MONROE — The owner of a flood-prone mobile home park has reached a settlement with Snohomish County that should allow most of his tenants to stay where they are, at least for now.
The April 20 agreement should offer some relief to people living at Three Rivers Mobile and RV Park, who feared that they would be forced to leave some of the most affordable rental lots in the area.
At the same time, the plan is designed to address authorities’ worries about people and property being swept away in a flood.
“We’re very satisfied with the results that we were able to work together on,” county planning director Clay White said.
The settlement is important, not just for the 100 or so people who live at the park on Elliott Road outside Monroe but for the whole county.
In March 2009, FEMA said that if the county failed to enforce its own floodway rules at Three Rivers, everybody in the county could lose federal flood insurance. Not acting could have meant losing 1,892 policies and almost $366 million in coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program.
Later that year, county inspectors cited the park for numerous violations, including the storage of appliances, junked cars and trash bins within the floodway, the most dangerous part of the floodplain. Other violations were accessory structures added onto mobile homes and allowing unlicensed, or nonworking, recreational vehicles that would be nearly impossible to move on short notice.
The county laid down a compliance deadline, but that was delayed when the owner appealed. The case remained in limbo with hearings in front of the county hearing examiner repeatedly pushed back.
A deal between the county and park owner Bob Carey’s company, P&B Vendor Telecard Services, ended nearly two years of uncertainty. It requires the park to anchor all large trash bins to the ground in flood season, from Oct. 1 through March 1.
All remaining junked cars, nonworking appliances and other waste must be removed within 60 days. The park also provided the county with copies of registrations for all of the recreational vehicles in the park.
The county also agreed to cooperate with the park’s owner if he tries to get grant money so that the county or a third party can buy the property.
Calls left for Carey and one of his attorneys were not returned.
Word of a settlement hadn’t reached any of the people milling around Three Rivers on Thursday afternoon. Many had become resigned to living in limbo.
“If we gotta move, we gotta move, if we don’t, we don’t,” said Karen Bruno with a shrug.
Bruno said she’d lived there with her family for about two and a half years, partly because it was the only mobile home park that would accept their older travel trailers.
Settlement or not, others figured they’d be forced by the government to leave eventually if their homes were to be damaged badly in another flood.
“I think they’re waiting for the next flood,” said one man, who didn’t want to be quoted by name.
The park has 68 mobile home and RV lots.
It remains to be seen whether the plan to address safety and environmental issues will pass muster with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Local FEMA spokesman Mike Howard said the agency received a copy of the settlement agreement this week and is evaluating it.
Three Rivers has flooded badly at least four times since 1990. Some people claimed that escaping physical danger is easy, because water seeps slowly into the park.
In January, some Three Rivers tenants packed to go as flooding appeared likely, but water stopped short of reaching homes. It’s become standard practice for the county to have a bilingual sheriff’s deputy go through the park to warn people ahead of potential flooding.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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