PORT ANGELES — The city has taken a step toward a different approach to acquiring the large tank on Rayonier Inc.’s former pulp mill site.
The Port Angeles City Council, with council member Pat Downie absent, approved on a 6-0 vote after a closed-door executive session Tuesday to hire an appraiser to tell it how much the 5-million-gallon tank and needed easements on Rayonier’s waterfront property are worth.
Mayor Dan Di Guilio and City Attorney Bill Bloor, who briefed the council during the closed session, said the move is a precautionary step toward eminent domain the large tank owned by Rayonier.
The city is relying on the tank to prevent sewage from overflowing into Port Angeles Harbor and avoid hefty fines from the state Department of Ecology.
Di Guilio and Bloor said that the decision does not mean that the city is losing faith in the ability of the Port Angeles Harbor-Works Development Authority to acquire the 75-acre property the tank sits on — and then transfer the tank to the city — but both added that it’s coming down to the wire for the city to get ownership of the large structure.
Di Guilio and Bloor said eminent domain of the tank and easements for pipes that would lead to and from the tank is the city’s backup plan.
Fall deadline
The city created Harbor-Works in May 2008 to acquire the property for redevelopment — but to also give the city ownership of the tank, which it needs to have done by fall to stay on schedule.
“It’s still our preferred and primary option to allow Harbor-Works to do that,” Di Guilio said after the council meeting.
“But we are coming up against a deadline.”
The city wants to use the tank to temporarily store untreated sewage and storm water that would otherwise overflow into the harbor during heavy rainfall.
In 2016, if it has not completed the project, the city could be fined $10,000 per day by Ecology.
Eminent domain would force Rayonier to transfer the city ownership of the tank and easements for the pipes that would lead to and from the structure.
If the city moves for eminent domain, it would have to compensate Rayonier for the property it seizes.
In 2005, the city estimated that the tank and easements were worth $1.25 million.
Di Guilio said he isn’t aware of negotiations between Rayonier and Harbor-Works facing any trouble.
“I don’t know if it is going slower than expected,” he said.
Negotiations on track
Harbor-Works Chairman Orville Campbell said he wasn’t aware that the city was looking at hiring an appraiser, but he also wasn’t surprised by the move Tuesday.
“One of the city’s options has always been condemnation,” he said. “And having an appraised value of the property is obviously one of the requirements to go forward with that kind of a thing.”
Campbell said negotiations with Rayonier remain on track.
“I’m not aware of any reason that we would not be successful at this point,” he said.
“We were expecting, and still are expecting, that we will reach an agreement in June,” he added.
Harbor-Works intends to make a final decision on whether or not to acquire the property by August.
Bloor said, as of one year ago, he was not expecting that the city would need to hire an appraiser.
The cost of an appraiser has not been determined.
Jeff Lincoln, executive director of the public development authority, and City Manager Kent Myers could not be immediately reached for comment after the meeting.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
