King County’s Flood Control District has moved up its plans to buy-out a trailer park in Snoqualmie that is a frequent flood victim.

Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson said he is excited about the possibility of the land acquisition and the work being done by the flood control district. The city of Snoqualmie is the most frequently flooded community in King County. 

“For the first time in decades, we now have the resources to more effectively deal with flood mitigation efforts,” Larson wrote in an e-mail to the SnoValley Star about the project.

The property acquisition project was bumped up in priority because, over the last couple of years, floods have hit Snoqualmie hard.

“Up until recently, these acquisitions were scheduled to be funded several years from now. However, due to the recent flooding that Snoqualmie has experienced in 2006 and 2009, the KCFCD has agreed to move this up on the priority list. So, we could see buy-outs as soon as next year,” Larson said.

According to Mark Isaacson, director of King County’s Water and Land Resource Division, plans to buy the trailer park were in the flood control district’s six-year plan. However, after a meeting between the city and the flood control advisory board, the priority of the buy-out was raised, and the preliminary steps of the buy-out project could begin by the end of this year with complete acquisition of the flood prone property in 2010. 

King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert said it makes sense to address issues, ones like property acquisitions of what the flood control district calls “repetitive losses”. 

“We will do all the same projects, but will do them in an order where they will focus dollars in a way that will have the most impact by preserving infrastructure, such as our levies and reducing future losses,” Lambert said. 

Lambert said that it was important for the flood control district to be adaptable to change details of its plans to better meet its goals of reducing damage from flooding. She lauded the work of the district and its advisory board, noting that many projects would be finished over the next decade that could have taken 50 years of longer.  

Isaacson said that the flood control district has a number of tools for reducing flood hazards. He listed home elevations, farm equipment pads, levies and property acquisitions as ways that the flood control district can help residents of flood prone areas.

Properties like the trailer park in Snoqualmie that have a history of being flooded make the most sense for property acquisition. The history of flooding indicates that it may be less costly in the long run to buy the property, than to attempt to mitigate flood damage.

Isaacson said that a buy-out of a trailer park on the Cedar River was nearing completion. He hopes that residents of the trailer park are relocated, before the fall flood season.

The process for acquiring the trailer park will take some time and will be costly, Isaacson said. As with most sales of real estate property, the land will have to be appraised to determine its value, before the county purchases the property. The county will also work with residents to relocate them to new homes, and will pay reasonable relocation expenses.

So far, the flood control district has budgeted $375,000 for 2009 to get the trailer park buy-out project started. It is still too early to determine how much it will take to complete the project. Isaacson said that the bulk of expenditures would take place in 2010.

After the trailer park becomes county property, structures will be removed and the land will most likely become open space. Isaacson said that the county would probably plant some vegetation on the site. At some point, the land could become a park, but no plans for this have been made.