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North Allegheny School District is challenging the assessed value of much of the land that makes up the Tech 21 Research Park in Marshall.

Tech 21 Partners of Pittsburgh paid about $3,459 in school taxes last year on the property. Had the market value of $1.26 million been taxed, Tech 21 would have paid $24,050 based on the district's tax rate of 18.99 mills.

"The position of the school district is that the fair market value of the parcels comprising the Tech 21 park greatly exceeds the full assessment assigned by the Allegheny Office of Property Assessment," the district's director of finance Michael Hopkins said in an e-mail. "The school district has obtained appraisals from an independent firm in Pittsburgh which supports the district's position."

North Allegheny filed appeals in May and last month in the Allegheny County Court's Civil Division asking the Board of Assessment to reconsider the tax assessment on 21 of 26 Tech 21's properties.

An attorney representing Tech 21 declined to comment.

The total market value of the 26 properties, most of which are vacant, is almost $2 million, according to the county. But the assessed value -- the portion on which an owner pays property taxes -- totals just $186,700, which resulted in a school tax bill of $3,545 last year.

For most properties in the county, the market value and the assessed value are the same. In 2008, however, Tech 21 Partners was granted tax abatement under the state's Clean and Green Program. Nineteen of its 26 properties are designated as forest reserve, according to assessment records.

The school district contends that the clean and green designation has been "inappropriately" assigned because the properties are intended for commercial development, Hopkins said. The state requires the forest reserve land to have 10 contiguous acres with standing trees. The properties are taxed based on a state-set $105 per-acre assessment rate.

The district is appealing the assessment of 17 forest reserve properties. The school district's past appeal of two forest reserve properties resulted in the county Board of Assessment Appeals and Review increasing their market value in December, but the assessed value was unchanged due to the clean and green abatement. Tech 21 Partners is challenging the board's decision.

The four of the 21 appeals are against properties the school district considers as being valued too low.

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