WANTED: HONEST AND ACCURATE MAPS OF PRIVATELY OWNED LAND IN AMERICAN FORK CANYON, LITTLE COTTONWOOD AND BIG COTTONWOOD CANYONS…. AND IT REALLY IS, JUST THIS EASY… READ ON..
When local assessment is done for taxes, maps will be made accurate and honest in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon, and American Fork Canyon.
Looks like the ski resorts need to tell Central Assessing they are ski resorts and not actively mining. This would result in maps being made honest and help protect private property rights and responsibilities.
Mr Allen:
You asked the following question of the Utah State Tax Commission that came to me for agency response:
“Why does Utah State Tax Commission still do mine valuations for mines whose purpose is no longer mining? Utah County and SL County should do the tax assessment, and resulting mapping or land that is not longer actively mined. In 1989 the Central Assessing asked Counties to do this, why does the ill practice of Central Assessing persist? With Central Assessing doing land tax valuation, the patented mine claims never get added to county maps, not state maps- leading public to believe its all public lands. In turn this makes it problematic to determine the ownership of mines which pollute public lands. The BLM is working this year with Utah County Surveyor to start with mapping in AF Canyon, but LCC and BCC also need to be mapped.”
Tax Commission Answer: Utah Code Ann. Section 59-2-201(1)(a)(v) requires the State Tax Commission to assess “mines and mining claims except in cases, as determined by the commission, where the mining claims are used for other than mining purposes, in which case the value of mining claims used for other than mining purposes shall be assessed by the assessor of the county in which the mining claims are located…”
The State Tax Commission values all active mining claims and inactive mining claims where there is no active alternative use. If a mining claim’s active use has changed to something other than mining, the land is valued and assessed by the county in which it is located. If the active use of land being assessed by the State Tax Commission has changed to something other than mining, a land owner is required to present evidence of the change to the State Tax Commission.
The required evidence of the change is dependent on the specific facts and circumstances of each case but generally must demonstrate more than a mere temporary shift to a non-mining use.
Examples of acceptable evidence include, but are not limited to, the following:
*mine reclamation and return of the mine reclamation bond to the owner by the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining;
*a recorded restrictive covenant or conservation easement running with the land which prohibits mining activities;
*local zoning which prohibits mining activities on the land; or
*evidence of conditions on the land that would render future mining activities impractical without great effort.
In all cases, however, it is incumbent on the property owner to request the change from Central Assessment to Local Assessment and provide the evidence of the changed use.
John L. Valentine
Chairman
Utah State Tax Commission
801-297-3901
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Senator Valentine,
Thank you for the information above. It’s pretty much how I have understood how things are supposed to be, yet are not. Both SL and Utah county have failed to apply these process changes noted nearly 30 years ago. This failure of local tax assessing and subsequent failure to map these lands as privately owned- created a perfect storm for ski resorts to purchase thousands and thousands of acres, and keep it off the radar of the public.
Perhaps 2018 will be a year of process change/compliance in all three major canyons (LCC, BCC, AF) which were once historically mined, to local assessment. To my knowledge and research, no active mining takes place currently in these canyons, nor has it for decades (LCC, BCC or AF Canyon). Do the resorts have to reach out for the change? It seems evident that the uses have changed to recreational and that Central Assessing should audit the mines / cross referencing with Division of Mining and make the appropriate change at the State Level, then push the assessments to local level. The onus should lay on the counties and states to determine such. Permits for mining can be readily cross referenced with the Division of Mining.
As Executive Director of American Fork Canyon Alliance, I would therefore request that our AFAC 501c(3) land purchased in AF Canyon be given a local assessment. We own a portion of the BoRussia claim. (See attached pdf). We have recorded the Warranty Deed, have filed a land survey with Utah County and have not been assessed taxes yet. The prior owner has likely been being over assessed and our portion not broken out since Central Assessing and Utah County Recorders offices do not cross share data sets. Local assessment pushes to the state data sets, these data sets are then used to make accurate maps. In order to get maps accurate in Little Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood and American Fork Canyon, it seems imperative that Central Assessing require the counties to do local assessment, this will result in county maps being made accurate, that data being uploaded to the state etc.
Thank you for the response and I look forward to having our parcel locally assessed. I do think that Snowbird and the Kimball properties in AF Canyon deserve the same process, which then will result in local maps being made accurate.
Mark Allen
Executive Director American Fork Canyon Alliance
Founding Member Protect and Preserve American Fork Canyon
801.709.1676
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John Valentine
May 10, 2018, 11:56 AM
to Denny, me
I am forwarding you request to have your property moved to local assessment to the Property Tax Division of the Utah State Tax Commission. They will contact you for the needed documentation to make that change.
Commissioner Valentine