Forest Policy:
https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/527.630
This entry stating from the bottom level with dwellings on forest land and working to the top Oregon Forest Policy above has reach one of its goals in navigating the conceptual structure laid out in ORS an OAR that relates that structure somehow to the aberration of Designated Forestland within the City of Bend.
That aberration is an unintended consequence that should be eliminated!
Is what comes out at the bottom with the application of everything in the system to implement the guiding policy in compliance and consistent with that purpose, The official State Goal of that policy that is to be implemented down through various levels an entities of statewide governance?
In the case of Designated Forestland in the City of Bend the conclusion is;
No.
Something is seriously wrong when residential zoned properties within the City are given a tax assessment intended for Forestland outside the urban development within the City.
.......................................................................
The following is the beginning that leads to the end:This is an interesting decision making chart:
https://www.oregon.gov/LCD/docs/Non_Farm_Dwellings.xls.E_W.pdf
The link was found at this website:
https://www.oregon.gov/LCD/pages/index.aspx
That website was found in the course of looking at this website:
https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/departments/community-development/planning-division/planning-regulatory-codes-procedures-and-policies
I went to that website because I looked at this website and wanted to go deeper into what the Planning Division is doing in Re-zoning. What started my interest that lead me down this trail of links is that Re-zoning is in the news recently and Planning Re-Zoning relates to land use in the city of Bend and all the zoning requirements, rules and regulations related to city zoning that are applied to shape the city we live in.
Designated Forestland properties within the City of Bend and its associated extremely low assessment value of around $70 per acre for computation of property tax is one of the things that interest me. It is fundamentally contrary to the states legislative purpose of protecting forestland from urban encroachment. City residential zoning has already encroached upon it! Regardless of that fact owners of residential zoned properties within the City of Bend have been given the approval of the Deschutes County Assessor to grow trees of commercial on their property for timber harvesting. Associated with that and there promised intent to grow trees for that purpose the city residential zoned land is assigned an assessment value of about $70 per acre intended to protect forestland from the encroachment of Urban Development by means of a low fixed tax assessment value. That low assessment value was intended to protect the owner of the Designated Forestland property near city limits from property tax increases that would that would make it economically difficult to grow trees on forestland for timber harvest profit.
Timber is an important economic issue to the state of Oregon. Urban encroachment on forestland to grow timber of economic importance to the common economic good of Oregon citizens is minimized by eliminating the the influence of increasing propery taxes to high levels that force forestland owners to sell forestland in the zone for urban development.
Designated Forestland in residential zoned areas within the City of Bend?
The horse has already left the barn for the city! It is not doing farm work anymore!
It is a zoning issue that I brought to the attention of the City Council, the Planning Division and the City Manager to no avail. It is a loss of property tax revenue to the City. The response was that it is not a zoning non-permitted problem situation that anything would be done about.
It is but the problem is to get any local government or state administrative or political authority to do anything about it.
One of the associated benefits of Designated Forestland property ownership is that a dwelling on the same property is directly associated with the commercial management of that property and therefore subject to a special property tax assessment computation that averages the assessed value of the dwelling site with the value of the non-dwelling site acreage having an assessed value of (for 2018-19, Eastern Oregon) of $79.38.
The preceding is a long way around explanation of why the top link that interested me:
https://www.oregon.gov/LCD/docs/Non_Farm_Dwellings.xls.E_W.pdf
The tax break on a dwelling that is occupied by the owner/manager of the income producing forestland is relatively and minor benefit to encourage the economic retention incentive of keeping the land in production of timber instead of being "forced" to sell it due to increased property assessment value and increased tax that would otherwise apply to forestland in the general forestland/urban interface zone.
The general forestland/urban interface zone does not necessarily mean the zone between an official city limit that is subject to urban growth boundary expansion but any forestland far from a city that may be pocket areas converted to non-forest use as rural residential property and therefore also face the fact of growing pressure to convert forestland to residential development.
While pockets of forestland anywhere face the conversion to urbanized land the greatest pressure is in the city/forestland zone. That is where property value assessment difference is the greatest. These properties for example if they were immediately outside the city limits of Bend instead of immediately inside the city limits in a developed residential zoned area:
https://dial.deschutes.org/Real/Index/241568 Assessed value: $248
https://dial.deschutes.org/Real/Index/117545 Assessed value: $2,163
https://dial.deschutes.org/Real/Index/241569 Assessed value: $222
3 contiguous Designated Forestland properties on Bachelor View road in a city residential zoned area.
Assessor Market Value Total: $2,400,380.00
Assessor Assessed Value Total: $2,633
Tax................................................... $97.11
Overhead views of these properties:
https://dial.deschutes.org/Real/InteractiveMap/241568
https://dial.deschutes.org/Real/InteractiveMap/117545
https://dial.deschutes.org/Real/InteractiveMap/241569
There is obviously no dwelling associated with the Designated Forestland of these single owner three Designated Forestland Properties. If there were a dwelling on one acre of the contiguous properties then the land value of that acre for tax assessment purposes would be an average of all assessed land values for all three properties.
The beauty of the first link decision making chart is what is what it backs into. It backs into a back door approach to a decision of the property that the dwelling is located on is either Forestland or.....Not!
Maybe the link which is a proposed land use decision making chart is just a straw to grasp in the analysis of Designated Forestland within the City of Bend and termination of Forestland Designation of the property. At least the termination of the tax reduction benefit of the dwelling on the property?
The key to the solution might just be in one of the decision making steps:
Is the parcel capable of producing 50 cf/ay of wood fiber (Western OR) or 20 cf/ay (Eastern OR) ?
Where can I find official supporting documentation related to that determining question?
https://www.oregon.gov/LCD/docs/Non_Farm_Dwellings.xls.E_W.pdf
DLCD May 2016: Non-farm dwellings in Eastern OR and Western OR outside the Willamette Valley ORS 215.284, 215.263 OAR 660-033-0130(4)
*Unsuitability standard (OAR 660-033-0130(4)(c)(B)
https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/viewSingleRule.action?ruleVrsnRsn=176043
https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/215.750
Forest Land Protection Program
https://www.oregon.gov/LCD/pages/forlandprot.aspx
Look at "Forest Land" vs "Forestland" official definitions. It seems that these "apples and "oranges" definitions are intermixed in application to state OAR and ORS.
Definitions should probably be interpreted in accordance with State Goal 4 policy guidance:
https://www.oregon.gov/LCD/docs/goals/goal4.pdf
Forest Policy:
https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/527.630
This entry stating from the bottom level with dwellings on forest land and working to the top Oregon Forest Policy above has reach one of its goals in navigating the conceptual structure laid out in ORS an OAR that relates that structure somehow to the aberration of Designated Forestland within the City of Bend.
That aberration is an unintended consequence that should be eliminated!
No comments:
Post a Comment