Deer Park Golf Course To Get Relief On Taxes

A private golf course will get a tax break under a state law intended to promote land conservation.

But Spokane County commissioners have yet to decide exactly how much to cut property taxes for the Deer Park Golf & Country Club.

Commissioner Kate McCaslin said she doesn’t think it should get as big a break - about $2,200 a year - as planners suggested.

The exact savings can’t be calculated until commissioners hold another public hearing to put dollar values on such intangibles as the course’s benefit to the non-golfers and wildlife.

The way McCaslin worked the calculations, course owner W.R. Warren might save about $200 a year.

Warren plans to develop about 400 homes and condominiums around the 241-acre course. State law prohibits the county from considering those plans when it decides whether the course - built in a previously undeveloped corner of Deer Park - should rate openspaces status.

All three commissioners expressed distaste for giving the course any tax break, and Commissioner John Roskelley voted against it.

“I totally agree with you, John,” said Commissioner Phil Harris. But Harris voted to grant Warren’s request because it was supported by two of the three Deer Park City Council members who reviewed it.

McCaslin said the county likely would be sued if it excluded the course.

Many Western Washington golf courses already get tax breaks under the open spaces program. The Deer Park course would be the first to gain such status in Spokane County.

The owners of other courses said earlier they probably will file requests if Warren’s is granted.

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