Washblog

 several hundred acres are owned by public golf courses. I would imagine that what ever the final decision is and whatever changes are made to qualification for Open Space the golf courses will not be affected. These businesses bring in too much revenue (other than property taxes) to Douglas County to be meddled with. That means Red Apple Flyers and a few other small parcels are the only ones that will be affected by any changes to the system.

In Douglas County 892,650 acres are in Agricultural Open Space, which are not rated nor are they included in the proposed revisions.  Thousands of these acres are owned by land developers and county commissioners. The developers are taking advantage of the tax breaks while holding land for future development. The before mentioned land holders are costing Douglas County far more in property tax losses than a few individual land owners many of whom have placed their land into Open Space to prevent losing it because of sky rocketing land values and tax assessments.

Several Washington counties do have rating systems and often these ratings extend to all Open Space classifications.  Since Douglas County intends on spending county time and money creating ratings it should be for all Open Space classifications. Of course, this will not be done because of political reasons and outcry from individuals such as those mentioned above. By directing the "need" for revised ratings to the 1560 acres in Open Space, it appears the intent of Douglas County is to create new regulations that affect only a few insignificant landowners. County reasoning behind the ratings is to increase the tax base by rating property owners out of the Open Space classification yet very little in the way of taxes will be added to the coffers by doing this.  

It will be up to those of us that have small acreages in Open Space to make sure that our best interests are considered and that Douglas County follows state law.