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 preservati...

Click here for full text