Town, Preserve Reach Tax Appeal Settlement
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
July 11th 2025
RICHMOND – The Town of Richmond and the Preserve at Boulder Hills have reached a mediated agreement on the Preserve’s multiple property tax appeals.
The Preserve itself, and a group of owners of homes on the property, will receive a 12% reduction in their property tax assessments. The assessment reductions will be limited to $500,000 per property.
The “judgment of agreement,” issued earlier this week by Rhode Island Superior Court Justice Richard Licht, also includes a 10% reduction in the assessments of commercial properties on the site.
The reduction will apply only to the property assessment and will not include Preserve membership fees. Owners of both commercial and residential properties will be required to submit affidavits attesting that the purchase price does not include the membership fees.
“With respect to future property owners of real property within the Preserve Resorts District (the ‘Preserve’), whether they be residential owners or commercial owners, the owner
shall execute, at the time the applicable deed is recorded, a sworn affidavit setting forth what portion of the purchase price is attributable to membership fees,” the judgment states.
Tiny Homes
The settlement also addresses the assessments of tiny homes on the property.
“It is further agreed, and it is so ordered, that the so-called ‘tiny homes’ that are constructed of prefabricated material shall not be subject to taxation by the Town of Richmond provided they are a) readily moveable and transportable and b) that they have been assigned a bona fide license plate by a state agency charged with the authority to issue such plates,” the document reads.
Tiny homes with accessory buildings such as garages will receive the 12% reduction in the assessment of the garage or other accessory building.
The Cost to Richmond
The settlement is the result of months of mediation that began in the Fall of 2024, before the election of the new Town Council.
The Preserve and homeowners had contested property tax assessments dating back to 2021. To avoid costly litigation, the parties agreed to mediation, with attorney James Marusak representing the town and John Tarantino and Nicole Benjamin representing the Preserve and the homeowners.
Former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty was the mediator.
Council members did not take part in the mediation sessions, but were briefed in Executive Committee meetings, the minutes of which are not public.
An Access to Public Records Act request to the town for the fees paid by the town to attorneys since the first appeal of assessments in 2021 revealed that the total cost to Richmond since the first tax appeals were filed has been high: $269,838.11.
Having spent so much on legal fees, and with no guarantee that the town would have prevailed if the case went to court, council members said they felt that agreeing to the settlement was in the best interest of the town.
Council President Samantha Wilcox said the settlement was a fair one for Richmond.
“I think it’s the way to go,” she said. “There were differing opinions on items like the tiny homes. What would those be categorized as? Also, the membership fees being rolled into the deed, which affects the assessment. We have now a clear path forward where an affidavit will be signed by the owner of the property. … Another great point for the town is that we will not have to pay back prior years. It gives us a path going forward.”
Council Vice President Mark Reynolds, an attorney, is the former Chair of the town’s Tax Assessment Review Board, and therefore, well acquainted with the case.
“The assessments will be reduced by 12% and then, going forward, future assessments will be based upon that reduced number,” he said. “So, whether it works out to be 12% forever, or whether it ends up washing out at some point, who knows? I am satisfied. We had spent a lot of money in attorneys’ fees on these cases. We would have spent a lot more if we’d continued with the litigation, and so, from a dollars and cents standpoint, this makes sense for the town and it eliminates what could have been a bad result, if things didn’t go our way.”
No Preserve Appeals for Nine Years
The judgment concludes with a clause that prohibits the Preserve from disputing tax assessments for nine years.
“The Preserve, and the owners of property therein, shall not seek and hereby waive the right to seek any future tax stabilization plan or agreement for a period of nine (9) years from the date of this agreement with respect to existing properties,” it states. “Notwithstanding the foregoing, however, nothing in this agreed order shall prevent any individual taxpayer from challenging a future assessment on any individual property in any future tax year.”
The settlement came into effect on July 1, 2025.
Links to documents :