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MEMO <br />To: BOCC and PW <br />From: Neil A. Caulkins <br />Re. Lanigan Springs tax title property <br />Date: December 1, 2014 <br />Legal Issue #1 <br />Can the County transfer tax title property to Public Works (PW) for road purposes, and if <br />so, will it cost money? <br />Short Answer <br />The property can be so transferred. It will cost the amount of principal unpaid taxes. <br />Legal Analysis <br />RCW 36.35.020 provides that tax title property is held in trust for the taxing districts. <br />RCW 36.35.150 provides that the county can sell tax title property directly "to any <br />governmental agency" for "public purpose" without notice and auction so long as the sale <br />price is for not less than the principal amount of the unpaid taxes. <br />Hence, this property can be pulled out of lax title status, but, because it is held in trust for <br />taxing districts, that will need to be a sale 1br the principal unpaid taxes. Because the sale <br />is to P W -a governmental agency -no public notice or auction is required. <br />Legal Issue #2 <br />Can the BOCC declare this property to be a county road by virtue of its having been used <br />as a road by the public for over 10 years or by virtue of already owning it'? <br />Short Answer <br />The Board has no ability or authority to declare something a county road by virtue of it <br />having been used as a road for 10 years, and things do not become county roads <br />automatically. The county can declare property it already owns to be a county road. <br />Legal Analysis <br />RCW 36.75.080 provides that public highways used as public highways for at least 10 <br />years are county roads, provided that the county has no responsibility or liability related <br />to them until, by resolution, they are adopted as part of the county road system. This is <br />an "adverse possession' statute which requires a finding of (1) public use (2) over 10 <br />years before something can be declared a county road. In other words, nothing becomes <br />a county road automatically. There needs to be a finding of these two elements by an <br />entity with jurisdiction to make such finding before something becomes a county road. <br />Tile county commissioners are not given the authority to make either of those <br />determinations. ,See RCW 36.75.040. The only entity with such jurisdiction. <br />constitutionally and statutorily, is the Superior Court. It is the only entity with <br />jurisdiction over land and the title thereto, and so would be the only entity that could <br />