The Seattle City Council unanimously passed a 19-page ordinance on Oct. 21 to take over a private parking lot on the waterfront — to create a public parking lot.
The ordinance authorizes the city attorney to “condemn, take, damage and appropriate” the Republic Parking Northwest-operated lot “through negotiation or condemnation” to compensate for the loss of street parking caused by the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project.
Despite several offers from Seattle officials, Myrtle Woldson, a 103-year-old Spokane woman who owns the property, has refused to sell the land on Western Avenue between Seneca and Spring streets.
According to a story by KIRO Radio’s Linda Thomas, Woldson’s property is worth about $5 million; developed, Realtors say, the property would be worth about $130 million. This may be the city’s real motivation for acquiring the property: Buy (take) low, sell high.
Once the viaduct replacement project is completed, the city will likely sell this valuable piece of property to a developer and impose only a limited parking requirement — especially since the waterfront would ideally become a walking destination with a grand, new park where the viaduct once towered over.
Trading one private parking lot for a short-term public one isn’t appropriate use of eminent domain. Instead, it’s just another quick-cash scheme at the expense of a private landowner who is managing her property well, albeit from a distance. Are finances that dire that the city needs to pick on "little, old ladies"?
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