Puyallup officials have wanted for years to link the city’s Riverwalk Trail to Pierce County’s Foothills Trail, which runs through Orting and South Prairie. But they have yet to acquire the land needed to build the connection.
Now the state Recreation and Conservation Office might rescind $306,000 in grant money for the project if the city doesn’t have a purchase agreement for the land signed in the next few days.
Without the money, the 1.35-mile extension project would be delayed at least another year, said Puyallup parks director Ralph Dannenberg. He estimated the total project cost at about $1.4 million, all of which is coming from state funding or grants.
Puyallup City Manager Gary McLean said it’s unlikely the city will reach a purchase agreement with landowners before the Feb. 1 deadline.
“We’re hoping to have it come to closure sometime in February,” McLean said. “We’re moving forward.”
But Myra Barker, a grant manager with the Recreation and Conservation Office, said the city’s time might be up.
The office normally doesn’t award certain grants until after a jurisdiction has secured the land it needs for a project, Barker said. The office made an exception in Puyallup’s case because the city was in negotiations with landowners.
“We’ve already given them extra time,” Barker said. “I’m not saying they couldn’t ask for more, but I’m not sure that it would be provided.”
Why the delay? The 5 acres Puyallup needs for the trail is part of a 365-acre area that city officials want to annex east of town. Officials are haggling with the owners over a zoning plan that would set aside some land as open space. The area includes the last two daffodil farms in the Puyallup Valley.
Some landowners don’t want to sell a piece of their land to the city until the zoning plan and the annexation are finalized, said Gil Hulsmann, a land development consultant who represents landowner Roger Knutson.
In Knutson’s case, the land the city wants for the trail connection is a small sliver that cuts through a larger piece of land, Hulsmann said. Knutson doesn’t want to sell a central piece of a large parcel until he knows what will happen to the rest of it, Hulsmann said.
“It would split his property in half,” Hulsmann said.
Puyallup Mayor Don Malloy said the possibility of losing the grant money for the trail is only one piece of the larger picture City Council members must consider.
“The $300,000 is very important, but the concept of annexing that land and how it’s going to be used is a big issue,” Malloy said. “The trail is a part of the issue, but it’s not the only part.”
McLean said the earliest the council might vote on a zoning plan for the proposed annexation area would be sometime in February.
He said he’s hopeful the Recreation and Conservation Office will allow city officials a little more time to complete a purchase agreement with the landowners, given the progress they’ve made in the past two months. Knutson is the only landowner who’s objected to the city’s latest zoning plan.
“It’s not unusual for jurisdictions to need a little more time,” McLean said.
Ultimately, the director of the Recreation and Conservation Office will decide whether Puyallup should still get the money, Barker said. The city could later appeal to the office’s funding board.
Barker said city officials should make sure things move along quickly if they want to keep the money.
“I would encourage the city to wrap up those negotiations as soon as they can,” Barker said. “To give them more time, I think, would be unlikely.”
Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058
