Kootenai commissioners deny retroactive tax cancellation for lakeside parcel, advise hardship process

The Kootenai County Board of Commissioners on March 12 denied a request from Dave and Debbie Ventures LLC to cancel taxes retroactively for a lakeside parcel the owner says was declared nonbuildable, while allowing the owner to pursue a hardship cancellation under state law.

The decision came after several county officials and the property owner described access and permitting problems that the owner said sharply reduced the property's value. Commissioners Eberlein, Duncan and Matari denied the request "without prejudice," meaning the owner may later apply for an undue-hardship cancellation under Idaho Code 63-711.

County Assessor Kovacs told the board the assessor's office had adjusted the parcel's value for 2025 but that retroactive cancellations for prior years are governed by the board's discretion and limited by statute. "When the property owner has made the property tax payment, it's rather difficult to argue retroactively that it is a hardship and that those taxes should be canceled retroactively when that payment has already been made,"…