Agency Held Lands | Michael Watson Secretary of state

The Secretary of State is conducting a detailed inventory of all Agency Lands owned by the State. Agency Lands are those public lands under the direct management and use of departments and agencies within the State’s executive branch. This inventory does not include Public Trust Tidelands or Sixteenth Section School Trust Lands.

This inventory is a seven-phase process:

Obtain from county Tax Assessors lists of all lands shown in the State’s name on their county land rolls. This phase has been completed.
Compare information from the county land rolls with existing information in the Secretary of State’s office. This phase has been completed.
Send each Agency having control of land a list of known parcels under their control and request ownership verification and information on the use of each parcel by the Agency. We are presently initiating implementation of this phase.
Obtain from the land records in the offices of the various Chancery Clerks copies of all deeds conveying land to the State. Work on this phase has begun and is ongoing.
Review all deeds and enter the deeds into the Agency-Held Lands database. Unresolved issues of ownership will be noted.
Research and resolution of unresolved issues of ownership.
Annually update reports from agencies. Each year, agencies will receive an annual report listing all real property shown under their control and listing all land transactions for the current year. Agencies will be asked to review and verify or correct the information shown on their annual Agency-Held Land Inventory report. Any changes will be incorporated in the statewide Agency-Held Land database.

Our goal is to provide the members of the Legislature, Agency officials, County officials and the general public accurate land information, to allow proper utilization and management, and, where the Legislature deems appropriate, transfer parcels so they may be placed back onto the county property rolls.

INVENTORY OF AGENCY HELD LANDS