Board upholds assessor values across multiple Urege appeals after hearings on drainage and wetlands

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Board of Equalization on May 21 considered a set of related appeals from property owner David Urege and affiliated entities covering multiple parcels in the K-Beach/Bowie area and ultimately upheld the assessing department’s recommended values for each parcel presented.

Urege presented several appeals during the morning and afternoon sessions, arguing that repeated flooding since February 2013 and changes in drainage and subsidence had made land unusable for ranching and residential purposes. He told the board that areas he developed for hay and ranching have a much higher water table than historically recorded and that borough maps and decisions — and enforcement actions against his own mitigation work — had exacerbated the problem. "You're taxing me out of my property," Urege said during oral remarks, adding that the borough’s wetlands mappings and refusal to permit certain drainage work had harmed his ability to use and sell land.

Assessing staff — principally Joseph Nations and land appraiser Heather Windsor — explained the department’s methods: a market-adjusted cost approach for improvements and a land-value model calibrated to…