Mayor’s Message: Bernie Platt
The Camden County Board of Taxation, under the supervision of the state of New Jersey Division of Taxation, has ordered the township to complete a revaluation of all property in Cherry Hill.
Since this order was delivered to the township, we have contracted with Professional Property Appraisers Inc. to update all assessments in town to their fair market value.
This operation will begin the week of May 16 and continue over the course of the next two years, officially going on the books in 2013.
This revaluation will help ensure a fair and equitable redistribution of the township’s tax levy so all property owners are shouldering their fair share of our tax burden.
This process is revenue-neutral for the Township and is not designed to generate any additional funds for the taxing entity.
The state Constitution requires that all real property be assessed according to the same standard of value; and such property shall be assessed for taxation under general laws and by uniform rules. Currently, most properties in Cherry Hill no longer reflect the assessed value that was assigned to them during the last property revaluation, which was conducted 18 years ago, in 1993.
In those 18 years, many changes in the real estate market have taken place; new housing and commercial properties have been constructed, while older structures have been torn down, rehabilitated or replaced.
Houses that appear exactly the same from the street may be drastically different inside due to renovation, repairs, deterioration or lack of maintenance, or a change of property class from residential to commercial.
The week of May 9, a letter was mailed out notifying property owners throughout Cherry Hill that this two-year process would be getting under way this week.
Moving forward, certified inspectors will be visiting each individual residence to collect data and assess properties. After the process is complete, the data collected will be used to determine their fair market value.
Each inspector will be wearing a photo identification badge and will be registered with the Cherry Hill Police Department. Additionally, inspectors will have their photos posted on the CHPD Facebook page.
Furthermore, this revaluation program will encompass the assessment of 26,477 properties and every property owner will have the ability to review their new value with representatives of PPA before it is made official and filed in the tax book.
For more information on the revaluation process please call PPA at 764–6500 or the township’s assessor’s office 488–7899. More information can also be found on the Township website under the heading Reval Project at www.cherryhill-nj.com.
