Organization of Island County Assessor Data, maps, well informtion, septic permits, ect... for Camano Island and Whidbey Island

You can use this google search engine to search for assessor data on my site. Click on the circle next to the "Search oldcamano.net" In the search engine box, type in the property parcel number, or property address or the property owners name. The search should bring up all my pages that have those parameters.

Island county organized their assessor data in a numerical order. Each parcel of land is given a number that decribes where it is, like a social security number. A parcel number describes where it is by either "range, township, and section" or by where it is within a platted development within that "range, township and section".

The parcel number for my place at Manaco Beach is S7460-00-00013-0. When my dad platted (subdivided) Manaco Beach in 1962, Island county gave Manaco Beach the starting parcel number of "S7460" , all platted developments have parcel numbers that begin with "S". The number "13" designates it as lot 13. All the zeros would decribe it as within a certain division and block number. Manaco Beach has 27 lots.

The Camano Country Club has over a 1,000 lots. The parcel number for this country club lot, S6250-13-17012-0, describes it as being within the county club, "S6250", within addition 13, block 17 and lot 12. All platted parcel numbers end with "-0"

The parcel number for the unplatted Camano Plaza area is R33231-481-2180. All unplatted parcels start with an "R". The R33231 designates it as being within Range 3 Township 32 and Section 31.

Below is part of an e-mail that somebody sent me in May 2006, about parcel numbers.
Each section is approximately 1 mile square. The numbers after range, township and section represent the approximate middle of the parcel measured in feet (rounded to the nearest 10 feet) from the south west corner of the section. If the last digits were say, 345-1900, the location of the parcel would be approximately 3,450 feet north of the southwest corner and approximately 1,900 east of the southwest corner.
If the parcel ended in say 345-1901, the 1 on the end generally means that the parcel has been divided into more than one piece for taxation purposes, i.e. if part of the parcel were in a designated forest program (which allows no residences) part of the parcel may be removed from the program to build a home and valued at full value for tax purposes.
Every digit and every letter and every code has a purpose and meaning, although they are sometimes not used to the extent originally intended.
Since the earth is curved not flat, not all sections will be exactly 5280 feeet by 5280 feet.

All property within the USA is within a Range, Township and Section. A square system of surveying was ordained by the Continental Congress on May 20, 1785. Within each township (6 miles X 6 miles), are 36 sections. Each section of 640 acres is one mile square (5,280 feet X 5,280 feet).

Within each section, I have uploaded the Island county assessors information for each parcel. The assessors data is arranged in numerical order first by unplatted parcel numbers example, (R33231) and then by platted parcel numbers example, Camano Country Club, "S6250".

I've also uploaded the 2003 and 2004 house and land sales for the specific section of Camano and Whidbey at the page bottom. This information is by parcel number. I requested the information from Island County with a public disclosure request, (see request and responses at page bottom).

Some people may not like this information to be easily available, and I'll delete some information if people make that request. I uploaded the 600,000 property owners or parcels of King County, Washington in February 2003, and two (2) people, as of January 2005, have requested that their names be deleted.

I was startled when my house land value went from $40,685 to $105,000. After seeing that was the case with all my Manaco Beach neighbors, I figured I had nothing to complain about.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Key: 318329 Parcel: S7460-00-00013-0     PCS: 11  Apr Area: 5   Land Mkt Val:         105,000      40,685
Active: Yes Zone: 10 MapID: 500  SC: No  PC: 131  FP: 0.00      Land Asd Val:         105,000      40,685
Use: No  AreaID: 5RLE   Tax: Yes TaxID: 510 Acres: 0.00         Features Mkt Val:       3,213       2,214
LOUIS A BLOOM                                                   Features Asd Val:       3,213       2,214
                                                                Structure Mkt Val:    107,748     100,345
1498 SW CAMANO DR                                               Structure Asd Val:    107,748     100,345
                                                                New Const:                  0           0
CAMANO ISLAND, WA  98282                                        Exemptions:                 0           0
                           Situs: N/A                           Mkt Val:              215,961     143,244
MANACO BCH     LOT 13                                           Asd Val:              215,961     143,244
                                                                Taxable Val:          215,961     143,244
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The assessor information could be useful to people that deal with the county, buyers and sellers of land, and anybody that wants to protest their tax re-evaluations. According to the January 4, 2005 Stanwood/News, page 9, "the assessor is presumed to be correct, and it's up to the applicant to prove their property's appropriate value through the discovery of comparable market sales and other evidence."

With the assessors maps, it's possible to see how land is divided up within a 1/4 section and figure out size and the parcel number for each piece of land.

Click on the below Camano section map numbers, to go to a page with stunning aerial photos of Camano, 1/4 section property parcel maps, well information and Island County Assessor data of all parcels within that section.

Below is my December 3, 2004 "freedom of information" request letter to the Island County assessor for Camano Island assessor data.

Below is Island County Deputy Assessor Anita Fosters' response on December 6, 2004.

Below is my letter to Island County Assessor plus a $30.00 check for the Camano Assessor data on December 8, 2004.

Below is the Island County letter sent me on December 13, 2004, plus the Island County CD-ROM of Camano Island assessor data.

Below is my letter to the Island County Assessor plus a $30.00 check for the Whidbey Island Assessor data on January 6, 2005.

Below is the Island County Deputy Assessor response on January 10, 2005. The assessor suggested that it would cost $1,400.00 for the data. Anita suggested that I should buy the $100.00 ICViewer CD. I bought (in January 2004), and receive updates of the Island County ICViewer CD. It's a good program for looking up individual people or parcels, but searching for neighboring people or parcels is very time consuming. The information is also uncopyable, except by printing. I was irritated.
I uploaded information about the ICViewer to http://oldcamano.net/icviewer.html

Below is my January 14, 2005 "freedom of information" request letter to the Island County assessor for Whidbey Island assessor data. I apologized in a later letter for being "snippy", in this letter.

Below is the Island County assessor letter sent me on January 18, 2005.

Below is my January 22, 2005 letter to the Island County assessor.

Below is the Island County assessor letter sent me on January 24, 2005.

Below is my January 29, 2005 letter to the Island County assessor.

Below is the Island County assessor letter sent me on January 31, 2005.

Below is an e-mail from me to the Island county assessor's office.
From: louis bloom
To: jang@co.island.wa.us
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 4:17 PM
Subject: assessor code information?
Jan:
I recently received from Anita Foster, a cd rom of the Camano and Whidbey land/house sales for the years 2003 and 2004.
The information is in microsoft excel format. There are "cells" from a to w. There are many cells which I have no idea what they mean. If you have some information which describes what each cells means, that would be great. Below are the titles for each cell.
Key # Parcel PCS PC Area Code Area Units Acres Sqr Feet Yr Blt Sale Date Affidavit Sales Info Land Value Imp Value Apr Value Sale Price 99% Sale Ratio
If you don't have something that describes each cell, maybe you could answer my questions about a few cells.
Cell L gives a sale date. Does that mean that a sale or transfer of land took place, or could a person have had their house/land reappraised for mortgage purposes and the lender then submitted that information to the assessors office?
I understand parcel numbers, but what are key numbers?
The sale price cell, and the 99% cell, add up to the ratio cell. I will assume that the sale price cell is the land value, the 99% cell is the building value and the ratio cell was the total sale price.
thank you,
Louis Bloom

Below is the response e-mail from the Island county assessor office.
From: Jan Graham
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 7:54 AM
To: Gary Bur
Subject: FW: assessor code information?
Hi Gary,
Would you respond to this request?
Thank You,
Jan Graham
Island County Assessor's Office
P. O. Box 5000
Coupeville, WA 98239
Phone: 360-678-7858, Fax: 360-240-5565
email: jang@co.island.wa.us

From: Gary Bur
To: manaco@whidbey.net
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 8:40 AM
Subject: RE: assessor code information?
Mr Bloom,
I will try to address your questions. Key # is nothing other than a shorter number that we utilize to search for specific parcels. All key #'s are unique to their parcel number's. PCS code is a state code we must use. It tells the Department of Revenue what the use and size of the property are. PC code is virtually the same thing only it is our local County code. Area is just the appraisal area of the county the parcel is located (we have six appraisal areas). The other area referred to is in reference to value neighborhoods. It refers us to a specific set of value codes we can utilize to value different properties. Units is usually a reference to Square foot or Front foot of land. The sale price cell is the total sale price. The 99% cell is the sale price times 99%. The 99% ratio is what the department of revenue uses to figure the county wide ratio.

Below is an e-mail from me to the Island county assessor's office
From: louis bloom
To: Gary Bur
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 9:49 AM
Subject: thanks
Gary:
Thank you for the information.
On the code numbers for the six different island county areas, which number refers to what area?
Do mortgage lenders/appraisers submit their information to the assessor?
Does the sale date mean that a sale or transfer of land took place took place on that date?
thanks again,
Louis Bloom

Below is the response e-mail from the Island county assessor office.
From: Gary Bur
To: louis bloom
Cc: Anita Foster
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 10:14 AM
Subject: RE: thanks
Mr Bloom,
The areas are spread out over the entire county. You could purchase a map that would show you the different areas with borders that delineate everything in each area. I would not recommend this as it only serves to document that the appraisers that work here check appropriate properties each year and is reported to the Department of Revenue.
Mortgage lenders and appraisers usually acquire their information from this office we do not get it from them. We do however see every sales affadavitt that occurs in Island County.
Yes the sale date means that a sale of land took place. In many cases this is not just land but all improvements on the land ie. single family residences, manufactured homes and outbuildings.

manaco@whidbey.net