City Threatens to Use Eminent Domain to Restore Public Access to North Seattle Beach

Last month, the beach at the end of Northeast 130th Street was blocked with a chainlink fence. Nearby homeowners then installed this fence. Courtesy of Sandy Brown

Mayor Ed Murray announced today the city will reclaim a formerly public beach in North Seattle that was recently closed off to the public by nearby homeowners. The tiny sliver of waterfront property—located in the Cedar Heights neighborhood where Northeast 130th Street dead-ends near the Burke-Gilman Trail—is made up of two parcels of land owned by the adjacent homeowners. It's been the center of neighborhood uproar since the homeowners fenced it off earlier this year.

The parks department will first offer to buy the beach portions of the two properties from the current owners for about $200,000 each, according to the mayor's office. Then, if they're not interested in selling, the mayor will pursue using eminent domain to take back the beach property. (That will require a council vote; the council has been supportive of taking that route.)

It's a last-ditch effort in the neighborhood's long fight to keep the beach from being privatized.

The beach had long been open to the public before the neighboring property owners discovered a legal error from the 1930s that put it in their possession, thereby allowing them to close it off. The property owners on either side of the beach, Keith Holmquist and Fred Kaseburg, could not immediately be reached for comment on the mayor's decision today. Holmquist told the Seattle Times in June they are concerned about public use of the beach for drinking and drug use and because it doesn't have adequate restrooms or parking. (Although it's worth noting that there are plenty of public beaches that do not provide parking or restrooms.)

From that story:

Holmquist works in fire- and water-damage restoration. Kaseburg is a patent attorney who formerly practiced real-estate law. He bought the lakeside home in 2010, and certainly knows his property rights. In an email, Kaseburg says Holmquist “is doing a great job being our spokesperson.” No way did they want a park between their homes, no matter how tiny a park it was. “There are multiple problems. There are no facilities,” says Holmquist, meaning a toilet. “What are people going to do? Use the bushes?” And where would the parking be in this narrow street that already takes maneuvering to drive it? Holmquist says he’s lived there for 18 years, and over that time has taken care of the beachside lot. “A weed whacker three or four times year,” he says. He’s put up with the partyers. “Alcohol, sex out there, drug use,” he says. “Hypodermic needles, syringes. Beer cans, hard-liquor bottles.” He qualifies his remark. The parties are mostly in the summertime, he says. “And it’s not like every night or weekend. I’m not going to fabricate.”

Council Members Jean Godden, Nick Licata, Sally Bagshaw, and Kshama Sawant praised the mayor's decision in a press release today.

“Privatizing public property based upon an 82-year-old records error is a disservice to the neighborhood,” Licata said in the announcement. “I commend the mayor for joining the council in reclaiming what has long served as the only public access to Lake Washington between Matthews Beach and the northern city limits.”

Sandy Brown, one of the two candidates who made it through the primary to represent the new city council district in North Seattle, has also been working on the campaign to restore public access to the beach.

A representative for the Friends of 130th Street Beach group, Dave Pope, said in today's announcement, "I applaud Mayor Murray and city council for taking the first steps in restoring beach access for those who do not have the luxury of owning waterfront property.”