Baby Kestrel watching me do laundryPUD rejects leaseholders' bid to stay on Crescent Bar Island
Seattle Times
No thanks, the Grant County Public Utility District (PUD) replied when the 415 leaseholders at the controversial Crescent Bar Island on Wednesday proposed that they get a new 40-year lease.
The 160-acre island is in one of the most gorgeous locations in the state, with basalt cliffs rising hundreds of feet on one side and an advertised 300 days of sunshine a year.
On April 26, the PUD commissioners had voted not to renew a 50-year lease. Over the years, a 110-unit condo complex was built on the public island, and 305 trailer homes were parked and then expanded into what amounted to permanent residences.
The leaseholders Wednesday told the PUD they had come up with a "win-win solution." They were "willing to pay $40 million over 40 years" that would be used for public improvements.
But that really comes down to each leaseholder paying an average of $2,410 a year, or $201 a month, for prime recreational land right on the Columbia River.
The 50-year deal was a good one for the leaseholders, most of whom have 206 or 425 area codes and used the places for summer vacations. There are 65 year-round leaseholders living on the island.
Most of the leases were for $33 a year, with a few, newer condos paying up to $626 a year.
Some area locals had complained the island had become a private enclave, with a chain-link fence between a designated public beach and trailer homes, and with entry to those homes through a gate.
The PUD wants the trailer homes gone by June 2012 and plans to take over the condos, as allowed by the lease.
Some trailer-home leaseholders say it would be nearly impossible to move their expanded places and fear they'll become homeless. Some say they'll be stuck with mortgages and nothing to show for them.
A spokeswoman for the PUD said the agency's decision was "final" and it already had filed a shoreline-management plan with the federal government and would be holding open houses to discuss the public retaking of the island.
Speaking for leaseholders, Nancy Polky, of Kent, who owns a condo at the island with her husband, John Polky, said she hoped the PUD might reconsider once it heard from the public.
The leaseholders unveiled a plan in which their new lease payments would be used to build everything from a boardwalk around the island to a new overnight campground with restroom and shower facilities.
A drawing of the proposed plan shows the parked trailer homes would remain where they are.
Polky said she thought an average of $2,410 annual lease payments was fair market value.
About the potential of a lawsuit by leaseholders against the PUD, Polky said, "We're not at that point."
The PUD, meanwhile, plans to hold open houses in June and July to discuss recreational improvements to the island.
It said it's sticking by its decision รข€” "to dedicate this unique and important property for full public use."
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