Land sales could solve Gazzam Lake dispute
Posted on February 12, 2010 in Press by admin1 Comment »

Bainbridge Island Review 
Jul 17 2009

 

A possible solution is being forged that could end ongoing litigation between landowners in the area of Gazzam Lake Park.

The dispute arose when owners of seven parcels near the park’s western border began pushing for recognition of a public access easement from their properties to Marshall Road. The easement would transect the park as well as a small portion of land owned by Walt McGraw. McGraw opposed the easement and organized a “Save Gazzam” campaign.

The landowners filed suit against the McGraw family in 2008. A judge denied requests for summary judgment and future court hearings have not been set.

In the meantime, both sides are considering a compromise. The proposed solution? Sell the properties.

Nearly all the properties owned by the plaintiffs have been nominated for possible purchase by the Bainbridge Metropolitan Park and Recreation District’s Parkland Acquisition Committee. The nominations were made by McGraw, but already five of the plaintiffs have signed a letter supporting the move.

“This is one of those rare times when it could be a win-win-win,” said Randall Olsen, an attorney with Buck Law Group representing McGraw. “It would be a win for the McGraws, a win for the plaintiffs and it would be a win for the parks and the greater Bainbridge Island community.”

The plaintiffs might benefit by getting market value for their properties, rather than continuing the legal battle for an access road. Landowner Robert Leigh said the plaintiffs have been looking for a compromise all along.

“The collective intent of all the parties is to realize some value from our properties,” Leigh said.

The park district could benefit by adding several properties to the west side of the park. But it’s too soon to know whether the PAC will be interested in the purchase.

The citizen committee is advising the park district board on what properties to buy using money from a recently passed lid-lift measure. It ended its call for property nominations at the end of June and received about 70 applications.

The PAC has $875,000 to work with this year, but unspent money will roll over to the next year. Most of the eight Gazzam properties nominated have assessed values in the range of $100,000 to $150,000, according to the Kitsap County Assessor’s website.

The PAC won’t begin evaluating individual properties until August but the properties would expand an existing park, which would fit one of the PAC’s five priorities for acquisitions.

Leigh said he and other landowners are taking a wait-and-see approach.

“Certainly it’s very early on in the process,” he said. “We have no idea whether the Parkland Acquisition Committee will have interest in our properties.”

© Copyright 2009 Bainbridge Island Review

Lawsuit grips Gazzam Lake Park
Posted on December 12, 2008 in Press by admin2 Comments »

By SEAN ROACH
Bainbridge Island Review Reporter
Sep 27 2008

 

What was once a debate over whether to pave a road through the Gazzam Lake area has now become a legal showdown.

A group of seven individuals and one construction corporation are suing for the recognition of a private piece of land on Marshall Road as a public thoroughfare.

A court’s recognition of the land as a default public route would legally allow for the construction of a road that would bisect Gazzam Lake Park and Close properties, and connect Marshall Road to undeveloped lots on the park’s west side (near Crystal Springs Drive).

The plaintiff landowners have the right to pave the public easement for access to their parcels that could accommodate up to 15 homes. The easement was established along Gazzam Lake’s north border when the park was originally acquired by the district in 1995.

However, if the easement in question were connected to Marshall Road it would go through a triangle chunk of property owned by Walt and Nora McGraw, landowners who are adamantly against a paved road through Gazzam Lake.

“We’re going to fight it. We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure a road won’t come through the park,” Walt McGraw said. “We are not trying to keep them off their land, we’re trying to keep them from destroying a park.”

The McGraws and other homeowners in the Marshall Road and Spring Ridge Road area have created a group named Save Gazzam, and are framing the issue as a matter of environmental impact. The website boasts more than 1,000 signatures of island residents opposed to the road.

Members of the Save Gazzam group claim that landowners trying to pave the road are ignoring more expensive road construction alternatives since money for the road’s construction would be supplied by the landowners.

City planners have said the citizens would need to assess all alternatives, including connections to Crystal Springs Drive or either Springridge or Marshall roads to access their property. In the past, landowners have said Crystal Springs isn’t feasible for a road because the slope is too steep. It is not known how much money it would cost to build a road to Crystal Springs; cost evaluations made by the landowners are not public information.

“They said that coming up from Crystal Springs would be too expensive,” said Save Gazzam signatory Richard Labotz. “I am still not happy that they are trying to divide the properties (Gazzam and Close) and their motivation is, of course, to make money.”

Two plaintiffs involved in the case would not comment on the litigation when contacted.

The lawyer who filed the suit for the landowners, Blair Burroughs, gave one comment and then did not return follow-up phone calls.

“We’re basically trying to get access,” Burroughs said. “(Connecting to Marshall Road) looked like the best option. We believe there is a public easement by prescription. We have a firm legal position or we wouldn’t have filed the case.”

Analysis of documents filed with the lawsuit indicate the landowners are claiming a historic right (public easement by prescription) to the McGraw’s piece of Marshall Road, citing maps which indicate that the road at one time connected with Crystal Springs Drive through what is now Gazzam Lake Park.

They are also backing up their claims of easement by prescription, arguing that the public has “long made use of the road,” and that both vehicles and pedestrians regularly traverse the McGraw property to gain access to Gazzam Lake.

The park district, which has up to this point been removed from the debate, was thrust into the middle of the lawsuit when Burroughs listed the district as an involuntary plaintiff in the case. Park district attorney, Ryan Vancil, said he is puzzled by his client’s listing as an involuntary plaintiff in the suit.

“It is a unique if not rare procedure,” Vancil said. “There is some confusion as to why we have been named as parties. We’ll be exploring changing our status because we think we are improperly named. (If anything) we think we should be a defendant. We have no complaint or cause of concern with Walt McGraw.

“We view it as he has been generous to allow the public to access the park through his land, and now he is being punished for that,” Vancil said. “They claim the public has been crossing his lot, so they have a right to build a road through. Those are two very different things.”

On Thursday, the park district board discussed the case and decided to take action siding with the McGraws.

“The (parks) board has voted to enter into a joint defense agreement with Walt and Nora McGraw,” said district board member Ken DeWitt.

A joint defense agreement allows for the district and the McGraws to share information that is normally confidential between parties.

“Our stated position, we would prefer they access off of Crystal Springs,” DeWitt said. “(Gazzam and Close properties) are a nature preserve and we want to do our best to comply to the wishes of the people of Bainbridge who wanted this property kept as a nature preserve.”

Peter Buck, the attorney who is representing the McGraws in the lawsuit, has said the legal suit will most likely be a long and extensive battle.

“From what I have seen so far, the other side has a very uphill battle in establishing their case,” Buck said. “We will be sure that any decision-maker knows what an environmental travesty this decision will be.

“We will be sure that any decision-maker knows that (the landowners) have alternate access and they are simply trying to go through the park to put more money in their pockets as opposed to building a road from Crystal Springs,” he continued.

“We’ll be sure it costs them more money to litigate than they will save by taking the cheap route and destroying a park,” Buck said.

Bainbridge Island Review - August 30, 2006
Posted on November 17, 2007 in Press by admin1 Comment »
Aug 30 2006
Access road would cut past Gazzam entrance
http://www.bainbridgereview.com/portals-code/searchd.cgi
By CHAD SCHUSTER Staff Writer
Out at serene Gazzam Lake, at the end of the gravelly extension of Marshall Road, a new trail may soon forge through the trees.
Unfortunately for nature enthusiasts, it’s not a walking path, but a private access road that would meander southward to connect nine yet-to-be-constructed houses from serenity to civilization.
For property owners, who have talked about building a road there for more than a decade, it’s about developing their land.
Still, they concede the idea may not sit well with some.
“There are people who may think they’re being swindled out of park land,” said Jamie Acker, owner of one of the properties and part of the road-building effort. “But this is a road that has always been on the drawing board to be put in eventually.”
The road - details of which are still being worked out – would stretch some 1,800 feet from near the beginning of the Gazzam walking trail to the undeveloped lots west of the lake.
Building it would allow vehicle access to future homeowners who would not otherwise be able to get to their property.
It would jut off of the current gravel road that many think of as being part of Marshall Road, but is actually a public easement – meaning neither the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park District nor the city control the property.
It would cut between the entrances to Gazzam Lake and the Close Property, on what is now a trail linking the parcels.
Property owners submitted a pre-application for the project to the city in 2004 before the plan wilted. Acker said the idea has since regained momentum and now the group is “as close as we’ve ever been.”
Since the road would be built on an easement that was already established when the park district bought Gazzam Lake in 1994, the project is entirely driven by the property owners.
The group has been working with the park district and the Bainbridge Island Land Trust to mitigate impacts on the surrounding landscape. Barring any setbacks, construction could begin as early next year, a goal that assistant city engineer Ross Hathaway believes is feasible.
“I don’t see any major impediments,” he said. “It’s up to the property owners to pull everything together, but it doesn’t look like there are any critical areas issues.”
Park district senior planner Perry Barrett said that because the road would begin near the area where cars currently park, new parking would need to be created, including two paved spaces accessible to people with disabilities.
Land trust executive director Karen Molinari stressed that her group has nothing to do with building the road. Its interest is in securing conservation easements in order to do as little damage to the area as possible.
“The fact is, these people have a right to use their property,” she said, adding that the property owners have worked hard to be conscious of the environment.
All but one have granted the land trust a 300 foot conservation easement, with the other agreeing to an easement of 150 feet.
Some of them recently walked a rough path of the proposed road with plant expert Olaf Ribeiro to determine which trees should be protected.
Acker, who spent two years in the mid-1990s on a committee that worked to make Gazzam a park, said the property owners were “very sensitive” to the area.
He said they had thought about building driveways up the hillside from Crystal Springs Drive, but the terrain is simply too steep for them to do so.
“Unfortunately, there’s really no access from there,” he said.
Since property owners appear intent, Molinari said there’s little that can be done.
“The best of all scenarios would be to leave it pristine,” she said. “But what can you do? Now we just need to minimize the impact.”© Copyright 2007 Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge Island Review — Nov 7, 2007
Posted on November 16, 2007 in Press by adminNo Comments »
Nov 07 2007
New road past park sparks ire
http://www.bainbridgereview.com/portals-code/searchd.cgi
By CHAD SCHUSTER Staff Writer
Property owners hope to extend Springridge, build a lane between Gazzam, the Close trail. To get from Springridge Road to Gazzam Lake today, one must cross Richard Labotz’ property.
And that’s okay with him.
In fact, on a placard outside his home, Labotz has gone so far as to grant park-goers written permission to trespass on his land, provided they’re walking or on horseback.
He’s not so keen, though, on the plans of seven property owners hoping to build a new access road, via Springridge, to their undeveloped parcels west of the lake and overlooking Crystal Springs.
“Their gain is our loss,” said Labotz, gesturing to the nearby trees. “We’d be losing all this tranquility.”
Those planning the road say they aren’t after anyone’s tranquility. They just want something that they say has been slow in coming: access to their land.
Owners had a pre-application meeting with the city last week to discuss their latest plan for road access, details of which still are being sketched out. Instead of entering from Marshall Road, as they’d planned earlier, they hope to access their undeveloped parcels via Springridge.
The extended road would divide the Gazzam Lake preserve and the adjacent Close Property, currently linked by a forest trail.
Though the route has changed, opposition hasn’t.
“I understand their concerns,” said owner Bill Corbin of neighbors and park-goers who would prefer the land be left alone. “But trees were cleared and access was built to make their dwellings. We feel we have the right to develop our land too.”
Owners submitted their old plan in 2004 and had hoped to break ground on the road this year, before a right of way dispute caused them to alter their route.
The source of that dispute – Blue Sky resident Walt McGraw – said he sympathizes with the goal of the owners. Ultimately, though, he thinks an access road would have too drastic an impact on the feel of the park.
“We understand expansion happens,” he said. “Philosophically we’d be okay with our neighborhood expanding. We’re not okay with our neighborhood transforming.”
Which is why negotiations broke down between property owners and the McGraws.
“They weren’t willing to limit the number of houses they were building to 15,” McGraw said.
That, Corbin said, is the maximum number of homes that would be allowable on the parcels.
One year later, residents of Springridge now are looking to thwart the ownership group. Several of them voiced their displeasure with the idea of extending Springridge at the pre-application meeting, at which property owners sought guidance from city planners.
Among other things, neighbors are concerned that the new road - right now a one-lane gravel road that cuts off in the trees at Labotz’ driveway - would be widened to two lanes, in addition to cutting a broad swath through the trees.
Such a plan, they say, would damage the wetlands in the area and bisect the park, cutting off a valuable wildlife corridor. They also say it would spoil the quiet character of the neighborhood and park, a popular destination for hikers.
“It’s not just for the people who live here,” said resident Patricia Bell. “We just want the city to do what makes the most sense, not just what’s cheapest or quickest.”
Corbin said the group hasn’t yet decided whether to move ahead with the project. Should they do so, the plan would first have to clear permitting, at which time the concerns of neighbors would be formally heard.
Several permits - including right-of-way and grading permits - would be required, as would environmental review.
But even if the plan fails, said Planner Josh Machen, a day may come when the argument is moot.
“It’s likely that there will eventually be a connection in both directions,” he said referring to connecting Marshall to Springridge.
Machen said that with respect to city code, he didn’t see any “significant issues or problems” with the idea being discussed by those pushing for the road.
Neighbors wonder why the owners can’t forge access up the hill from Crystal Springs Drive.
“I think that’s the worst alternative,” Machen said. “It’s just not stable. Access from there would be very tough and very expensive.”
Corbin said the owners group has been waiting years for the opportunity to develop their land. In some cases, he said, the property constitutes their nest egg, and many of the lots have change hands several times because of the delay.
“We expected opposition,” Corbin said. “If we do this, we think all the issues will be heard and answered in permitting.”
All but one of the property owners have granted a 300 foot conservation easement to the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, with the other agreeing to 150 foot easement; the group also hired an arborist to help identify which trees should be protected should the project happen.
McGraw, meanwhile, said he worries that better access could lead to even more development in the park and, ultimately, to irreparable damage.
“Skirting a tree is great,” he said. “Avoiding it in the first place is even better. The only things making a buck in the park should be two consenting deer.”

© Copyright 2007 Bainbridge Island Review