Background
Coe Commons, LLC owns three small parcels along Route 29 in Rochester, Illinois. Each parcel contains a steel, double-faced billboard that Lamar Advertising leases the land to operate. For 2022, the Sangamon County Board of Review assessed each parcel for both land and a “Non-Farm Building,” effectively treating the billboards as taxable real property.
Coe Commons challenged those assessments before the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board (PTAB). It relied on leases stating that structures, equipment, and materials placed on the parcels remained Lamar’s personal property and had to be removed after termination. The PTAB upheld the assessments, concluding that Coe Commons had not shown how billboards were assessed before January 1, 1979, or that like property had been reclassified afterward in violation of section 24-5 of the Property Tax Code. The circuit court upheld the PTAB.
The Court’s Holding
The appellate court reversed and remanded because the PTAB’s decision and record did not permit meaningful judicial review. Whether the billboards qualified as real property under the Code, and whether section 24-5 required their treatment as personal property, presented a mixed question of law and fact reviewed for clear error.
The PTAB recited the evidence and governing statutes but did not make findings explaining why it upheld the assessments. The record also lacked material evidence concerning such matters as the billboards’ construction, attachment to the land, foundations, removability, maintenance, and the condition of the property before the leases. The court could not determine what evidence the PTAB weighed, whether it improperly presumed the assessments correct, or why it rejected the lease-based argument that the billboards remained personal property.
Key Takeaways
- An administrative agency must provide findings and a record adequate for judicial review.
- The PTAB cannot uphold an assessment through conclusory statutory recitations without explaining its reasoning.
- Whether a billboard is taxable realty may depend on evidence of annexation, permanence, intended use, and removability.
Why It Matters
The ruling does not decide whether these billboards are real or personal property for tax purposes. Instead, it requires the PTAB to make supported findings, redetermine Coe Commons’s request if necessary, and create a reviewable record.
The decision underscores that both taxpayers and taxing authorities should develop evidence about the physical characteristics and intended permanence of disputed improvements, particularly where fixture classification drives property-tax treatment.