File #: 2024-0238    Version:
Type: Ordinance Status: Passed
File created: 8/20/2024 In control: Budget and Fiscal Management Committee
On agenda: Final action: 9/17/2024
Enactment date: 9/24/2024 Enactment #: 19819
Title: AN ORDINANCE relating to the sale of the surplus property located at 18005 107th Ave SW, Vashon, Washington, in council district eight.
Sponsors: Teresa Mosqueda, Girmay Zahilay, Pete von Reichbauer, Claudia Balducci
Indexes: Surplus Property, Vashon
Attachments: 1. Ordinance 19819, 2. A. Purchase and Sale Agreement, 3. 2024-0238 Transmittal Letter, 4. 2024-0238 Fiscal Note, 5. 2024-0238 Property Summary - Vashon Friends of Mukai Sale, 6. 2024-0238 Legislative Review Form, 7. 2024-0238_SR_Mukai Property, 8. 2024-0238 ATT2 AMD S1, 9. 2024-0238_RevisedSR_Mukai Property
Staff: Paul, Gene

Title

AN ORDINANCE relating to the sale of the surplus property located at 18005 107th Ave SW, Vashon, Washington, in council district eight.

Body

STATEMENT OF FACTS:

1.  The property located at 18005 107th Ave SW, Vashon, Washington ("the property"), located within council district eight, is one of two parcels that comprise the Mukai Agricultural Complex.  The Mukai Agricultural Complex began in the 1920s as a strawberry farm operated by the prominent Japanese American Denichiro "B.D." Mukai.  One parcel of the Mukai Agricultural Complex includes Japanese-style gardens planted by B.D. Mukai's wife, Kuni Mukai, and a 1920s Craftsman-style residence. The other parcel, which is the property, includes a cold process fruit barreling plant, where strawberries grown on the farm were barreled and shipped.

2.  The Mukai family fled to Oregon after the Japanese Exclusion Act was signed in 1942.  While the family returned to Vashon after World War II had ended, the strawberry business had become less profitable, and B.D. Mukai's son sold the real property in 1969.  The Mukai Agricultural Complex passed through several ownerships thereafter.

3.  In 2002, the county designated the Mukai Agricultural Complex a King County Landmark.  The following year, the National Park Service placed the Mukai Agricultural Complex on the National Register of Historic Places.

4.  Friends of Mukai, a Vashon Island-based Washington nonprofit corporation dedicated to the preservation of the Mukai Agricultural Complex, and current owner of the Mukai Parcel, has worked closely with the county for nearly ten years to secure and reunite both parcels.

5.  In 2017, with the help of a Washington state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation grant and the advocacy and a cash contribution from Friends of Mukai, the county acquired the property from a private party with the goal of preserving the fruit barreling plant.  The grant resulted in the property being subject to a historic preservation covenant.

6.  Under a use agreement with the county, Friends of Mukai has occupied the property since November 2018.  Throughout the term of the use agreement, Friends of Mukai has worked to restore the fruit barreling plant, consistent with the requirements in the historic preservation covenant. The restoration of the fruit barreling plant is the third and final major phase of Friends of Mukai's restoration and unification of the Mukai Agricultural Complex.

7.  Before the county entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Friends of Mukai in March 2024 ("the PSA"), the facilities management division completed the surplus property, affordable housing, and public notice requirements.

8.  The PSA includes the Covenant to Use Land for Historic Purposes, recorded under King County recorder's office No. 20170616001395, and requires Friends of Mukai to preserve and operate the fruit barreling plant in accordance with the covenant.

9.  The PSA includes an additional covenant for Friends of Mukai to acknowledge the property was purchased in part with funding from the King County parks levy authorized by Ordinance 18890. Friends of Mukai shall covenant that the property will be used for the open space purposes contemplated by Ordinance 18890, and that the property shall not be converted to a different use unless other equivalent property within the county shall be received in exchange therefor; and the Covenant to Use Land for Historic Purposes is maintained.

10.  Under K.C.C. 4.56.100.A.2., the council may determine that unique circumstances make a negotiated direct sale in the best interests of the public.

                     BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:

                     SECTION 1.  Findings:  Unique circumstances exist, such that a negotiated, direct sale to Friends of Mukai of the property located at 18005 107th Ave SW, Vashon, Washington ("the property"), is authorized under K.C.C. 4.56.100.A.2.  Those unique circumstances include that the buyer, a Vashon Island-based Washington nonprofit corporation, is the owner of the second parcel of the Mukai Agricultural Complex and currently occupies the fruit barreling plant under a use agreement with the county.  Friends of Mukai has worked closely with the county for over ten years to secure and reunite both parcels of the Mukai Agricultural Complex, which has been designated a King County landmark since 2002.  Through this acquisition, the buyer will provide access, interpretive exhibits, educational programming, and cultural events highlighting the history of the property, the Mukai family, and the broader Japanese American experience.

                     SECTION 2.  The executive is authorized to convey the property located at 18005 107th Ave SW, Vashon, Washington to Friends of Mukai consistent with a purchase and

sale agreement substantially in the form of Attachment A to this ordinance and to take all actions necessary to implement the terms of the purchase and sale agreement.