DNR cancels proposal for Silverdale Ridgetop land exchange

Jessie Darland | Kitsap

A proposal by the state Department of Natural Resources to exchange 27 acres in Silverdale for a Bartell drugstore in Arlington has been withdrawn.

Because of overwhelming community concern about the exchange and timing issues, DNR staff decided to reconsider the land exchange.

“There was too much controversy so we just needed to pull back and reconsider,” said Julie Armbruster, DNR property acquisition specialist. “So we’re not going to do the exchange as proposed. Which is not to say we won’t ever do anything with that property.”

“The timing wasn’t going to work as far as for our trade partner,” said Brock Milliern, DNR division manager. “We’ve decided to purchase the Bartell’s instead.”

On Nov. 14, a notice went out that stated a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) determination of non-significance had been withdrawn because “the parties to the proposed exchange have elected not to continue with the proposed transaction. The exchange will not be presented to the Board of Natural Resources.”

Armbruster said that eventually, DNR would like to sell the land if it is unable to exchange it, though nothing has been decided. If DNR did decide to sell the 27 acres, a new SEPA process would need to occur, she said. The land is not profitable for DNR as it can no longer be logged because of surrounding housing and access issues.

“We decided to call it off. It wasn’t going to work because of all the public issues,” Armbruster said. “We think we’re planning to buy the commercial property directly instead of an exchange, but we have to decide what we’re going to do with the Ridgetop property.”

Milliern said DNR is still planning to have a community conversation in the spring about what should be done with the Silverdale property.

“At this point, we’re still looking at the right way to sell this piece of property, probably through public auction or something like that, but we will be having a community conversation before we do anything like that,” he said.

The land exchange process was put on hold last month before being canceled. After a huge response at the public meeting in September, the public comment period was extended. State Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, wrote a letter to DNR in October opposing the exchange, citing concern about the amount of community engagement and the ecological impact of development. DNR decided to postpone the presentation of the exchange to the DNR board that was slated to happen in early November until 2020.

Mary Earl, with The Clear Creek Task Force, said even though the exchange has been canceled, the land is still zoned as urban high-density. That means if DNR sells the land, it could still be developed. A group of citizens concerned about the exchange, which includes members of The Clear Creek Task Force, has been exploring alternatives for the 27-acre parcel and are continuing to meet to attempt to get the land rezoned, she said.

The Clear Creek Trail runs through the parcel.

The exchange was originally proposed as a way to generate revenue for the Common School Trust. DNR would have exchanged the 27 acres of forested land in Silverdale for the 1.5-acre Bartell Drug property as a way to create long-term revenue for the construction of schools in Washington from the lease of the property. Evergreen Housing, which currently owns the Bartell Drug parcel, would have acquired the 27 acres and developed it into market-rate family housing.

Before the decision to discontinue the land exchange, Evergreen Housing requested a pre-application meeting with Kitsap County Department of Community Development in late October.

"Pre-application meetings are intended to outline development requirements prior to application submittal and summarized in writing," said Angie Silva, assistant director for the Kitsap County Department of Community Development. Other than that, no applications have been submitted for the property, she said.

The plan from Evergreen Housing as shown in the pre-application meeting summary was to develop seven five-story apartment buildings, with 585 units total. The project proposal also included the incorporation of Clear Creek Trail.