Pennsylvania counties tax hoop houses as real property

From the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association (PLNA): HARRISBURG - A disturbing trend to tax hoop houses as real property seems to be gaining momentum among counties. PLNA member Fairview Evergreen Nurseries in Erie County found their tax assessment jump when they installed new hoop houses for their container operation.

Generally, hoop houses, high tunnels, poly houses, or whatever you call yours, have been viewed as temporary structures not subject to property taxes.

One of the original developers of high tunnel technology, Dr. Bill Lamont at Penn State, said that when they first developed the science and began promoting the use of high tunnels in the 1990’s they thought that taxation wouldn’t be an issue. In an e-mail to PLNA president Gregg Robertson, Lamont said:

"In our experience, high tunnels are non-permanent structures and have been treated as such by taxing authorities. New Hampshire actually passed at state law to that effect when high tunnels were first beginning up in that state. We considered it here in Pennsylvania when we first began working on high tunnels in 1998 but didn't feel we needed it."
 
But all that is changing.

In 2006, there was a decision handed down by Commonwealth Court that held that the plastic covered structures were real property and subject to taxation in Custer v. Bedford County Board of Assessment Appeals.

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