Demolition of historic home in East Pierce County put on pause following lawsuit
A group suing the city of Sumner alleges the city violated state law with how it reached a decision to demolish a historic building on Main Street.
The News Tribune reported in September that the Sumner City Council voted to demolish the Ryan House at 1228 Main St. to restore the land as a park.
The plan was to demolish the house as soon as this month, but city spokesperson Carmen Palmer wrote in an email that the council voluntarily agreed to pause demolition work to respect the legal process.
The Save Our Sumner Committee and Nancy Ryan Dressel are the petitioners in the lawsuit. The committee is a group dedicated to preserving the city’s “historic cultural resources,” according to the lawsuit.
Attorney David Bricklin from Bricklin & Newman LLP filed the lawsuit on their behalf Oct. 30 in Pierce County Superior Court. An initial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15, according to court records.
Dressel is a descendant of Lucy Ryan and George Ryan, the couple who lived in the house decades ago. George Ryan was the city’s first mayor. Lucy Ryan was the town’s postmistress. The house was the city’s post office, town hall, library, and museum.
The city took ownership of the house nearly 100 years ago. The deed states the space must remain open and accessible to the public if the house gets demolished, according to the city’s website.
The house was supposed to undergo renovations, The News Tribune reported. The city had hoped to open the house to the public as much as possible. However, inspectors found issues with the house, such as missing wall beams and floorboards that collapsed easily, that would have made renovations more expensive than anticipated.
Full rehabilitation of the house would cost about $2.2 million.
Demolition of the house and turning the land into a park with amenities yet to be determined would cost about $600,000. Demolition of the house and turning the land into an open park would cost about $100,000.
The house remains unstable and continues to deteriorate, Palmer’s email said.
“We share the grief and frustration that the house is beyond repair and too expensive to save,” she wrote. “But at the end of the day, our job is to prioritize public safety and prudent use of the public’s money ... . As we have stated all along, the missing component to save the house was funding alone, not a lack of desire to save it.”
Palmer argued the lawsuit will cause “the public’s money to be spent on substantial attorney costs, diverting that money from other vital park and city projects,” and that it doesn’t “get the city any closer to filling the Ryan House funding gap.”
Allegations about Ryan House demolition plan
Part of the lawsuit reads: “Save Our Sumner Committee seeks to assure that the city abides by the goals, policies and objectives in its Comprehensive Plan and its Downtown Sumner subarea plan to ‘preserve’ the Ryan House and for the city to continue supporting the use of the Ryan House by the Sumner Historical Society and the public.”
The lawsuit alleges the city’s plan to demolish the house is “antithetical” to city-approved plans, such as the comprehensive plan, as well as to the committee’s goal to retain the city’s historic resources.
State law requires a city to make decisions that conform with its comprehensive plan. State law also requires a city to have early and continuous public participation when creating and amending its comprehensive land use plan.
The lawsuit alleges the city was “obligated” to consider the public’s interests regarding nationally designated historic resources, including whether to restore or demolish the house.
The demolition permit for the house is allegedly inconsistent with the city’s town center plan, as well as the comprehensive plan, specifically the historic and cultural resources portion, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states the demolition permit also allegedly violated SEPA (state Environmental Policy Act) requirements because it had a “flagrantly inaccurate environmental checklist.”
One item on the checklist that the lawsuit alleges was inaccurate was that the demolition would eliminate a residence – the house hasn’t been used as a residence for almost a century. It was mostly used as a museum filled with the Sumner Historical Society’s items.
Bricklin told The News Tribune the petitioners are hopeful that the city continues to cooperate with them to craft a plan that would save the house.
“There’s a lot of energy in the community and support for this,” Bricklin said. “I’m cautiously optimistic that things are going to work out, but there’s a lot of work to be done.”
