Opinion
No. 35586
Decided December 3, 1958.
Taxation — Exemption — Parking lot on municipally owned airport property — Operated under lease by private corporation — Not exempt from taxation.
APPEAL from the Board of Tax Appeals.
The city of Cleveland, appellant herein, filed applications for remission of taxes for the years 1955 and 1956 and for exemption from taxation for the year 1957 of a four-acre tract of land, a portion of the airport owned by the city of Cleveland, leased by the city to the Airport Parking Company, a private corporation, to be operated by it as a parking lot for its own private purpose and profit. The lease provided that the city was to receive 60 per cent of the gross receipts of the lessee with a guarantee of a specified minimum annual rent. This lease was in effect during the year 1955 and January of 1956. Since that time the four-acre tract has been used by the city as a free parking space for airport employees and by the airlines, weather station, and other users of the airport such as concessionaires.
The city contends that the property in question, located on the airport property, was used primarily by airline passengers, was necessary and incidental to the purpose of the airport, and was exempt from taxation as "public property used exclusively for a public purpose" within the meaning of Section 5709.08, Revised Code. The record contains evidence to the effect that many of the people who parked their cars on the subject property during 1955 and January of 1956, while the lot was being privately operated, were traveling by air.
The Board of Tax Appeals held that the property was not exempt from taxation during 1955 and January of 1956, and, there being no certificate or affidavit that all delinquent taxes, penalties and interest had been paid in full to the date of filing the application for exemption for 1957, as required by Section 5713.08, Revised Code, dismissed such application for want of jurisdiction to consider it.
An appeal from the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals brings the cause to this court for review.
Mr. Ralph S. Locher, director of law, Mr. Joseph H. Crowley and Mr. Richard O. Horn, for appellant.
Mr. John T. Corrigan, prosecuting attorney, Mr. George W. Leddon, and Mr. John L. Dowling, for appellees.
This four-acre tract of land, although a portion of the airport property owned by the city of Cleveland and an airport facility, was used primarily for off-street parking. As such it was not exempt from taxation. In re Application for Exemption of Real Property from Taxation, 167 Ohio St. 256, 147 N.E.2d 625.
As the taxes, penalties and interest for the year 1955 and January of 1956 have not been paid, the application for tax exemption for the year 1957 was properly dismissed by the Board of Tax Appeals under authority of Section 5713.08, Revised Code.
The decision of the Board of Tax Appeals is affirmed.
Decision affirmed.
WEYGANDT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, STEWART, TAFT, MATTHIAS, BELL and HERBERT, JJ., concur.
An important additional reason for affirming the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals is that the land was leased to and operated by a private corporation as an off-street parking lot for the lessee's own purpose and profit during 1955 and January of 1956.