In this declaratory judgment action, Stephanie Bock sued the Chatham County Board of Tax Assessors “BOA”, claiming that the BOA wrongfully refused to apply a county-specific homestead exemption1 to her property based on the fact that the property had earlier been assessed under the Rehabilitated Historic Property Preferential Assessment Act2 “RHPPA”. Following the trial court’s grant of Bock’s motion for summary judgment and its denial of the BOA’s motion for summary judgment, the BOA appeals, arguing that Bock cannot benefit from both the preferential assessment and the homestead exemption because the two statutory schemes are mutually exclusive. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm. Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9-11-56 c; Britt v. Kelly & Picerne, Inc. 3 “On appeal from the grant or denial of a motion for summary judgment, we review the evidence de novo, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from the evidence are construed in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.” Punctuation omitted. McCall v. Couture .4
The facts in this matter have been stipulated to by the parties. In 1997, Bock purchased property located at 210 W. Park Avenue in Savannah, Georgia the “property”. The property, which was built in 1900, qualified for listing on the Georgia Register of Historic Places. Under OCGA § 48-5-2 3 C i the RHPPA, the fair market value of property that has been classified as “rehabilitated historic property,” pursuant to OCGA § 48-5-7.2 a, is fixed for ad valorem tax purposes for eight years at the greater of its acquisition cost or the appraised fair market value. The preferential assessment under the RHPPA begins to phase out in the ninth year, at which time the fair market value may be increased by one-half of the difference between the initial value as a rehabilitated historic property and the current fair market value. See OCGA § 48-5-2 3 C ii. In the tenth year, the rehabilitated historic property loses the preferential assessment and is assessed at its current fair market value. See OCGA § 48-5-2 3 C iii.
