City of Puyallup absorbs farmland

A swath of land that includes one of the Puyallup Valley’s last remaining daffodil farms will be taken into the City of Puyallup in January, making it easier for a longtime agriculture family to sell it and for buyers to develop it.

The Puyallup City Council Tuesday finalized the long-awaited annexation of nearly 114 acres northeast of the city. The area also includes some other farmland, a small number of homes and the Shaw Road overpass.

“This has to be done. It’s gone on long enough,” said Councilman John Knutsen.

Mayor Kathy Turner said bulb farmer Neil Van Lierop, the majority property owner, has been exceedingly patient. He and others in the area have been working on annexation for several years.

“I’m happy to say that one of my last acts as mayor will be to see this accomplished,” said Turner, who is term-limited and will leave office at the end of the year.

The land – now zoned as residential and industrial – is within the city’s urban growth area, or UGA, meaning it already was open to urban uses.

Van Lierop, 73, said he doesn’t have immediate development plans. But he has said that it’s getting harder to keep farming and that it would be easier to sell property that’s within the city.

He said Wednesday that he’s glad the annexation finally is moving forward.

“Quite a few people have been working on it. It’s been a long, slow process,” he said.

The City Council gave initial approval last year. But the county put the brakes on the process while a deal was worked out to preserve some of the land for agriculture, recreation or open space.

The annexation area is part of a larger area that the county has more than once looked to remove from the UGA – an idea that property owners fought. The county backed off after Puyallup agreed that some of the land would be protected upon annexation.

In a covenant recorded last month, Van Lierop agreed to protect about 30 acres of his property from development. The protection will remain even if the land is sold, said Sean Gaffney, the county’s long-range planning manager.

“We got to a good solution,” Gaffney said. “The intent of the County Council, (county) executive and the city was met at the end of the day.”

The Puyallup council on Tuesday approved the annexation 6-0. There was little public comment – a far cry from when another land proposal in a neighboring city played out earlier this year.

In that case, the City of Sumner wanted 182 acres of land – zoned for rural and agriculture uses – to the south of its borders designated as UGA to make way for mixed-use development.

There was pushback from farmland advocates, who said rich agriculture land would be lost forever. Eventually, the city, the majority property owner and a Puget Sound conservation group reached an agreement that greatly increased the amount of agriculture land that would be protected elsewhere in the county to offset the development.

The Pierce County Council approved the proposal at a meeting last month. The Friends of Pierce County environmental group is raising money for an appeal.

On his land, Van Lierop grows daffodils and tulips. Years ago, he had bulbs on 100 acres. Now he grows on six, and rents out some land to another farmer for pumpkins. Van Lierop no longer grows flowers for the local Daffodil Festival.

Van Lierop learned to cultivate bulbs from his father, who carried the trade from Holland. Van Lierop said he plans to keep growing flowers on his land. People love them, he said. He seems to love them, too.

“I just baby them along. I fertilize them and keep the diseases off of them. I pray with them, and everything works out,” he said. “They’re happy.”

Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com