- July 12, 2025
Seven years after the City of Ormond Beach sued the Volusia County Property Appraiser over $240,000 in unpaid taxes concerning the now-shuttered River Bend Golf Course, a judge has ruled that the city is responsible for paying taxes on the property.
Circuit Judge Kathryn Weston issued a partial summary judgment on the litigation on Monday, June 16, stating that the city is the proper taxpayer for the property, and, that the city and the property appraiser must coordinate an evidentiary hearing at which the court will determine how much the city owes.
According to the Volusia County Property Appraiser's website, the amount due totals $377,466.69 for 2013 through 2020. No taxes were assessed for 2021-2024, following the golf course's closure in 2020.
The city filed its initial complaint in June 2019, arguing that the unpaid taxes — calculated at $240,848 at the time — were the responsibility of the golf course's lessee. The taxes owed had accumulated since 2013, and the city stated this occurred without their knowledge.
Until 2018, when the city submitted an ECHO grant application to the county and was denied due to the outstanding ad valorem taxes. While the golf course was privately operated at the time, it is owned by the city.
According to the court's judgment, the city first entered into a lease agreement in 1988 for the construction and operation of a public golf course. This lease required the lessee, River Bend Investment Group, Inc., to pay all ad valorem taxes.
Then, after a lawsuit in 1994, the property was declared tax exempt. Fifteen years later, a new lease was signed.
In 2013, that exemption was removed after being deemed unconstitutional, but the city was not notified until 2019 when it received a letter by email in June 2019 from the Volusia County Property Appraiser. The city argued that, because Property Appraiser Larry Bartlett later testified that the letter was an invitation to engage in mediation for the ongoing lawsuit, this didn't constitute a valid legal notice of the removal of the ad valorem exemption. However, the court found the notification adhered to state law.
The judgment states that "the court finds that the property was not exempt from ad valorem taxation while leaded to a private entity," citing a provision in the Florida Constitution that states "all property owned by a municipality and used exclusively by it for municipal or public purposes shall be exempt from taxation."
The court found that the lease signed in 2009 "divested Ormond Beach of exclusive use and control of the property" and that the operation of a for-profit golf course is not a "public purpose," and therefore not entitled to a tax exemption.
"This court cannot grant an impermissible exemption which the Florida Supreme Court held could not be granted by itself or the Florida Legislature," the judgment states.
The Observer reached out to the city and Volusia County. Both declined to comment because the case is still in litigation.
