Kammerzell project: Mitigation project receives ‘open space’ classification

The Board of County Commissioners Monday granted a request from Tom Kammerzell of Maple K. Enterprises, LLC, to re-classify 113.6 acres of land from current use ag land to open space land.

“It’s just changing the classification to meet what it actually is,” Kammerzell told the commissioners.

The re-classification first came up in September when Kammerzell filed with the county’s assessor’s office to have the land re-classified. The decision at that time was tabled so that County Prosecutor Denis Tracy could look over the matter.

The land, located along the South Palouse River four miles east of Colfax, was converted to a wetland/stream mitigation site as part of the Moscow-Pullman Runway Realignment project. The project created 9.4 acres of new riverine wetland, in-stream habitat improvements, installation of more than 19,000 native plantings and permanently protected 9,430 linear feet of the river. A conservation easement held by Palouse Land Trust was put on the land with the project to restrict its development.

Kammerzell sold the development rights on the 113.6 acres through the easement for $2,500 per acre. A transfer tax affidavit filed July 30, 2015, in the treasurer’s office listed the sale at $284,000.

The re-classification was initially reported as something that would lower the property tax value on the land.

“There’d be a difference in tax value. It’d be like having a house and having it burn down. You don’t pay taxes on a house that’s burned down,” Kammerzell told the Gazette in September. “You pay taxes on the land in reflection of its ability to earn income, and this land doesn’t do that anymore.”

Robin Jones with the assessor’s office said she is not sure what the property tax value will be on the land.

“I don’t know for sure. This is the first one of its kind here,” she said. “The value of the land can go no lower than the lowest classification, and most of it was already there.”

Jones said she is working with the state Department of Revenue to determine the property tax value. The land will not officially be in the open space program until taxes are collectable in 2018, she said.

“We want to do it right the first time because more of these could be coming,” she said.

The commissioners thanked Kammerzell for his patience in getting the re-classification approved, as it first came up more than three months ago.

“It’s new territory,” Kammerzell replied.

No one from the public attended the session.