04/19/2006: "Oh Boy, A Billionaire & Lopez, SJ I & Turtleback Land?"

Tim Blixseth has described himself as one who came from a family on welfare, to the place where he is today. Where he is today may be a problem for Lopez and San Juan island if DNR (Department of Natural Resources) decides to do a land swap, or outright sell, 400+ acres of Lopez Hill, and 300+ acres of Mitchell Hill on San Juan to Blixseth. And there are rumors he may be looking at Turtleback as well.

Blixseth made his money in Oregon timber and land development, and recently has received a lot of press as the originator of the concept of developing land that is sold, by invitation only, to select individuals. Individuals with a whole lot of money.

His latest development is in Big Sky Montana, called the Yellowstone Club, and is known by the locals and the press as the Millionaires Club. If you want to join there is reportedly an initiation fee of a quarter million dollars, then land costs of a "home site acreage: 1.77 acres. Prices begin at $2,350,000" and can exceed ten million. Those who are allowed to "join" the club are purchasing more than land. The Club has a private security force, and reportedly patrols the land with a helicopter.

As one might expect, Blixseth has his supporters and some very vocal distracters. The supporters say he only develops a portion of the land and leaves areas open to the public; brings in large amounts of cash to a local area, and donates some to local causes. His distracters are on record as being concerned about his environmental record, and his competitiveness that leads him to move in on pending and existing deals that may provide less impact, and greater public use of government land, and that seems to be one of the major sources of the property he develops.

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Blixseth, in simple terms, finds land that a government agency wants to unload because they need to maximize a profit from it, and offers to swap some other land that he owns -or will purchase- for the desired land. Local example: DNR is required to use public land to fund the state school system. They traditionally do that by managing the logging -the harvesting- of the land. So if DNR comes in and starts cutting all of the trees on the land they own in San Juan County, two things are likely to be true, one, there will be a public outcry, and two, the return on the logs will not be impressive. So here comes someone like Blixseth. He trades land with DNR that gives them more money, and he ends up with land that he can make money on, in a way that DNR cannot.

Needless to say, there are concerns on both islands, and there is also concern about the possible fate of Turtleback Mountain on Orcas if Blixseth sets his sights on that as well. The county did not need to have all three of these possible sales-trades-transfers come up at once. The land Bank is attempting to obtain Turtleback, and the good news is they may be making headway, but the bad news is if they spend their money on that, there is little left to get involved on Lopez and San Juan. That is not say there is a lack of action and movement in the background. Bob Myhr, Councilman from Lopez is active in working on the Lopez problem, and the Land Bank is formulating some ideas of how they may help or get involved, and have been in contact with DNR and attempted to talk to Blixseth.

Is there any chance our local billionaires and millionaires may get involved to help out? Not known, but it has been reported that Blixseth had rejected one potential member of the Yellowstone Club when he found out that the candidate had redesigned his yacht, so that it would be just a bit bigger than the one owned by Paul Allen; and Bill Gates has also been reported to be, if not a member, at least a guest at the Yellowstone Club. Perhaps they will step up, purchase the land from DNR to help the state school system, and then donate the land to the one or more of the local non-profit land conservation groups. It would be a nice write-off.