Ineligibility

The Legislature finds that when the value of a recreational use lease of forest land exceeds the value of the tree growth that can be extracted from that land on a sustained basis per acre as determined pursuant to section 576 , then the land is no longer primarily used for the continuous growth of forest products. This finding is sufficient cause to remove from taxation under this subchapter those parcels that are more valuable for recreational use and are being leased on that basis. Therefore, notwithstanding sections 573 and 574-B , a parcel of forest land that is leased for consideration to any person to use for recreational purposes does not qualify for taxation under this subchapter if that parcel of land exceeds 100 acres and if the consideration for that lease per acre exceeds the value of the growth that can be extracted on a sustained basis per acre as determined pursuant to section 576 . The owner of the leased parcels shall submit a copy of the lease or leases on land subject to taxation under this subchapter to the State Tax Assessor for land in the unorganized territory and to the municipal assessors for land in municipalities. The State Tax Assessor or the municipal assessor shall determine whether the value of the lease exceeds the sustained growth value. If the value of the lease is determined to exceed the sustained growth value, the owner of the forest land has 60 days from the date of receipt of notice of that determination to either terminate the lease, amend the lease to comply with the requirements of this section or withdraw the land covered by the lease from taxation under this subchapter. A withdrawal pursuant to this section is subject to the provisions of section 581 . [PL 2007, c. 627, §14 (AMD).]