A lengthy, technical appeal over multiple 20-acre parcels near Elbow Coulee Road concluded on Sept. 25 with the Okanogan County Board of Equalization sustaining the assessor's valuations after hearing detailed arguments about wetlands, an abandoned logging road and unresolved litigation over water rights.

Petitioner (record name: Burkholder) urged the BOE to reduce the valuations on four contiguous 20-acre parcels, saying the assessor failed to perform required physical inspections and ignored legal determinations from state agencies that limit development. "The appraiser simply ignored the laws and administrative codes that limit wetland road building when he revalued Burkholder's parcels in 02/2022," the petitioner told the board.

Burkholder submitted a multipart claim: that a 6-acre wetland and associated management zones block legal and physical access to much of the parcels, that a two-mile logging road constructed under a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) forest-practice permit was formally abandoned by DNR in 2005, and that ongoing litigation over rights to sufficient water means there is currently no reasonable probability of subdivision or development.

The assessor's office told the board it conducted physical inspections as required by state law and used sales of 20-acre parcels across the township and nearby lake drainages to establish market value where local sales were limited. The assessor noted some adjacent parcels were valued differently where access or easement restrictions applied. "We did do that. We have 6 inspection areas that could get our cycle into physical inspection," the assessor said, and noted the appraisers are accredited and the revaluation methodology was reviewed by the Department of Revenue.

Board members discussed the statutory inspections requirement and the record of agency approvals and denials submitted by both sides. They noted the petitioner's assertions about training and process but said the assessor had produced documentation of inspection and of comparable sales. The board sustained the assessor's figures across the contested parcels, recording unanimous votes to sustain the assessor's values for BOE petitions 25-066 through 25-073.

The petitioner indicated plans to pursue state appeals and argued broader systemic impacts on other landowners in Meadowl Valley; the BOE clerk advised the petitioner that the state-level appeal process exists but that the local board's written decisions will be sent by mail.

The hearing included technical references to RCW 84.41.030 and related WAC material on valuation practice, and the petitioner supplied numerous exhibits documenting DNR correspondence, wetland designations and court filings. The BOE decision summary cites the assessor's use of sales substitution where directly comparable local sales were limited and relies on the assessor's inspection documentation contained in the county record.

Petitioners and other landowners in the Basin may still seek relief by submitting new evidence or pursuing appeals beyond the county BOE.