Arlington School District to sell 168 acres on Highway 530
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 8, 2017
ARLINGTON — The Arlington School District is trying to sell 168 acres it owns along Highway 530, a couple of miles outside of town.
The district announced last week that it had put out a request for letters of interest from potential buyers. The property is in a rural area that has agricultural land, large-lot homes and woods. There’s a gravel pit nearby and the North Fork Stillaguamish River runs along the other side of the highway.
There is one house on the property that was built in 1964. The district rented it out as a home until July 2015. Since then, it has been vacant. Barns and sheds are scattered around the property.
The school district bought the land in 1997 with plans to one day build a school there. However, the Growth Management Act — state law meant to contain sprawl — limits the construction of schools and public facilities to properties within what is called an urban growth area. The Highway 530 property falls outside of the urban growth area and wouldn’t work as a school site, said Brian Lewis, the district’s executive director of operations.
“If we can’t do anything with it, we need to be able to acquire property that we can do something with,” he said.
District leaders opted to surplus the property as part of a larger planning effort in 2014. The historic Trafton School, which closed in 2010, also was sold as surplus as part of that planning.
Money from selling district properties or buildings must go into the capital facilities fund, Lewis said. That money can be used to buy other land or pay for construction projects. It cannot go toward salaries or school operations.
There are minerals on the property and the zoning allows for extraction, Lewis said. That means mining is one possible use for the land, and that could add to the value for potential buyers. However, the district can’t be certain what the land will be used for until buyers have submitted proposals.
The district is asking for a fair market value but does not have a firm price in mind. Once letters of interest come in, a full valuation will be done, Lewis said. The district bought the land for $3 million 20 years ago.
The district is working with a real estate adviser from Long Bay Enterprises to sell the property.
An evaluation committee of district employees and consultants plans to review the letters of interest. The letters are due by March 27 and the district aims to choose a buyer by the end of April, though that may change if officials want more time to gather letters. A site tour is planned this week.
Meanwhile, the district is working to close on the sale of the Trafton School. Last year, a local business owner bought the property with the vision of turning it into an Oxford House, a residential program that helps recovering addicts stay clean. A sale was in the works for $450,000.
The purchaser requested extensions on the timeline for finalizing the sale, Lewis said. The latest possible closing date is June 5. The district has not received any notice of a change in plans for the property and still anticipates finishing the sale, he said.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
