Real Estate Assessor

Qualifications Required for Brownfields Tax Exemption

Brownfields Tax Exemption allows properties with known and documented contamination issues to be granted exemption from all city real estate taxes for a period not to exceed five years.

In order to qualify, a property must be part of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Voluntary Remediation Program.   A letter from the DEQ stating the property is a part of and in compliance with this program must accompany the application which is available in the Real Estate Assessor’s office.  Both the application and the DEQ letter are then submitted to the Real Estate Assessor for review and determination of qualification.  This application must be filed annually no later than December 1 of each year to qualify for tax exemption for the following fiscal tax year (July 1-June 30).

Section 58.1-3664 of the Code of Virginia allows local governing bodies of any county, city, town, by ordinance, to exempt or partially exempt environmental restoration sites from local taxation annually for a period not to exceed five years.  An environmental restoration site is defined as “real estate which contains or did contain environmental contamination from the release of hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, solid waste or petroleum, the restoration of which would abate or prevent pollution to the atmosphere or waters of the Commonwealth and which (i) is subject to voluntary remediation pursuant to § 10.1-1232 and (ii) receives a certificate of continued eligibility from the Virginia Waste management Board during each year which it qualifies for the tax treatment described in this section.”