Yakima County defends high cost of buying Nile property

YAKIMA, Wash. -- In the hectic days after the Oct. 11 Nile Valley landslide, Yakima County purchased more than 60 acres, including open land, several homes and a barn to make way for a new Naches River channel and a new road.

Ultimately, the county paid a total $1.78 million in taxpayer money -- 40 percent more than the assessed value of the property.

Nearly all of what was purchased was unusable to local residents and businesses and wouldn't have been marketable after the landslide.

Did the county pay too much?

Not according to county commissioners and Public Services Director Vern Redifer, the official who bought the land during negotiations over the telephone, on front porches and sitting on the tailgate of a pickup.

The county didn't have time to drive a harder bargain once homes and land became consumed by the Naches River, Redifer said.

Nor did he have time to consult with appraisers or real estate agents to arrive at land values.

In more complicated transactions that involve income-producing property, the county will call in an independent appraiser.

The risks of waiting -- the possible loss of the Nile Road Bridge and downstream damage from the continual erosion of the toe of the landslide that could have triggered another slide -- were too great.

"What I was buying was time," said Redifer, who bought a total of 11 parcels on behalf of Yakima County. "We needed to take immediate action to lessen the threat and the damage that was likely to be in the millions and millions of dollars."

One downstream concern was the city of Yakima's water treatment plant. Situated along the Naches River, the plant supplies city drinking water and isn't designed to handle the amount of sediment that could have come from slide erosion, said Dave Brown, city water and irrigation manager.

Brown said the city might have had to shut down the plant or reduce its capacity and rely on deep wells had significant amounts of sediment threatened the plant's operation. That backup plan would have worked through the winter, but couldn't have stood up to increasing demand in the spring.

The Naches River, meanwhile, had been diverted by the slide, which pushed the channel bottom 30 feet in the air in places and had found its own route through private property. It was headed for the bridge.

Redifer estimated that a washed-out Nile Road Bridge -- the key to sustaining access for upper Nile residents -- would have taken months and cost upwards of $9 million to replace today.

The bridge abutments were lost during the 1996 flood.

The county considered all those potential risks and outcomes when deciding to act, Redifer said.

At least a quarter of the 60-plus acres purchased was for the new section of State Route 410. The county will get reimbursement from the state Department of Transportation for that portion, but the dollar amount has not yet been determined.

Those with knowledge of the appraisal process and land values said they aren't surprised the county ultimately paid more than the assessed value, which generally lags behind the current market. Assessed values are based on prior sales of like properties.

Longtime area appraiser Steve Korn of Yakima said he would expect, given the circumstances, that sales of the Nile properties exceeded assessed value.

"I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility that they had to pay more than the market value to get things they had to have to avoid what was going on," said Korn, who has been in the appraisal business for 40 years.

Korn, who has done some right-of-way and easement appraisals, provided his perspective without having analyzed the Nile sales.

Yakima County Assessor Dave Cook said he, too, isn't surprised about the sale prices.

Comparing government's emergency purchases with a normal willing-buyer, willing-seller transaction is difficult, Cook said.

"Did the county pay more than the assessed value? Yes," he said. "The reason for it is the urgency to acquire the property to be able to do something with it before the winter or the flood hits."

Redifer bought the 11 parcels over a period of days using money from the county Flood Control Zone District. District revenues come from a property tax of less than a dime per $1,000 of assessed value on property countywide.

The money is designated solely to reduce flood threats or fight flooding. The funds are not part of the county's general fund.

Throughout the process, Redifer consulted with county commissioners every morning to keep them apprised of what he was doing. As the former county engineer, he had experience buying land for roads. And under an emergency declaration enacted after the landslide, he was empowered to take measures outside of normal channels. He didn't consult with them prior to purchasing the land.

Early on, the immediate danger was to the properties on the east side of Nile Road, owned by the Lennox and Milligan families.

Commissioner Mike Leita said it was clear those homes were in imminent danger of being flooded.

"The first priority was the two cabins that were being impacted," Leita said. "The river was coming up to the corner of the foundation. We had to clean septic tanks and other debris so the river wouldn't be polluted with contaminants."

While trying to plan for the future of a new channel and road, the county also was trying to figure out what to do if the river wiped out the Nile bridge and cut off the area for months.

"We were looking at the costs of bringing food, heating supplies and fuel by helicopter," Leita said. "We even talked about laying pipe over the slide to run fuel from one side to the other."

Barb Milligan recalls that she and her husband, Bob, felt the negotiation process the county went through was fair.

The couple signed to sell their home on the front porch while family and co-workers moved their belongings. The county paid nearly $30,000 more than the property's $92,000 assessed value, Redifer said. She said the two sides felt it was a fair price because Bob Milligan's denture business was located there.

"We felt comfortable with it. They didn't have time. We could see that," Barb Milligan said. "We even told them we don't want to hold out and cause a problem. I think they were very compassionate."

All 11 parcels were purchased for more than the assessed value. Redifer said he took into account improvements that had been made and, in the case of property owner Boyd Brown, what it would cost to replace Brown's big red barn. It was directly in the path of the new river channel skirting the landslide.

The barn had been calculated in the $237,000 assessment of a larger 35-acre parcel, according to the county Assessor's Web site, and was the only building on Brown's property in addition to his house. The rest of it was open land.

To obtain a value for the barn, Redifer said he did an Internet search for what a new barn would cost.

A bare building kit for a similar-size barn would have cost more than $100,000. Adding what Brown had in his barn -- water, power, a meat-cutting and storage room and a second floor -- added to the offer Redifer made. The county paid the Browns $300,000 for the four-acre parcel on which the barn stood.

Current assessed value of the property, according to the Assessor's Office, with the barn now removed is $29,450.

In another instance, the county bought more land than needed.

Norma Randall owned 6.7 acres, 4 acres of which were needed for the new State Route 410. But if the county had bought only 4 acres, it would have left a remnant piece of land all but inaccessible to Randall.

Redifer said he bought the entire parcel that included two summer rental cabins that were later demolished.

According to the Randall family, a real estate agent had advised the family earlier this year to turn down a $328,000 offer, so Redifer said he agreed with them on the $328,000 price.

The assessed value of the property is $218,500.

There's still a rental house on the site that can be sold later to recoup some of the county's investment, Redifer said. The house is on the east side of SR 410 and will remain easily accessible from the new road.

Redifer said the county matched the $440,000 purchase price Kerrick Ward paid for the house and 16.5 acres in 2005 because of improvements the family had made to the property. Its assessed value was $323,500.

Redifer said the property owners were trying to deal with the effects of the natural disaster at the same time they were trying to contact insurance companies about flood damage coverage. They also were hearing Redifer tell them he needed to buy their home, in some cases, to tear it down.

"You have to take into consideration the tremendous amount of stress these people were under," he said.

Now that the river channel and the new road are in place, Leita said he believes the county made the right calls.

"The cost of waiting was considered to be insurmountably high. We had people at risk and the cost of that risk far outweighed the cost of acquiring the land," Leita said.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.

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