POULSBO — Here’s the vision: The old house would be removed and the land made part of Centennial Park. Dogfish Creek would be allowed to delta here just like it did historically (recent residents have probably called it “flooding”). A culvert, listed on a city survey as the most problematic in all of Poulsbo, would be replaced to ease the streamflow.

Here’s the reality of the moment: Mayor Becky Erickson, a chief proponent of acquiring the property for creek restoration, has got some advance work to do. And she doesn’t expect to introduce the proposed acquisition to the City Council until 2016.

Here’s the issue: The old two-story house at 19159 8th Ave., next to Coffee Oasis, is vacant and was repossessed last summer by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, aka Freddie Mac. It was packaged with other repossessed homes and auctioned.

Erickson had been in contact with the potential buyer, an investor in North Carolina, and had hoped he would either sell or gift the property to the city.

Then, the property that nobody wants — with its history of flooding, real estate agents couldn’t find a buyer — ended up “back in limbo land,” Erickson said Feb. 10. “It was removed from the package of mortgages he was looking at.”

Now, Erickson is researching how to acquire the property through the condemnation process. “We haven’t done a condemnation in Poulsbo since the 1970s,” she said. “We have to establish fair-market value and go through these steps. We want to keep our costs down [during the process], because this will come out of the stormwater fund and that fund is needed for a lot of different things.”

Erickson is documenting the necessary steps to present to the City Council, which will decide whether to acquire the property. Erickson believes the city can acquire the property cheaply through the condemnation process. “What is fair market value [for the property]? In my world, it’s zero.”

The payoff would be “huge” for the city, she said.

“The property will adjoin Centennial Park, the creek will be able to delta there, and we’ll be able to replace that culvert,” she said.

The Public Works Department plans to leave its Quonset hut on a overflow-prone parcel across the creek from the house, for new quarters on Viking Way. Terry Burns of the Poulsbo Farmers Market said recently that the market is interested in the current Public Works site.

The Revised Code of Washington spells out the process for condemnation of property. Cities are empowered to condemn land and property for streets, bridges, culverts, and public buildings, among other public uses, and “for the purpose of draining swamps, marshes, tidelands, tide flats or ponds …”

According to the RCWs, the city would file a petition in Superior Court, offering “just compensation” — also known as fair market value — for the property. Upon the filing of the petition, a summons would be issued to the owners — in this case, Freddie Mac.

One possible hitch: the RCWs specify the steps to take when state or county lands are involved, but not federal lands. That’s one of the issues Erickson is researching.

The process is complicated for good reason, Erickson said. “You want government to not take these kinds of steps cavalierly.”

MOVED TO SITE IN 1950s
Marge Smallbeck of Poulsbo said the house at 19159 8th Ave. was not there when she lived next door in the 1950s. She believes the house was moved to the site after she moved away in 1954. She said her father bought the property where the house and the public works yard are in 1951 or 1952 and “there was nothing there except the creek, which flooded all the time.”

The house at 19159 8th Ave. was built elsewhere in 1930, according to Kitsap County Assessor’s Office records, and was apparently moved to that address later.

Turns out, moving the house so close to Dogfish Creek wasn’t such a good idea. The channel is narrow on the property, and  the house’s basement and the adjacent city public works yard regularly flood during high-water winter months. The house couldn’t be built that close to Dogfish Creek today; the city’s critical areas ordinance requires a 200-foot setback.

Gravel on the property tells of stream activity on the site.

Judy Driscoll of the Poulsbo Historical Society and Museum went through records and learned this about the property:

“On the 1909 plat map, that property on 8th is owned by Tom Halvorson. There is a house there at that time and he is also listed as the owner on the 1933 plat map,” she wrote.

In 1910, Halverson applied to the city for a gravel pit on his property “and in the subsequent years [he sold] a lot of gravel to the city and was also working on the city streets,” Driscoll wrote.

“Now, I’m wondering if that is how the flat area where public works is located was developed. It would certainly make sense that his gravel could have been mined out of that spot and with a creek running through there, gravel would have been plentiful.”

TOUGH HOUSE TO SELL
With its proximity to the creek, its flooded basement and other issues — at some point, someone turned the house into a duplex without obtaining the proper permits, according to the city — even a seasoned real estate pro like Ruth deMille of Coldwell Banker Bain couldn’t lure a buyer.

“I think the best thing would be for the city to turn it into the park, restore it to its natural state,” she said in a July 22 interview. “Something like that would be beautiful.”

The house’s value dwindled over the last decade.

Today, the 1,507-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom home, with 1,045-square-foot basement, on .35 acre parcel, was last listed at $99,000. The 2015 assessed value, according to the Kitsap County Assessor’s online database: $110,400. The assessed value of the house peaked at $293,620 in 2008.

The house’s last owner bought it for $171,319 in March 2013. Within a year and a half, the house was vacant and in foreclosure.