MONROE — This summer, tenants at Three Rivers Mobile and RV Park feared that Snohomish County and federal officials were going to make them move because of flood dangers.
Now, it looks like the 100 or so people who live at the park along the Snohomish River will be able to stay well through flood season, and probably longer. Hearings on the issue have been postponed until March, as the park’s owner and county officials try to work out a settlement.
Residents are staying put, though some are anxious about the future.
“I mean, where are they going to go?” said Garret Wood, a 43-year-old woman who has lived there for more than two decades. “I guess we’ll just wait and see at the hearing if they don’t change it by then.”
The park, which dates to the 1960s, is at 13201 Elliott Road, near Highway 522. Monthly rents at the 68 mobile-home and RV lots start at under $400 per month. Many tenants said they live in homes that are too old or fragile to uproot, and that they couldn’t afford to move even if they wanted to.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency considers the park to be within a floodway. That’s the most dangerous part of a flood plain because it is the area where the river’s current can be strong enough during flooding to sweep away homes and people.
In March, FEMA told the county that if it didn’t enforce its own floodway rules at Three Rivers, everybody in the county could lose coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program. Not acting could have meant losing 1,892 policies and almost $366 million in coverage.
That prompted the county to act. In June, county inspectors cited the park for a list of violations, and told the owner, Bob Carey, to clear them up by Aug. 31 or face hefty fines.
County inspectors noted broken-down cars, appliances outside the homes, and unlicensed or broken-down recreational vehicles. One of the violations was for allowing “junkyard” conditions.
The August deadline was pushed back after the park owner appealed. One hearing was convened in the fall but no conclusions were reached. The next hearing is scheduled for March 17.
Before the October hearing, county officials withdrew the violation that was most troubling to residents. Originally, tenants were told they would have to remove any structure if flood damage totaled more than half the home’s value. Some of the homes are valued at as little as $5,000. That means even minor repairs could have forced them to haul the homes somewhere else — if that was even possible.
Many at Three Rivers said the county essentially was ordering evictions.
The settlement talks involve the remaining violations, said Doug Purcell, a Lynnwood attorney representing the park’s owner.
“The pressure’s off right now in terms of a date,” Purcell said. “From our standpoint, we’ve done a lot of cleanup.”
The rules for how long and under what conditions RVs would be able to stay at the park are part of the talks, he said.
No significant developments from the talks are expected until at least early next year, said Christopher Schwarzen, the county’s spokesman.
Any threat of FEMA pulling federal flood-insurance for the county appears to have subsided for now. Officials from the agency’s local office said they are satisfied that Snohomish County is working on a plan to deal with the floodway issues.
That doesn’t mean flood dangers have gone away.
Three Rivers has experienced serious flooding four times since 1990, most recently in January. Because the park fills slowly, like a bathtub, several people said it’s easy to escape physical danger.
Still, emergency crews have regularly been called to the park to rescue flood-stranded people.
Karen Bruno, 41, has been living in an RV at the park for a year. She has come to accept flooding as a fact of life.
“If it happens, I yank stuff out and go sit in Monroe,” Bruno said. “I never thought I’d live in a 25-foot box, but I do.”
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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