Written by 
Renton resident Sarah Becker presented to Renton City Council last night regarding the eminent domain takings around Renton High School. Her notes are attached below.
Renton School Officials have repeatedly said that Renton High School is built on “a small parcel of land” and should have 30-40 acres to be competitive with other high schools. But Renton resident Sarah Becker put together data showing Renton High has more property than many high schools in our region, especially when taking into account the nearby 17-acre Renton Memorial Stadium that is available for Renton High use.
She presented the data at last night’s Renton City Council Meetings, and asked the City Council to help stop the destruction of 32 homes and eight businesses being taken by Renton School District by threat of eminent domain.
While Renton Council did not initiate the eminent domain takings, the Council arguably has the power to stop the takings because the plan requires the Council to give the school district three public streets. If Council said “no” to the street taking, the District’s plan could not go forward (the School District can’t take city-owned property by eminent domain). And in addition to saving 32 homes and 8 businesses, Council has good reason to keep these streets. South Tobin Street is an important alternative to Airport Way in a high traffic area constrained geographically by Renton High School, Renton Airport and Lake Washington. Without South Tobin, any disruption to Airport Way could gridlock Renton.
Ms. Becker also put together a listing of all the affected properties purchased so far under threat of eminent domain, and noted that the cost has exceeded 38 million dollars even before the School District has acquired the ten most-contested properties; the takings of these ten properties have now been turned over to the School District’s pricey outside law firm, who is initiating a potentially costly legal fight with the owners of the land. If the District wins these court fights, this land will end up costing taxpayers 10-20 million more.
If Renton ultimately submits to giving up streets, the School District should pay Renton for the land. The streets belong to City of Renton taxpayers, and the School District has larger geographic boundaries extending into Newcastle, Kent, Tukwila and King County. City of Renton voters have never agreed to donate this property to the larger school district. The fair market value of the land under these streets is probably another ten million dollars or more.
All told, the district has over 38 million invested with potentially as much as another 20-30 million to pay out to acquire land before they even break ground. The purchases will allow them to move the ball fields a few hundred yards east, where they might be allowed to have lights on them– but 100 or so residents and eight businesses will have lost their homes. As I showed in a previous entry, this is likely the most expensive high school baseball complex ever built.
Here are Ms. Becker’s charts:
Acreage data summarized by Renton resident Sarah Becker and presented to Renton City Council
Sales data of properties around Renton High School summarized by Renton resident Sarah Becker
Sarah did an excellent job of researching and presenting this important information. Thank you Sarah, and Randy, for posting it for a wider audience.
Yes, Renton Council Members have the power to stop this eminent domain madness. However, with a CM married to a Renton School Board Director, there’s not much hope our elected officials will do the right thing by their constituents. All this for ball fields. Renton High deserves a pool before new ball fields. Students have said as much.
Elections matter, and this is an election year for 3 Council Members and 2 School Board Directors. Pay attention.
The School District approves these purchases at their school board meetings, but they never share the amounts paid for each property. This is insane! Thank you Sarah for your research putting the school district spending into the light.
When the school takes this land will they still pay property tax on it? Doesn’t it shift more taxes to the rest of us?
Yes Anonymous, public land is exempt from property tax in our state, so this will take about $50-$60 million dollars of assessed valuation off of Renton’s tax rolls. The rest of us taxpayers will have to make up the difference. The city loses about $60,000 per year, and Renton local school levies and bonds lose about $200,000 per year from this property coming off the rolls. The County, State, fire district and hospital district also lose money.
Taxes are becoming so high, that having property is becoming a liability.
Completely agree Anonymous. My taxes on my Renton home have gone up 50% in four years! I’ve done no remodeling. This type of tax increase is absolutely unsustainable.
The State just initiated oversight of Bellevue School District due to their financial difficulties. It seems reckless to spend $80 million on a new baseball field in this environment; even more so since Renton High already has four baseball diamonds. I assume state oversight of Renton School District is not far off, since the district is predicting an 8-10 million dollar shortfall and they are laying off librarians and other staff. Here is the story about Bellevue in the Seattle times (there is a paywall).