Could septic issue affect plans for controversial Pierce County gas station?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Fire department commits to fixing septic at contentious Key Peninsula property.
- Buyer planning gas station for property waits on contingencies including septic repairs.
- 800+ residents sign petition and urge community use of property other than gas station.
Septic system repairs are the next hurdle to the sale of a controversial public property on the Key Peninsula.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department records show that the septic system at 15610 Olson Dr. NW has had routine inspections and pumps done since at least 2010. Most reports show the system functioning as necessary, including during an inspection for a property sale in 2021.
More recently, the septic system has required repairs, and it’s the Key Peninsula Fire Department’s responsibility to fix them.
The department purchased the corner property, which used to be O’Callahan’s Pub & Grill, along with two adjacent parcels of land at Key Peninsula Highway Northwest and Olson Drive Northwest for $2.1 million in 2021, The News Tribune reported. The fire department accepted a tentative offer from buyer John Park of Taechang, LLC, “pending a feasibility study and some financing factors,” for the property earlier this year with an agreed-upon price of $1.055 million, per The News Tribune’s reporting.
Park intends to convert the existing restaurant building into a gas station, convenience store and possibly an Asian restaurant, he told The News Tribune in September.
Meanwhile, a petition against the gas station had over 800 signatures as of Dec. 18, with signers from all over the peninsula, according to Matt Hildreth, one of the residents who helped start the petition as part of the Key Center Commons Working Group. The petition argues “there should be a community process to determine the use of the” property.
“No local small business can purchase the property at the current price, fix the water and septic, and turn a profit,” Lysanna Anderson, a member of the group, said during public comment at the Dec. 9 Board of Fire Commissioners meeting. “That’s why local businesses and organizations have not come to make a successful offer for nearly a year.”
She went on to urge the fire department’s facilities committee to meet regularly with the Key Center Commons Working Group to figure out an alternative to the gas station at the site. Several others also spoke at the meeting, saying they would prefer that some other group take over the property to make it into a space that they feel best serves the community.
At their meeting Dec. 9, the Key Peninsula Board of Fire Commissioners voted to approve an extension to the existing feasibility period, which allows the buyer to assess the property’s condition before finalizing the purchase. The original 90-day window was set to end in early December, but the buyer and the fire department have agreed to extend that period another 90 days. That’s because the fire department’s contractor needs more time to obtain the permits needed to fix the septic system.
Key Peninsula Fire Department Chief Nick Swinhart said at the meeting Dec. 9 that the repairs will cost an estimated $24,000. The funding will come out of a line item called “Contracted Facility Repairs - General” in the fire department budget, which is about $13.6 million in 2026, he told The News Tribune in an email Friday.
According to the language of the amended agreement, the agreement will be void if the fire department fails to repair the septic system within 90 days, and the buyer’s earnest money — a deposit which indicates serious intentions to purchase — will be fully refundable.
The News Tribune reached out to the buyer to ask for an update on the feasibility study and his response to the petition but did not receive a response before publication.
Why is the fire department required to fix the property’s septic system?
Pierce County is requiring the fire department to fix the septic system at the property because the department remains the current owner, Board of Fire Commissioners Chair Randy Takehara told The News Tribune in a phone call Friday. If the department fails to meet that deadline, they will have to reapply for a new septic system, and they want to avoid that, he explained.
“It makes a ton more sense to fix the old than to have to try and re-engineer and all of that,” Takehara said, adding that he had to get a new residential septic system for his family members some 20 years ago and remembers how expensive that was.
The fire department settled on a second 90-day window with the buyer because the septic contractor couldn’t tell them how long it would take Pierce County to process the permits they need to make the repairs, according to Takehara.
Did the fire department know of septic issues before purchasing property?
Takehara maintained that there were no issues with the septic system four years ago, when the fire department purchased the property.
“This was not something that we knew and should have fixed four years ago,” he said. “There’s no conspiracy here.”
The fire department had a routine septic inspection done on the property, as required by the county, earlier this year. The county’s finding of issues came back Oct. 31, he said.
He also explained that the fire department’s intention when they purchased the parcel, along with two others adjacent, was to tear the old building down, so they didn’t inspect it beforehand. The original plan was to put a health clinic on the property along with a new headquarters and training facility, but the fire department scrapped the health clinic plan shortly after the former fire chief left the department and a private healthcare facility moved into a space nearby, which the fire department didn’t want to compete with, Takehara said.
No decisions have been made on building a new headquarters at the site, he said.
