Beltrami County moves to reclassify eight tax-forfeited parcels, sending them to DNR for review

Shane Foley, director of the Natural Resources Management Department, presented eight tax-forfeited parcels that staff recommend classifying as nonconservation to allow the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to review them for possible sale.

Foley described parcels that include a 2-acre road-right-of-way adjacent to private land that a township is willing to assume, a small half-acre parcel that failed to sell at auction and now follows state tax-forfeiture procedures, several landlocked parcels with limited or no merchantable timber value, a 0.83-acre strip separating a residence from the road right-of-way, and a four-acre steep parcel with a decades-old cabin encroachment in Roosevelt Township.

Foley emphasized that classification is only the first step in a multistage process: parcels will be reviewed by the land review committee and the Minnesota DNR and then returned to the board for final decisions. He noted some parcels have very limited public use, are wetland or have no timber value, or are encroached upon and therefore may be better returned to private ownership and placed back on the tax rolls.

Commissioners asked whether owners affected by encroachments had been notified; Foley said property owners had been in contact and that classification does not itself begin a sale. Commissioner Carlson moved to approve the resolution classifying the eight parcels and sending them to the Minnesota DNR for review; Commissioner Winger seconded and the motion passed unanimously.