The Jackson County Board of Commissioners has taken the final steps in the process of redrawing its border with Macon County.
At its Dec. 7 regular meeting the board unanimously passed R21-34 a joint resolution between the two counties establishing the new county line.
This step is “kind of finalizing this eight year boundary line project and just going ahead and moving forward with what the North Carolina Geodetic Survey determined as our new boundary line,” said Tabitha Ashe, county tax assessor. “I’m asking you to approve this resolution so we can start getting some of these boundary lines changed and worked out.”
The Macon County Commissioners voted unanimously to pass the resolution on Dec. 14.
The next step is for both counties to submit the minutes of their respective meetings to the North Carolina Geodetic Survey, which will provide the information to the secretary of state.
Affected residents will be notified by letter from the state by February at the earliest, Ashe said.
Both counties then begin to work out the changes to their tax rolls and notify impacted residents by letter.
An estimate early in the process gave a potential property value loss of $600 million for Jackson County. That would have meant a tremendous loss of tax revenue; instead, the county will only lose around $16,000 in tax revenue.
The dispute over the boundary line between the two counties began in 2013. An observation was made that the county line had shifted due to development on the ridge of the mountain creating uncertainty over which county some homes and properties should be taxed in.
In 2013 North Carolina Department of Transportation LIDAR maps showed the ridge top in a different area than originally mapped in various places. Per the map, many homes being taxed in Jackson County actually sat within Macon County.
In 2014 Macon asked the state to perform a survey settling the question. In March 2017, state surveyors issued preliminary results. The Jackson tax administrator’s office raised questions, and the state began field work to reexamine their decision. In July 2020 the state issued a third assessment and Jackson’s tax office dissented with decisions in nine areas. The state asked Jackson to narrow their dispute to three areas and field assessments began again.
In August, NCGS stood by their original ruling after another site visit.
Two hundred and nineteen parcels of land including 17 tax exempt parcels, one belonging to Western Carolina University and 16 to the U.S. Forest Service, were part of the dispute.
Eighty three parcels of land in Jackson County will lose 68.8 acres; 21 of those acres come from one parcel.
Thirty eight properties will gain 12.71 acres from Macon County.
Five houses will go to Macon and one to Jackson. Eighteen homes will be split between the two counties, leaving owners paying taxes in both counties. Eight houses were previously taxed only in Jackson County and nine only in Macon. Some of the property owners were already paying taxes in both counties.
Ashe projects the changes to be complete by 2023.
- By Beth Lawrence/The Sylva Herald