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The historic Renton home at 312 South Tobin Street in its final hour
312 South Tobin Street after demoliton
Please see my previous blog entry on this topic, “School District Plans to tear down neighborhood before they get building approval,” for background and links to documents.
In the midst of a statewide housing crisis, Renton School District has begun tearing down homes for a ballfield that won’t open until 2030. Ten homes on the block are still in legal dispute, but the residents of these homes will soon be surrounded by weeds and broken concrete where they used to have neighbors. Those opposed to the School District’s actions have suggested this is why the School District is moving so fast– to destroy the neighborhood so the remaining owners feel compelled to move, while lowering their property values. The school district plans to tear down 32 single-family homes along with eight businesses.
No permits for a new school have been issued, and the Renton City Council has never taken a vote on whether to vacate any of the public streets that would be necessary to complete their plan. So by tearing down the neighborhood, the School Board has chosen to “force the hand” of city government to grant all of their future requests or else forever live with the blight of a demolished block of houses where a vital neighborhood once stood.
The demolition of the houses is also an end-run around the new Houston Eminent Domain Fairness Act recently unanimously passed by both houses of the state legislature. The act was named after the Houston family in Renton who lost their property to the Renton School District in the 1960s, and then watched it get sold for a profit. The act requires the School District to sell back property taken by threat of eminent domain to the previous owners for the original purchase amount if it is not used for its proposed public purpose. By demolishing the homes on the land before any building permits are issued, the School District has ensured that the owners can not get their homes back even if the district is unable to build, defeating the intent of the State Legislature.
Other homes on the right of these signs will soon be getting demolished. The elimination of the neighborhood will put Renton High adjacent to the Renton Airport. (The building at the end of the street is an airport building that will remain.)
The project schedule shows the new high school, including the new ballfields where this home is being torn down, will not be complete until late in 2030– over five years from now.
This is another example of the lack of leadership coming from Renton City Council. Will they turn over Tobin Street to the School District just because they need to look like they are doing something? Council, don’t say you care about this city and its residents and then turnaround and let this happen.
Especially because we’ll need Tobin if the airport need to expand if the ‘business jet’ people get their way.
“Will they turn over Tobin Street to the School District just because they need to look like they are doing something?” Of course they will! When a council member is married to the school board president, it’s all one big happy family (of “elected officials”). Renton is captive to this small group who can do as they please, ignoring the will of the people that elected them. So so frustrating and WRONG! We need integrity and honesty back in Renton.
And why tear down houses where people can live when they could tear down the vacant restaurant, or the vacant industrial buildings first? It’s as if the city has accepted the cloak of blight as its birthright. Leave vacant boarded up, graffitied buildings, tear down homes, or worse, leave them boarded up as well. Renton seems to relish the vision of a dying town.
The lot that is pictured above now is completely bulldozed, with the bulldozer sitting in the middle of it. Like a slap in the face. (click photo to enlarge it)
The cruelty is the point.
This is heartbreaking. The school district is harder and harder to deal with every year.