Winslow land is ‘worth a few bucks’

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, January 24, 2007

A nine-acre parcel is coveted as open space, but it could see development instead.

Shig Moritani sits in his brother Tatsu’s kitchen, shuffling through another box of dusty receipts, newspaper clippings and envelopes, shaded yellow with age.

There are a few more boxes nearby, set near the kitchen’s wood stove, where Shig spends nearly every afternoon bundled up in a thermal jacket and baseball cap, reviewing oddities gathered over his brother’s 89 years.

The sagging old house was stacked nearly to the brim of its smoke-stained walls when Tatsu died last spring and left it all to Shig.

“My brother was a pack-rat,” says Shig, breathing clouds of mist in the house’s chilly air. “He never threw anything away. The house is packed with nothing much of value, like these,” he says, giving the box a nudge. “Just old correspondence and junk.”

While the house may be no treasure trove, the nine acres it sits on may amount to a real estate gold mine.

The former strawberry farm stretches along the west end of Winslow Way, just beyond the bustle of downtown. Its southern border is a stone’s throw from Eagle Harbor.

Tall firs ring the property’s meadows, making it a refuge of green amid asphalt, concrete and the gray homes that neighbor it.

As pallet board heaps and 50-year-old Chevys rot and rust on the fallow berry fields, Shig knows that this property is still fertile for a bigger cash crop.

“It’s worth a few bucks,” he says. “All these condos have come in, and now they have no other place to go. I might well make some money off this place, but I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Shig, and Tatsu before him, have long received plenty of advice on what to do with the property.

Many of the suggestions come from those who would like to see the property preserved as open space.

“It’s value to the community is enormous,” said Dwight Sutton, who has led the city’s efforts in acquiring and preserving undeveloped properties.

“It’s the only good-sized open space downtown,” said Sutton, also a member of the city’s Open Space Commission. “As the population continues to grow in the greater Winslow area, the value of that place for people on the island will only increase.”

Sutton, the Bainbridge Island Land Trust and others have quietly lobbied Tatsu for years, gingerly trying to broker a deal that would allow public ownership or privately-held preservation.

For Mike Bonoff, the property has held an attraction ever since he moved to the island over 30 years ago.

“There is such a legacy there,” he said. “It’s a part of the island’s agricultural history and the farmhouse is a piece of the old way of life on Bainbridge. You also have the family’s role in the Japanese-American community and as victims of the internment.”

Bonoff also noted the property’s ecological value.

“It has a really healthy stand of trees that are sought after by songbirds and other animals,” he said. “It’s a thick buffer (amid) suburbanization. It would be a pity if all that was clear-cut to make way for more housing.”

When Tatsu died last May, Bonoff and other preservationists found themselves negotiating with Shig, the property’s inheritor.

“I was talking a lot with Tatsu and now I’m trying to be sensitive to Shig,” Bonoff said.

Sutton stressed the need to tread lightly, and not prod Shig too much.

“We’re sitting tight and keeping an eye on it,” he said. “But we know developers are circling.”

Shig, who retired to a home in Kingston after a 35-year career in the Merchant Marines, says he’s not hurrying to sell. At 85 years old, he says he hasn’t much use for money and has no family – except a few stepchildren – to give it too.

“I got nobody close to me around here anyway,” he said.

But holding on to it has its pitfalls.

“It pays pretty good taxes,” he said. “That’s something to think about.”

Shig – a private man who eschews photographs of himself – expressed no enthusiasm for preserving the land as open space. And his feelings about the local government – a potential buyer – aren’t especially positive.

“I know about what these guys are doing here at the City Hall,” he said, citing divisiveness on the City Council and a recent controversy surrounding the Pledge of Allegiance at meetings. “They’re a bunch of comedians. Why would I want to give it to them?”

He’s also sore at the city for chipping away parts of land he owned on Grow Avenue.

“Back in 1958, the town surveyor comes up to me and says, ‘I wonder if you’d donate five feet on the west side of your property’ to put in a sewer line or something. I says ‘sure.’ Then he comes back a year later and takes another five feet for some other utility line.” Shig said. “I didn’t get a nickel of compensation for giving land away.

“How I feel right now….I don’t want to give this place away.”

But preservationists say they’re not asking Shig for a handout.

Bonoff, who has met with Tatsu several times to broker a preservation deal with either the city or the land trust, believes island residents would rally with checkbooks should Shig indicate he’s ready to sell.

“If he gave us a year, I think we would get creative and search for sources of money to swing a deal,” said Bonoff, who said the property’s assessed value was recently set in the $2.5 million range.

Sutton believes city open space funding is a less likely purchasing option for now.

“We’re out of money,” he said. “We spent the $8 million (bond levy).”

Place in history

Sutton is proposing a second bond levy, possibly in the $16 million range, to refill the city’s open space coffers in case Shig decides to sell in the years to come or other land deals appear.

For now, Bonoff and Sutton are giving Shig some of the time he’s requested to sit quietly in his childhood home, easing through his brother’s possessions.

“Shig asked me to not to bring up (selling) last winter,” said Bonoff. “It’s a waiting game for now.”

Local historian Jerry Elfendahl, who was a friend of Tatsu’s, said the property is rich in island stories.

Elfendahl counts off numerous historic tidbits: Tatsu, a ferry maintenance yard welder, was one of the state’s oldest employees before he retired at age 88. The farm was once a provider of strawberries to the Frederick & Nelson department store in Seattle.

Also notable is the presence of an asphalt-covered shack housed Navy personnel during World War II at what is now Waterfront Park.

According to Shig, a museum in Japan features a number of artifacts taken from the farm.

“Some people from a museum in Hiroshima that’s all about immigrants came over about 25 years ago,” Shig said. “They got a cultivator and a beat up car from the ‘40s and took it back to Japan. The windows on it were all busted up, but they didn’t care.”

Last summer Shig got a letter from the museum asking for more details about the items.

“They asked what kind of power was used to pull the cultivator,” he said with a laugh. “I told them: ‘a horse.’”

As for the house, Shig isn’t really sure about its origins.

“My dad wired it for electricity,” he said. “He also put a new roof on it when we moved in here in 1921. If it needed a new roof in 1921, I imagine it’s pretty old.”

Now the house’s frame sags while a blue tarp covers old roof shingles.

“The roof leaks and – ah Jesus! – the house bends all over the place,” he said. “I guess those old timers weren’t too good at putting in a foundation. They just scraped the ground and started building.”

Despite the property’s history, Elfendahl cautions that its future – whether it be condos or conservation – is rightfully in Shig’s hands.

“It’s his business,” Elfendahl said. “It’s up to him to decide.”

While Bonoff has tempered his fire for the property, he said any indication that Shig is ready to sell will likely ignite a widespread effort to preserve it.

“All the good will on Bainbridge and mechanisms for (preservation) are at his disposal,” Bonoff said. “But now Shig’s got to decide who he wants to do business with.”

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Time for another bond?

With the $8 million city open space bond approved in 2001 now spent, some islanders are hoping to expand and restock the city’s open space coffers.

“It’s really the only way to go if we want to preserve more space,” said Dwight Sutton, who initiated the open space bond levy seven years ago.

Sutton, a member of the city’s Open Space Commission, is proposing that the city undertake a new bond levy to raise as much as $16 million for new open space purchases.

“It could happen if people feel that open space is still important,” he said, stressing that the city has announced no formal plans to initiate a new bond. “As the island densifies, we have to look after amenities like open space.”

The City Council recently approved a proposal setting aside $850,000 in the 2007 budget for open space purchases and maintenance.

The proposed funds are segmented into various categories, with just $500,000 earmarked for new purchases. Almost $280,000 would be set aside as an “unrestricted” reserve, $357,000 would go toward the purchase or upkeep of agricultural lands, over $200,000 would fund trail and other improvements, and administrative fees would absorb $50,000.

It’s a sizable amount, Sutton said, but it won’t go very far in the island’s real estate market.

“Because the costs are so cotton-pickin’ high, we aren’t (seeing) anything in that range. Having 800,000 bucks doesn’t amount to much.”

Sutton favored an earlier proposal drafted by Councilman Jim Llewellyn, which set aside almost $1.3 million for open space purchases.

Though approved by the council in November, the council opted for the lower amount at the administration’s suggestion.

Llewellyn believes the smaller fund can still have a significant impact, especially if properties are sold to the city below market value.

“The community expects us to keep our ears open for opportunities,” he said. “These funds could be there if a good deal becomes available.”

Llewellyn supports putting another levy to a public vote.

“Let’s see what people think,” he said. “I can’t think of a better ‘community values survey.’”

The 2001 open space bond was approved by 68 percent of island voters. Since then, the commission has brokered the purchase or acceptance by donation of nearly 20 parcels totaling over 240 acres.

Sutton said the commission has produced a massive return on the public’s investment.

Through negotiations, donations and purchases using the $8 million bond, the commission has, over the last six years, handed the city lands now worth $21 million, according to a recent appraisal conducted by real estate professionals on behalf of the commission.

“That’s an over 100 percent escalation,” he said. “We haven’t done badly at all with the public’s money.”

– Tristan Baurick