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Committee discusses airport hangar taxation and parceling; city–county coordination urged
Summary
Members discussed how hangars and boathouses built on leased airport or waterfront land are now taxed as real property and debated solutions including creating parcel IDs via meets-and-bounds surveys or aerial-derived parcels; several members urged city–county coordination.
The committee discussed how a change in personal property taxation has shifted hangars and similar improvements onto the underlying real estate tax rolls and explored options to assign parcel identifiers so those improvements are taxed and tracked more fairly.
Committee members said personal property taxation for hangars was repealed in February 2023, but the improvements remain taxable as part of the underlying real property. “The personal property tax didn't just go away. That method of taxation did. So any buildings, fixtures, improvements on leased land is still being taxed,” a county staff member explained.
Discussion focused on two practical options: (1) creating meets-and-bounds legal descriptions for individual hangars and filing them with the register of deeds so the register can create parcel IDs, or (2) producing aerial-derived parcel boundaries. Committee members said meets-and-bounds surveys are costly, while an aerial survey can be substantially less expensive but may not satisfy all legal standards.
Why it matters: members said the county and city may be subsidizing improvements by not allocating taxes to lessees and that creating parcel IDs would equalize tax treatment for hangar owners and boat-house tenants. One member noted the potential scale of unwinding the current arrangement would be substantial: a county review in 2020 estimated that removing the city from airport governance would involve millions in grant repayment obligations.
Coordination with city and airport staff: several members urged the city and county to meet to resolve leasing and taxation issues. Committee members also asked county staff to accept meets-and-bounds descriptions filed in the register of deeds and recommended communications to the airport manager, Derek Hall, and the city’s officials so all parties can evaluate costs and legal obligations.
Next steps: staff asked the airport engineering consultants to provide feasible options, and county staff offered to receive any documentation so the register of deeds can evaluate whether parcels can be created from meets-and-bounds descriptions.
