In one of the most beautiful – and affluent – parts
of central Idaho, 182 cabins on the Sawtooth National Forest have
for decades been the best real estate bargain
around.
Many of the cabins are in stunning
locations like Petit Lake, a remote body of water at the northern
tier of the 2.1 million-acre forest, on the Sawtooth National
Recreation Area. All are a short drive from the Sun Valley ski
resort and neighboring Ketchum.
The cabin sites
lease for a song – about $200 per year. Actor Bruce Willis pays
$1,700 per year for a three-building compound at Petit Lake that he
could probably sell for close to $1 million.
The
leaseholders benefit from a vacation-home program that dates back
to the 1930s, when the Forest Service platted cabin sites in many
of its forests. The sites were then leased to individuals who
agreed to build and maintain cabins. The lessors paid an annual
rent of 5 percent of the land’s appraised value, and owned the
cabin but not the real estate.
Last December,
the General Accounting Office harshly criticized the Forest Service
for failing to get “fair market value” for its cabin sites. In
response, the agency began to reappraise all cabin
sites.
Based on the new appraisals, lease rates
in the Sawtooth National Forest should soar. In Willis’s case, the
Forest Service wants more than $20,000 annually. Most leases
climbed from about $200 to about $2,000. When the appraisals are
done nationwide, more than 15,600 cabin owners will pay more to the
federal government.
But the new leases won’t take
effect on the Sawtooth on Jan. 1, 1998, as intended. Cabin
leaseholders in the Sawtooth protested and Idaho Republican Sen.
Larry Craig attached a rider to an appropriations bill, delaying
the new rates until at least Jan. 1, 1999. There has also been some
local fallout. Willis owns three businesses in Haley, and he yanked
his advertising out of the Wood River Journal after it ran a photo
of his compound in connection with the GAO report.
*C.J.
Karamargin
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Taxpayers subsidize cheap vacations.
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