"If land goes up by 10 percent, they are allowed to increase the taxable land by 10 percent, but if the city says 'well, the land may have only gone up by 10 percent, but now that you built a nice building on it, the land is worth twice as much as before,' to me that's bad faith because the ordinance says any increase in value due to the improvements should be abated," said Larry Arem, a partner at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP.