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closePuyallup embroiled in dispute over property rights
Residents say the city should uphold agreements made on the Ninth Street project in Puyallup
Neil Pierson/of The Herald
John and Helga Cancil have lived at their home just west of the Puyallup city limits for three decades, but it wasn’t until the last year they began to be unhappy about their location.
Problems for the Cancils and five of their neighbors started in 2009 when land use consultants for the city contacted them about the upcoming widening project on Ninth Street Southwest. The project was being done in conjunction with Pierce County’s construction on their portion of the road, 94th Avenue East.
Puyallup received state funds to complete much of the project, money that’s contingent on purchasing right of way from the owners of 23 separate parcels. The city was successful in 18 cases, said Jim Morrow, the city’s public works director. But owners of the five other properties, including the Cancils, have stalled the project because they say they aren’t receiving fair compensation and the city refuses to negotiate through an arbitrator.
That’s the message they gave officials when the matter took center stage at the May 11 Puyallup City Council meeting.
“Clearly, our land was needed in order to get that grant,” property owner Mary Doran said. “We agreed to go to arbitration if we could not settle.”
Arbitration hearings through a Seattle firm were delayed three times, Helga Cancil said, including a May 3 date that had been scheduled for three months.
“This has been a nightmare,” she told the city council. “As far as we’re concerned we put our ducks in a row and the city had plenty of time to put its ducks in a row.
“It’s not fair. It’s not right. It shouldn’t happen to anybody else.”
The council passed an ordinance last June relating to its eminent domain rights on the project. The ordinance says that if negotiations with property owners aren’t successful, City Attorney Cheryl Carlson is allowed to lawfully “condemn, take, damage and appropriate” the properties.
The property owners signed possession and use agreements with Puyallup last June, which allowed the project to begin moving forward. Their attorney, Jeff Helsdon of University Place, says that agreement was binding and forces the city to adhere to the project’s original design, which includes curbs, gutters, sidewalks and utility easements along the five properties.
The work is in progress and the west side of Ninth Street is largely a dirt strip as contractors are moving power poles and preparing for asphalt work. The city has paid the county residents a total of about $88,000 to purchase a 16-foot-wide swath along their properties. That amount was determined to be a “fair market value” by two outside appraisals, Morrow said.
Helsdon and his clients, however, say Puyallup’s appraisals fail to account for the properties’ conditions after the street project is completed. Driveway access is one of the biggest complaints: The Cancils own four vehicles and say they’ll only have room for two if the project moves forward as designed, because it cuts off some of their existing driveway.
“My concern has always been safety,” said Cindy Manson, who owns the property on the corner of Ninth and 116th Street East. “Without the purchase of my land, I am left with a driveway not up to state and city codes of how close a driveway can be to an intersection.”
“It’s not safe for us,” property owner Nancy Davis added. “I have to use my front yard as a driveway to…get onto the road safely.”
The city says Helsdon contacted them five days before the May 3 arbitration with a final offer of nearly $480,000, almost four times’ the city’s original offer.
Invoices from Helsdon’s firm in October 2009 show his clients’ appraisals totaled $376,000. Offers sent to the city attorney’s office on May 13, which included pre-judgment interest and legal fees, upped the total to a little less than $405,000.
Council members grilled Morrow on the proceedings last week. After declining to recess into immediate executive session on the matter, they scheduled a private meeting prior to their May 18 study session. The results of that meeting came too late for publication.
“There’s nothing that would cause undue hardship if we delayed this until the next meeting,” said Councilmember Rick Hansen, who voted against an immediate executive session.
Morrow said original designs for the road called for two 15-foot lanes, two 11-foot lanes and a center turn lane of 12 feet along with curbs, gutters, an 8-foot-wide sidewalk and space for utilities. If the council chooses to follow Morrow’s recommendation, the city would reduce the width of all lanes and not build any sidewalks.
“When you add up…how much we were purchasing, it was less than 5,000 square feet for the five property owners,” Morrow told the council. “I, in good conscience, cannot stand before you…and recommend that we continue forward with the purchase of property for the benefit of that sidewalk.”
Councilmember Kent Boyle asked why the city wasn’t pursuing further arbitration when he felt the properties had clearly been damaged. The arbitrator, retired judge Terry Lukens, denied the city’s claim for summary judgment last year and Helsdon says the city’s own design standards require it to construct curbs, gutters and sidewalks on Ninth Street.
“When you purchase property like this, it’s really a crapshoot,” Boyle said. “What ends up happening here is that when the negotiations don’t go our way, we pull our toys and leave.”
Morrow and Carlson said the possession and use agreement signed last June is based upon state condemnation law, which allows the city to pull out of purchase agreements until deeds are recorded.
John Cancil disagreed, noting that state law doesn’t allow cities to abandon projects if the properties in question have already been improved. Multiple gas lines have already been moved to make way for the new road.
Councilmember John Knutsen said Puyallup should live up to its end of the bargain, regardless of the cost.
“I believe that if we set out principles in a deal that we already made, that we follow them,” he said. “If we get stung, we get stung."