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report, stated that a value of $43,700 a lot is “well supported
by the market data”.5
Since the parties' experts appear to be in relative
agreement as to the value of the lots that the land would yield
(Sapperstein: $45,000 a lot; Lipman: $43,700 a lot), we shall
derive the before value of the land by multiplying a dollar-a-lot
value by the land's lot yield.6 In addition, we shall accept
5 Although Mr. Lipman derived the $43,700 a lot value by
dividing his appraisal value of the land (based on a $10,000
an acre appraisal of the land) by his estimate of the number of
lots the land would yield, Mr. Lipman testified that the $43,700
a lot value would not change even if the land yielded more than
12 lots.
6 It appears that Mr. Lipman would multiply any dollar-a-lot
value by the land's lot yield minus one lot because of the lot
underlying the improvement. Mr. Lipman testified as follows:
If you divide 4 into 52.44 acres, you get 13 lots.
I used 12 lots and Mr. Browning owns the house under
which is another lot, which he has at the beginning of
the day and he has at the end of the day. So all he is
giving away is 12 lots, and you then follow the math,
12 lots times $43,700, gives you a number, and if you
take 52.44 acres times 3,000 an acre, which is the
after value, which I think everybody agrees to, the
difference, i.e., the value of the development rights,
is $367,000, which is my number.
We believe, however, that petitioners' retention of certain
rights with respect to the lot underlying the improvements does
not warrant reducing lot yield for that lot in calculating the
land's before value. Adjusting the before value of the land in
the manner advanced by Mr. Lipman would undermine the basic
mechanics of the before and after valuation calculation, which is
a method used to derive the value of the easement by measuring
the difference between the before and after values of the land,
both at the land's highest and best use. Any adjustment for
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