The Grays Harbor County commissioners are considering using eminent domain to condemn two parcels along the Wishkah River in order to move forward with a potential multi-million dollar flood protection wall along the Wishkah Road.
The county has been in negotiations for months with two landowners along the river and have reached an impasse. Without the pieces of property, the floodwall project is pretty much dead in the water. The road and surrounding homes flood at times, blocking access.
Landowner Frank Kirsch, who lives nearby and has been pushing for flooding solutions for years, has asked for the county commissioners to condemn the properties.
At this point, County Commissioner Frank Gordon says he’s open to using the threat of eminent domain as a tool to force the property owners to come down on their asking prices. County Commissioner Wes Cormier says he’s philosophically opposed to taking someone’s property. That makes County Commissioner Herb Welch the deciding vote. Welch said he’s leaning against implementing the eminent domain process, but is open to the idea and willing to learn more about the steps necessary to get there.
The county appraised 27.51 acres of riverfront property in 2013 at $10,920. The county hired a private, independent appraiser that found the county assessed value woefully inadequate, finding a previous sale in 2002 at $65,000. The independent appraiser valued the land at $72,500, which is what the county offered the landowner. Gordon says the landowner has repeatedly refused the offer and says if the county wants the property, it’ll have to give him $250,000 — that’s more than three times the official appraised value and 22 times more than what the Assessor’s Office says the property is worth.
The property has a one-story mobile home built in 1968, plus some timber, which may or may not be loggable because it’s in a wetland area.
A second parcel needed for the county project consists of 12.98 acres and has a one-story home, built in 1980. The Assessor’s Office appraised the property in 2013, saying both the building and property is valued at $29,960. The independent appraiser found a previous sale in the area in 2013 for $43,000 and valued the property at $50,000.
The county offered $60,000 for the property — $10,000 more than the appraised property. The landowner came back and countered at $100,000. That’s three times more than the value from the Assessor and twice as much as the independent appraiser’s value.
Public Services Director Kevin Varness called the counter offers unreasonable, noting that the state has provided a budget for the property acquisition “but not at these inflated costs.”
A consultant hired by the county looked to see if the flood wall would be possible without buying the property, but found it could be up to $690,000 more to install the floodgates and do on-site flood mitigation and flood proofing costs without the property. Design of the flood wall was already coming in at $5.5 million, according to early estimates and the consultants ays the county could be on the hook for extra costs.
The county has been working with the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority to ask for funding for construction. But, without the private property, Varness says the county should put the project on a shelf.
“If we do not pursue condemnation, we should stop the project,” Varness said.
Kirsch says if the county is unwilling to pursue condemnation, the county commissioners should give the project to a government entity willing to do it.
Consultant Ryan Bartelheimer says he’s already checked with the state Department of Fish & Wildlife and the state Department of Natural Resources and neither agency is interested in pursuing a condemnation option.
That could leave it on the county to either pursue eminent domain or kill the project.
“If we vote on it, my vote is an easy no for condemnation,” Cormier said from home on Monday.
Cormier wasn’t able to make it to the briefing on the Wishkah Road project Monday morning, but says he’s been paying attention to the issue for quite some time. He’s the county’s representative on the Flood Authority.
“If we can’t get a compromise with the landowners, we need to walk away,” Cormier said.
Gordon says he sees the condemnation process “as a tool. … Wes is an automatic ‘no,’ and Herb, philosophically, is against it. But, my own opinion, is using it as a tool to adjust the price down so it’s more livable.”
“We definitely have this as a tool in our pocket,” Welch said.
“But, they know we have that tool,” Varness said. “And if you’re not willing to go down that road, the only option I see is for us to stop the project.”
“But, this will get us a letter to them from the prosecutor,” Gordon said. “I am a ‘yes’ for this. Flat out. That’s not fair to you, Herb. But that puts it ‘yes’ or ‘no’ right here.”
Welch asked if the county were to approve the condemnation process, it is possible to stop it — or does the matter go to the courts and stay there. Varness referred that question to the Prosecutor’s Office to figure out.
The issue is expected to come up again in the coming weeks.
