| Farms try to dodge land rules - Two owners seek Puyallup annexation to keep development rights EIJIRO
KAWADA; The News Tribune The last two farmers sustaining the Puyallup Valley’s daffodil industry
are working with Puyallup to annex their 250 acres, just a few weeks
before the county had planned to lock it up as farmland. For his part, daffodil grower Neil VanLierop said he wants to join the city so he could sell part of his land to housing or other developers. “All of us farmers, we use (the land) as our retirement,” VanLierop said. “Farming is getting so difficult, and it’s not a viable business that one can stand on his two feet.” His family has run a bulb farm near Puyallup as long as the 72-year-old Daffodil Festival has been held. The 66-year-old wants to farm as long as he lives, continuing to grow some bulbs in semiretirement. Although they don’t plan to retire soon, VanLierop and neighbor Roger Knutson have begun the process of annexing their land – along with several dozen neighboring properties for a total of 365 acres. If the county sets aside the two farms for preservation, it likely would decrease the value of their combined acreage by about 75 percent, an agent of the property owners estimated. VanLierop and Knutson’s land is worth about $4 million, the agent says. But the farmers might not have filed their request with the city soon enough. It takes at least a few months for the annexation to go through, and by then the county might have removed the farmland from Puyallup’s urban growth boundaries. The county, the city and farmers have agreed to work toward a balanced solution. “It would be unfortunate to annex the entire area,” said County Councilman Calvin Goings (D-Puyallup). They don’t have much time to forge a compromise. The Pierce County Council plans to consider adopting the farmland preservation proposal Nov. 9.
Yellow blossoms on VanLierop’s farm in the spring are a long-standing symbol of fertile soil and the prosperity of the valley. VanLierop proudly says he’s a fifth-generation bulb farmer – the first three generations in Holland, and his parents and himself in the Puyallup Valley. His parents started farming in 1934, two years after “Bulb Sunday” began. It later became the Daffodil Festival. A half century ago, VanLierop said, about 40 farmers grew bulbs in the valley. Now, he farms about 75 acres, while Knutson owns about 175 acres. VanLierop said his three daughters don’t want to continue growing bulbs and Knutson’s daughter also might not take over the tradition. The two farmers provide most – if not all – of the daffodils used during the Daffodil Festival, said Susan McGuire, who becomes festival president next month. “They are the lifeline” of the festival, she said. McGuire said daffodils for the valley-wide celebration will have to come from elsewhere when the two retire. She blames Pierce County for the farmers’ – and the festival’s – predicament. King County won voter approval of a $50 million bond in the 1970s to buy the development rights to about 13,000 acres of prime farmland. In November 1985, Pierce County voters rejected a similar measure that would have authorized $18 million in bonds to buy development rights. “Why should (farmers) be held responsible for what Pierce County didn’t do?” McGuire said. Though some say it’s too late, Pierce County is moving now to save farmland and open space, as required by the state Growth Management Act. The new regulations would put the designated farmland in “Agricultural Resource Lands” zone, which would prohibit certain commercial and residential development. VanLierop’s and Knutson’s properties represent less than 1 percent of the affected 31,000 acres. Asked why the county couldn’t leave out the bulb farmers, Bruce Lachney, a member of the county’s planning commission, said: “You have to realize that it’s been cut down dramatically already.” The proposal began by protecting about 63,000 acres. Lachney, an Eatonville-area cranberry farmer, said the government doesn’t change the zoning of a certain property just because the landowner wants its value to increase. “Each and every property owner in the county can make that argument,” Lachney said. “We have to look at what’s best for the county.” Goings, chairman of the committee that approved the proposal last week, said the farmland-protection zones would help farmers by allowing them to add agriculture-related retail businesses. On Monday, Goings sent a letter to the Puyallup City Council, saying he would introduce an amendment Nov. 9 to leave part of the bulb farms out of the preservation proposal. The city, in turn, would have to decline letting the farmers circulate petitions to annex their land. The city rejected Goings’ request at a meeting Monday night, although city officials said they’ll still negotiate with the county. Puyallup at least wants to annex a part of the farmland that lies alongside a proposed extension of Shaw Road from East Pioneer Avenue to East Main Street. For that to happen, the city must work with the county. But if the city rejects the farmers’ plea, it’ll have no leverage later if the county decides to leave all 365 acres as protected farmland. “It’s kind of a roll of the dice, isn’t it?” said City Councilman Mike Deal. Puyallup is the only city facing the possibility of losing potential annexations because of the county’s farmland proposal. The negotiations have begun. All VanLierop can do now is hope for
the best. “I’m sure they want to keep us farmers,” he said of farmland
preservation advocates. “But they are not helping us.”
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