When the public agency “The City of Marysville” made efforts to acquire a portion of our yard for trail purposes my husband communicated to me that Director of Parks and Recreation Jim Bellew came to our property and asked us to donate it. He did the same to at least one of our other neighbors. Not knowing what they wanted we had nothing to base a decision or value on or what property “The City of Marysville” actually wanted, so we continued to use our property for various things with “no retaliation.”

March 2009 timeframe, we received an offer letter for approximately 8,000-square-feet of the west portion of our view lot. The “City of Marysville” offered us approximately $2.25 per square foot for the property that had an Assessed Value of $358,000 and a land market of S194,700. These assessed values were on the same said property with encumbered easements. The offer was not accompanied by an appraisal. To the date of this offer, we could do anything on our lot and did. We also to the date of the March 2009 offer never had an issue with “The Puget Sound Utility District Easement Right of Way”, Puget Sound Energy Easement Right of Way, or the “The City of Marysville” Waterline Utility Easement Right of Way areas on our lot, with one exception which “The City of Marysville” and or a contractor they hired settled for an undisclosed amount on our behalf for destroying a portion of our yard which was in what is now “The Regional Utility Corridor.” I will just say the restoration settlement to correct the damaged yard trumped the offer to purchase the same said property.

My husband contacted Mayor Nehring and asked him in an economy such as we are in, is this how he would want a homeowner utilizing their assets in disputes over Administrative Interpretations reducing homeowner land uses. He looked into the matter and called my husband back informing him that on counsel of both, The City Attorney, Grant Weed, and Gloria Hiroshima, we should let the proceedings stand. Going before The Hearing Examiner cost us in excess of $15,000. Not leadership in our eyes.

So my questions to Gloria are, What is illegal about using the county assessor values? How is the city held liable? and is it just as illegal to not provide any appraisal as well as not using the current county assessor values to establish a fair market value or manipulate ordinances to force diminished value acquisitions of property?

This is a mere summary and does not cover all the issues we have faced regarding the “City of Marysville” acquisition efforts of our property. If you want the whole story, please contact us at johnpatrickblackmon@yahoo.com and we will gladly provide all of the facts accompanied by the documentation of our dealings with “The City of Marysville” for approximately the last 16 years.

Jenifer Blackmon

Marysville