 2000. The vast majority of those leases were assessed as nontaxable by county tax officials.
“DeKalb County is engaging in business activity as a market-participant at PDK for the purpose of creating revenue wholly unrelated to its governmental functions,” the lawsuit said. “Accordingly, DeKalb County is subject to occupational taxation by Chamblee related to the county’s proprietary business activity, just like any other business operating in Chamblee.”
The leases include office buildings, an auto service center, a warehouse and The 57th Fighter Group Restaurant, which are all located on land appraised to have no value, according to the lawsuit. If the land was owned by the individual tenants, the city would be able to collect certain building, occupancy and land taxes.
“These appraisal and assessment practices are clearly in violation of Georgia law and appraisal procedures,” the law firm said in an Oct. 19, 2021 letter to DeKalb officials, which was cited in the lawsuit.
The law firm said it can not get lease agreements for 19 parcels located at the airport, and at least three parcels had their total appraised value more than triple from 2017 to 2018. Another’s appraised value increased sixfold.
Chamblee is asking for the court to order a review of all PDK Airport leases and lease renewals in addition to a reassessment of property values at the airport. The city also wants to be reimbursed for the amount of tax revenue it has lost over the years due to these alleged improper leases, and it asks the court to make DeKalb pay an occupation tax for the currently operating businesses.
About the Author
