Changes proposed for family land transfers

By WILLIAM L. SPENCE

The Daily Inter Lake

A proposal to crack down on abuses of the family transfer exemption comes before the Flathead County commissioners for a public hearing on Thursday.

The exemption allows landowners to split part of their property into lots for immediate family members without going through the time and expense of subdivision review.

Used properly, the exemption lets parents give or sell part of their property to their children. Used improperly, it's a way to evade the subdivision regulations and create lots for sale without addressing any public health, safety and welfare issues.

The problem, county officials say, is that they don't know when someone is requesting a family transfer for legitimate reasons. Applicants often say they just want to give some property to their children, but once the transfers are approved, they can do whatever they want with the lots.

And in many cases, it appears they simply want to sell them.

About 200 lots - roughly a quarter of all new lots in the unincorporated part of the county - are created every year through family transfers. Records from the county plat room indicate that more than half of them end up being sold to nonfamily members within a year or two. Two-thirds are sold within three or four years.

Jeff Harris, director of the Flathead County Planning Office, said unlike traditional subdivision lots, the family transfer lots never get reviewed for emergency access, neighborhood impacts, road standards, cost-of-service implications, parkland requirements or other public health and safety issues.

Consequently, his office proposes that a three-year time limit be imposed on the sale of any lots created through family transfers. People would still be able to use the exemption to transfer property to their children, but they couldn't turn around and sell the lots for at least three years.

"We aren't trying to kill the family transfer exemption," Harris said. "We're just trying to make it more legitimate. We're trying to address the issue of abuse."

The proposal includes an allowance for exceptional circumstances, meaning families that suffer a medical emergency or some other unexpected hardship could ask the commissioners to waive the three-year restriction.

The planning office also wants to raise the fee for a family transfer from $35 to $100. In addition, it's asking applicants to provide more information up front, and it wants the applicants and their surveyors to declare the accuracy of that information in front of a notary.

It's unlikely that this three-year time limit would completely eliminate abuses of the family transfer exemption. However, by preventing landowners from immediately cashing in on high land values, the planning office hopes it takes away some of the incentive for creating unreviewed lots.

"A major reason for the family transfer abuse is the economic incentive for a quick turnaround," Assistant Planning Director BJ Grieve said. "If we prevent turnarounds for a quick buck, we'll be hitting at the heart of the issue."

Thursday's public hearing takes place at 9:30 a.m. in the commissioners' chambers, 800 S. Main in Kalispell.

If the commissioners approve the proposed changes, Harris said any family transfer applications submitted before they take action would be reviewed under the old family transfer regulations, without the three-year sales restriction.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com