The following article was published in the February 3rd issue of the Leavenworth Echo and is re-produced here with their permission.
HASTINGS BILL WOULD LOWER CABIN FEES
By Sebastian Moraga
Staff writer.
Congressman Doc Hastings has introduced a bill designed to keep fees affordable for families who own cabins on national forest lands.
People in the Wenatchee Valley, like Gretchen Minard of Sunnyslope, whose father built a cabin on Lake Wenatchee, are among the 14,000 people nationwide who have been affected by rapidly growing fees that threaten to drive the cabins out of their range and force them out of places they’ve used for years.
The Federal Government initially raised fees from $1,400 to nearly $17,000 per year in early 2009.
Nancy Minard, Gretchen’s daughter-in-law declined to be interviewed for this article, but in October she said the effect of possibly losing the cabin was devastating to her family.
Gretchen turned 108 in November.
Hastings, (R-4th District) said some families have owned the cabins for generations. Yearly increases have driven fees well into the thousands of dollars.
The problem with the current appraisal system is that it’s used on public lands but public lands sit near larger private homes and both types are appraised equally.
The people who have leased these cabins from the government know the limitations of their ownership and know what they can and cannot do on this land.
“So if you’re trying to make an appraisal based on surrounding areas, that at best becomes a subjective appraisal that does not meet with reality,” Hastings said.
The bill would eliminate the current process and replace it with a five-tier system where values are allocated and every year, the appraisal would be adjusted for inflation and continue at that pace, without sudden or explosive changes in the fees.
Fees would be capped at $4,000, said Doug Gann, the president of the Lake Wenatchee Summer Homes Association.
“It’s reasonable. Those numbers weren’t just pulled out of the air, they were based on cabin owner surveys, focus groups and market studies,” Gann said.
The tier structure, Gann continued, is fair. The owners of cabins on public lands all have the same restrictions and rights, so it should be argued that they all should pay the same. But the cabins have value associated with their locations, Gann said, and therefore the need for separate tiers.
“We are near the upper edge of that range,” Gann said of Lake Wenatchee cabins.
The bill would not change the limitations for leaseholders of public lands, Hastings said.
The legislation was introduced last week. Next step would be to hold hearings on it.
“I’m going to do everything I can to push this as quickly as possible,” Hastings said. “Some of these increases are driving people out of the national forests. I don’t believe that’s proper.”
Hastings said cabin owners received a one-year reprieve, under which they did not have to pay the increased fees. The trick now is to get the legislation through before that expires later this year. Cabin owners know they have to pay their share, Hastings said. They just want it to be a fair share.
“Nobody that has a cabin on national forest land argues that they should not pay anything,” Hastings said. “But they shouldn’t be subjected to these huge spikes that will eventually drive them out.”
The Web site of the National Forest Homeowners Association, a Sacramento, Calif.-based nonprofit, states that the Cabin Fee Act of 2010 is meant to replace an older piece of legislation, the Cabin User Fee Fairness Act of 2000.
Gann said the Lake Wenatchee cabin owners are in full support of the bill and the proposed fee structure.
The local association unites approximately 50 cabin owners.
The U.S. National Forest Service would not incur in any revenue losses with the five-tier system. The real losses would only happen if people are pushed out of their cabins in the forest lands, because then nobody is paying any fees.
“If the fees remain affordable, cabin owners can sell the cabin to someone who can pay the fee,” Gann said. “If they can’t sell it, the [Forest Service] permits are abandoned and they can never come back. The Forest Service does not reissue abandoned permits.”
The revenue losses, Gann added, would be huge. If the current system stays in place, about 15 percent of all permits nationally would be abandoned. As most of them correspond to the more expensive cabins, the loss of revenue would reach close to 30 percent, he said.
Sebastian Moraga can be reached at 782-3781 or moraga@cashmerevalleyrecord.com
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