06/15/2005: "$1.8M Public Works Land Purchase"

Blue Line Shows Subject Property

As reported in The Guardian in May, the BOCC will be purchasing land just north of the Friday Harbor town limits. The land is near the new Carlson Commercial park development, and is some of the only land left on San Juan Island where commercial development can be placed. The County Assessor has assigned a value of approximately $21,000.00 per acre to the property, and according to a Resolution (#61-2005) passed by the BOCC, the County will be paying $66,667 an acre for the property. When the Public Works director was asked about the disparity in value, he would not comment except to say some of the $1.8M of the purchase price was not directly related to the land cost.

The land in question is a narrow strip of property comprised of seven existing lots that run from Beaverton Valley Road to Lampard Road. Although the County simply will not discuss the purchase, it is now widely believed the County will be acquiring the back lots next to Lampard, for a total of 27 acres, however the current owner stated the map (shown above) correctly outlines the properties in question.

After the report in the Guardian about the pending sale, many of the neighbors of the land expressed concern that the property was expected to be the new site for the equipment yard for Public Works, and as such, there would be early morning noise, dust problems and a general disruption to the neighborhood. One concern of the neighbors was the possible use of a narrow public road (Lampard) to access the property, but it now appears that will not be the case. It is reported that the main road out of town (Beaverton Valley) will be the access road to the property, and the back lots on Lampard will be for residential use.

In addition to the $1.8M to purchase the property, there will be large additional expenses to develop the land, and costs construct the buildings and improvements that are required for it's use. It is expected that the BOCC will sell the existing Public Works yard next to the SJC Library, which will raise some, but not all, of the money necessary for the completion of the project. Any short fall of funds would normally come out of the county road fund and/or by the selling of bonds.