King County officials are finalizing the voluntary acquisitions of eight houses in Pacific’s flood-prone, White River Estates neighborhood.
Jeanne Stypula, supervising engineer for King County, said a salvage company is already removing fixtures for recycling from two homes.
She said the company has started work on a couple of houses the county had already taken ownership of, while the other six homes are under contract for purchase. The county selected those properties for purchase, Stypula said, because they are the most flood-plagued in the community. The properties along White River Drive abut houses the county bought in 2009-10 and later removed.
The King County Flood Control District Board of Supervisors offered $3 million Feb. 16 to acquire those eight homes and set up an expanded HESCO barrier line to protect houses and property.
“Our goal again with the White River Estates … we want to move as efficiently as we can to get the structures moved out of there so we can get the HESCOs in there and provide flood protection,” Stypula said. “We’re moving as quickly as we can.”
None of the eight homes, which were built in 1989-90, are scheduled for relocation.
“I don’t think people are going to want to move those homes because of all of the flooding damage,” said Pacific Mayor Leanne Guier.
Stypula said King County bought 11 houses in 2009-10, and four of those were relocated to Hawthorne Avenue South. Relocating homes again was the objective, she said, but King County officials could not find a buyer in Pacific who was interested in moving the houses. Plus, Stypula said, power lines on Butte Avenue, which leads out of White River Estates, presents “physical constraints” on moving houses out of the neighborhood.
While demolition day nears for those houses, work on the Lower Countyline Levee Setback Project is underway and should finish in December 2017. That project, with a $19 million budget, is building a new, 6,000-lineal-foot setback levee along the landward edge of a forested buffer to protect existing properties and structures. A 5,780-lineal-foot, bio-engineered bank revetment also will be constructed along the existing wetland edge for the same purposes.
Stypula said a forested riparian buffer of about 17 acres will be restored adjacent to the wetland, too. That work, along with removal of the approximately 4,100-lineal-foot current levee and bank armoring, will reconnect the river with 121 acres of off-channel aquatic habitat for the first time in almost a century and reduce flood elevations in Pacific.
The Lower White River Right Bank Levee Setback Project is in the development stage, according to Stypula. That project, which she estimated will cost $25-30 million, would remove interim flood protection measures, such as the HESCO wall, and build a setback levee along the Pacific Park boundary and adjacent residential areas on the right bank. Stypula said that project would significantly reduce the potential for flooding in those areas.
She did not rule out the possibility of King County acquiring more homes in the White River Estates neighborhood should officials deem it necessary as they move forward with flood mitigation projects.
