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This is one of the 32 homes and 8 businesses that are being taken by Renton School District. None of these were mutual agreements with “willing sellers,” in spite of the School District’s attempts to spin them that way.
[Note: For background on this topic please see my earlier posts on eminent domain here; photos in this story are from Photographer Gary Palmer]
Renton’s School Superintendent, School Board Members, and at least one Renton Council Candidate are all attempting to dismiss the degree of harm done to families near Renton High School by asserting that many of the properties acquired by the School District were “agreements” with “willing sellers.” This is a falsehood that adds insults to the life-changing injuries that the impacted families are suffering. This falsehood also reveals that those who made the decision to forcibly take these properties are unwilling to own their decision or its consequences.
To the best of my knowledge, none of the 32 homeowners or 8 businesses that are currently losing their property to the Renton High expansion were actively marketing their property for sale on October 25, 2023. That was the date that Renton School Board directed the superintendent to acquire all 40 properties, using eminent domain as necessary.
Excerpt from Resolution 02-23/24 threatening eminent domain, passed by Renton School District on October 25th, 2023
Every sale of these properties that occured after this date was by definition “under threat of eminent domain,” and not by agreement with “a willing seller.” The sellers can no longer be considered “willing” after Resolution 02-23/24 passed, since the District’s course of action compels them to sell. The School District would have had to complete the purchase before introducing the threat of eminent domain for the seller to truly be considered “willing.”
To put it bluntly, you can’t force someone to do something, and then argue that forcing them was okay because they were “willing.” Compulsion is the opposite of consent.
Courts and real estate professionals widely understand that anyone under threat of eminent domain is not a willing seller. With the threat of eminent domain looming over a property it can’t be kept or sold to to a third-party on the free market– it has to be sold to the government. The seller may ultimately agree on a price with the government to avoid incurring lawyer fees, but that does not make them a “willing seller.” It’s past time for Renton School District to figure this out.
When Renton School District infamously acquired the Houston family farm in the 1960’s and then sold it for a profit to a developer in the 1980s, they bullied George Houston (who signed with an “X” because he couldn’t read) into signing away his family farm using the threat of eminent domain. The threat of eminent domain is frequently all the government needs to compel a sale from someone who can’t afford an attorney. That is why earlier this year, at the urging of George Houston’s son John, the Washington House and the Washington Senate both unanimously voted to approve Senate Bill 5142, the Houston Eminent Domain Fairness Act; the new law attempts to protect people from being exploited the way the Houston family was by even the threat of eminent domain.
Renton School District has many injustices they need to atone for. They should begin by recognizing that compulsion to sell by threat of eminent domain is just a more quiet (and often more exploitive) form of an eminent domain taking.
And if you hear anyone say that the properties around Renton High School were sold willingly, please explain to them how they are mistaken.
One of the 32 homes being taken by Renton School District
The popular El Kiosko Restaurant is one of the eight business forced to move by Renton School District eminent domain actions
Another home taken by Renton School District
At a recent walk around Renton High School, Counselor/Author John Houston (front-center) shared the story of his parent’s farm being taken in the 1960s by Renton School District. The District used the threat of eminent domain. Mr. Houston’s engaging and enlightening book covering the impact of this loss to his family, and his personal journey to move past it, is available here.
Below the cut I have photos of several more of the 32 homes being taken by either threat of eminent domain, or contested eminent domain court actions.
32 homes and 8 businesses are being taken by Renton School District for the Renton High expansion
When you are threatened and are forced to take action based on that threat – you are not a willing participant. You are just trying to control the inevitable as much as you possibly can. Dismissing the harm done to the 40 families and businesses by using a misleading word like ‘willingly’ adds insult to injury – as if any more injury needs to be inflicted.
I highly recommend that those trying to minimize or justify what has and is still being done – watch a few of the videos on our facebook page (4 A Better Renton) of homeowners and renters who were willing to share their stories. We also spoke with a few who wanted to go ‘off record’ as they are still in the midst of trying to negotiate a fair price for their home and a reasonable move-out date. They were fearful that if they spoke publicly they would experience retaliation, further adversely impacting them.
When you hear stories, in this case about eminent domain, and the only picture painted is a positive one – it’s your/my/our job to ask additional questions and to ask them from a variety of sources to minimize misinformation.
I’m kind of grumpy that the Renton School district is turning prime Renton real-estate into a bunch of ball fields. I’d rather have all the neat businesses and people living there.
Right? Every uprooted resident I spoke with had been committed to enjoying and improving the vitatlity of Renton’s urban center. Many of them had gorgeous gardens that provided important greenery and summertime shade that is otherwise lacking in this part of Renton. Their homes were near transit and services, and they had good walkability to downtown businesses.
And the business community that has been bulldozed was blossoming, with popular long-term offerings like El Kiosko, and exciting new businesses including a world-class Chihuly Glass Studio and a six-million-dollar Asian restaurant in the building where Red Robin’s founder got his start.
I understand that about two percent of high school athletes will get sports scholarships for college, and only two percent of those college athletes will ever play professionally (about 1 out of 2000 high school students will make it professionally). The chances of this happening in baseball are much lower, because baseball uses minor league farm teams more than college athletes. And Renton High already has three baseball fields. So I doubt adding this new baseball field will ever result in any students significantly improving their lives, but the field has already harmed hundreds of lives and will consume $60-$80 million dollars that could have been used to better educate every child in the district.
Was there anything the city of Renton could have done to stop this from happening?
Yes, thanks for the question Anonymous. The City Council could have stopped it when the first school renderings came out showing the new school facilities on top of South Tobin Street and Tilicum Street. These streets are owned by the City, and the School District has no power to close them or take them for their own. (School District boundaries do not match city boundaries, so the streets are owned by a different set of taxpayers than the schools, and managed by a different jurisdiction.)
The Councilmembers merely needed to speak up and say it’s not going to happen, and the idea would have been put to bed. The Mayor could have done the same thing.
The Council still has the authority to hold onto these public streets, as the topic has not even been brought to the Council yet.
This School District is now taking unconscionable, irreversible actions to force the Council to approve the street closure, by bulldozing all the houses and businesses before the Council acts. There have been no building permits issued, and the ball field is not planned to open for five more years, but instead of renting the houses out the School District is destroying them to eliminate the city’s options.
The destruction of the homes before school building permits are approved is also an end-run around the new Houston Eminent Domain Fairness Act, which says the School District must offer the property back to the original owners for the District’s purchase price if it’s not used for its stated purpose. By destroying the homes, the property owners can’t get their property back. The City could have brought this concern forward when they approved the demolition of these homes.
The School District Plan also impacts Renton’s utilities and airport, and the Council and Mayor could have spoken up regarding these impacts. Most importantly, the Council and Mayor should be the political guardians protecting the welfare of our residents and businesses, and if they had simply used the political clout and resources we have given them to protect this neighborhood they could have done it.
We need to keep Airport Way open in case the FAA ever pushes Renton to lengthen the runway. There’s no realistic way to extend into the water for many reasons.
Me and everybody on Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC) fought hard to get the FAA to back off their earlier demands after the city manager low-key wanted (in my opinion) it to happen (presumably for career building), but the reality is that growing business jet traffic by the out of town operators could bring this issue back.
Good point.
LMAO the bulldozers just went beast mode. Ya Homes gone. Baseball field up next! RSD and kickbacks winning, cry harder
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Whut ’bout my properties!
“Then they came for the hipsters, and I handed them a map to the artisanal coffee shop, ’cause I don’t like those guys”
Which Renton Council Candidate?
And as of yesterday, the minority run businesses on the corner of Airport & Logan have been demolished. More lost local businesses. And the general public drives by, unaware their tax dollars, sucked up by the Renton School District, are being used to ruin the lives of their fellow citizens – instead of to improve the education of students.