PORT ANGELES — The first steps in condemnation proceedings to acquire private property for the proposed $11.5 million Port Angeles International Gateway Transportation Center are expected during a court hearing next month.
A hearing is set for 9 a.m. Oct. 22 in Clallam County Superior Court before visiting Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser.
Clallam Superior Court Judge George Wood appointed Verser to the case.
Wood recused himself Friday from the condemnation proceedings because he knows Jim Heckman, one of the property owners in the case who have not reached agreement Clallam Transit over sale of their property.
Clallam Transit System’s general manager expressed urgency in getting the condemnation proceedings under way.
“The next step is to acquire land and begin construction because the bid documents will be ready at any time,” Dan Di Guilio said Monday after a transit board meeting in Forks.
Di Guilio said further delays in the project would “up the construction costs.”
Clallam Transit, the lead agency in the transportation center project, originally filed the condemnation petitions last year against Jim and Lea Heckman, Khoan and Anh Voang, Loren J. and Betty J. Cooke, Richard G. Harig, and Richard and Patsy Elliott.
Attractive entrance
Di Guilio showed the transit board schematic and artist renderings of the project site.
The Gateway center, a partnership between Clallam Transit System and the city of Port Angeles, is intended to be an attractive entrance to the Port Angeles downtown, with a pedestrian mall and Chamber of Commerce visitor center, in addition to being a staging area for as many as six Clallam Transit buses.
The center would also provide parking in an area bounded by Front Street and Railroad Avenue at Lincoln Street.
