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3. Final Determination of MLR Easement's Fair Market Value
a. Diminution in Petitioner's Property's Market Value
Recognizing that the MLR easement interferes not only with
petitioner's right to subdivide her land but also with numerous
other rights, this Court believes that it is appropriate to use
the comparable sales from the experts' opinions to approximate
the total loss in value of petitioner's property attributable to
the MLR easement.
As discussed above, five sales from the experts' opinions
are comparable to petitioner's property. Four of these sales
come from Wheeler's 1998 report, and one sale comes from Hoeger's
report. These comparable sales demonstrate that diminution
percentages of 50, 35, 40,11 35, and 0 are associated with the
grant of a conservation easement. Accordingly, this Court holds
that the diminution in petitioner's property in the after-
easement analysis was 32 percent, the average of these five
comparable sales.
b. Section 170 Limitation on Petitioner's Deduction
Applying the 32-percent diminution rate to the stipulated
"before" fair market value of petitioner's property results in
11A table in Wheeler's 1998 report describes sale 61 as
having a 45-percent diminution; however, in his 1993 report,
Wheeler states that the same sale has a 40-percent diminution.
On the basis of a review of Wheeler's analysis of sale 61 in his
1993 and 1998 reports, we find that sale 61 has a 40-percent
diminution.
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