The Grays Harbor County commissioners have amended county code to allow for easier sale of tax title property. The amendment also allows for private negotiation in limited circumstances.

Both commissioners Vickie Raines and Randy Ross heralded the amendments as a step forward for the county. Commissioner Wes Cormier was absent during the commissioners’ meeting on Feb. 27.

“It’s going to be a great thing,” Raines said. “I’m pretty excited to see this come to fruition.”

“I am excited that we’re able to move this forward,” Ross said. “This will allow us to bring a lot of property… back on the tax rolls, and add properties that are ready for future developments.”

During the media information session after the afternoon meeting, Raines said there are some 350-400 parcels currently under the county’s purview. Those parcels, specifically parcels that have homes and structures on them, need to be maintained by the county at a cost, including building and grounds maintenance as well as patrolling for transient activity.

Because the properties are owned by the county as tax title (procured due to unpaid taxes), the properties currently do not generate revenue for the county. In selling the properties, they will again be on tax rolls and generate property tax revenue for the county and a long list of junior taxing districts.

The commissioners will set a minimum bid for each property (following a recommendation from the county assessor) and likely would not sell the properties for less than what is owed in back taxes and interest.

The amendments also include a provision that allows for private negotiation without a call for bids, depending on the situation. Some cases where a private negotiation would be allowed include: sale to another government agency for public purposes; sale of a property not practical to build on due to physical characteristics or legal restrictions; when the value is less than $500 and the property is sold to an adjoining landowner; when no acceptable bids were received at an attempted public auction.

Without the new private negotiation amendment, the commissioners had been encumbered by the county code in the past.

“When the property lines were established decades ago, you’ll see that the property line ends and then there’s another 5 feet that takes you to the alleyway, and that 5 feet may be 60 feet long, and obviously it’s not buildable,” Raines said. “We’ve had people come in and say ‘I would like to buy this so it could be joined to my property, and I’m maintaining it anyway…’ and I think in one case (Assessor) Dan Lindgren had said the value was $250, but we couldn’t do anything with it. We just had to say sorry. We couldn’t move it.

“And now we’ll be able to do that.”

In addition to those changes, the amendments also allow for the commissioners to hire real estate brokers in order to get greater value from a property sale. The commissioners, however, are not required to hire a real estate broker for tax title property sales.

Deputy prosecuting attorney Norma Tillotson said the amendments brought the county code more in line with that of state statute.

The ordinance won’t go into effect until April 1.