Mamaroneck REVIEW THE
December 9, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 50 | www.mamaroneckreview.com
Court awards Hampshire $350K in tax cert case By JAMES PERO Staff Writer
BANNER YEAR Prior to Mamaroneck’s Dec. 2 game against Rye, the Tigers raised the banner from their 2016 state championship at Hommocks Ice Rink. Mamaroneck followed up the ceremony with a 4-3 overtime win over the Garnets. For more, see page 14. Photo/Mike Smith
‘Larchmont’: A father, a son, and a small town By SIBYLLA CHIPAZIWA Assistant Editor With a population of 6,000 in an area just over 1 square mile, the village of Larchmont may not seem so small to its residents. However, “Larchmont,” a new indie film from two village natives, highlights just how
quickly news can spread, and how inescapable that can be. Twenty-four-year-olds Ben Zuckert and Will Seife, both former Larchmont residents who now live in Brooklyn, co-produced the movie. “We were born [in Larchmont] and grew up there; we both went to Chatsworth, and
then Hommocks and then Mamaroneck High School,” Seife said. “We actually grew up down the street from each other [in Larchmont Manor],” Zuckert added. “Larchmont” marks the duo’s first feature film, which was shot in various locations in Larch-
mont in the summer of 2015 in just 18 days with help from about 70 people—many of them local residents—in front and behind the camera. “The shoot was very exciting, but also very stressful,” Zuckert told the Review. “We had to LARCHMONT continued on page 5
After a failed $55 million lawsuit against the village and town of Mamaroneck, Hampshire Country Club will receive a six-figure refund after the lower courts shot down an appeal of its tax assessment case. According to Thomas Nappi, a representative from Hampshire, the refund—which comes after a tax certiorari case launched in 2013—will total in excess of $350,000, and Nappi said there may be more refunds forthcoming, with the club recently submitting paperwork to grieve its tax assessments for years 2013 through 2016. “This ruling’s impact on subsequent years will be significant,” Nappi said. The decision to award the club a refund for tax years 2010 to 2012 comes after the club’s initial grievance in 2013 of its tax assessment by the town. While this grievance by the club was shot down by the town Board of Assessment Review and subsequently a county court in 2013 after Hampshire appealed the board’s decision, a second appeal from Hampshire which brought the case to the state level, reversed the county court’s ruling in January of this year. The state ruled that
the town and village’s decision to assess taxes based on the last sale value of the property—$12 million—was incorrect, and decreased the assessment of the property to approximately $5 million for both the town and the village. A final motion by the town to appeal the state appellate court’s decision was shot down in late November. Now, the town must retroactively refund the club based on a new revaluation. According to the most recent decision, the club’s property went from a total taxable value of $12 million in total to $5.4 million for its town of Mamaroneck portion of property and $5.2 for the village of Mamaroneck portion. As a result of the denied appeal, the town and village will be required to refund the club for what would now be considered an overpayment in the club’s taxes for those years. According to town of Mamaroneck Attorney William Maker, as of press time, the town—which handles assessment for both itself and the village—does not currently know how that cost will be split between the two entities. The village, Maker said, will pay the bulk, however. Both the village of Mamaroneck and Hampshire TAX continued on page 8