Oak Harbor City Councilmembers have raised questions as to why the city is planning to pay an estimated $700,000 for the Fakkema Access Road project.
The road is about 2,000 feet of a public road that will provide access to 7 different parcels that front Highway 20 and access to an additional 5 parcels that do not front Highway 20. Of the 7 parcels that front Highway 20, 3 are owned by the City of Oak Harbor, and 4 are owned by Arizona based Amerco Real Estate Company who’s CEO is reportedly worth an estimated $7 billion. The road is being built to service a U-Haul facility that is being built on parcels owned by Amerco.
Normal procedure would be for the developer to build the road and associated infrastructure themselves.
City Councilmember Tara Hizon asked, “Are we footing the bill to build an access road for a billion-dollar corporation that wants to develop the property and is perfectly capable of footing the bills themselves?”
Noting that the project is listed in the 2021-2026 capital improvement plan as costing $481,500, Mayor pro tem Beth Munns questioned the new $700,000 estimate. “When it jumps by $200,000, it seems like a lot to me.”
Councilmember Jim Woessner acknowledged that construction of the road had been in the city’s plans for 5 years but was concerned that “the city staff didn’t volunteer information about the inflation of the estimate earlier.”
Woessner also said city staff led the council to believe that the project would be funded through a grant from the Island County Commissioners.
However, back in 2019 when Island County Commissioners were discussing Oak Harbors grant request, they expressed concern that the road would benefit “only a couple of companies that were contributing nothing to it’s construction.” Also, it was pointed out that the city’s application stated only two jobs would be created.
Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair said, “that was a huge deal breaker for me, spending a half million dollars for two jobs.”
Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson said, “building infrastructure is the responsibility of the developer. I don’t know why the city would agree to build anything for a private company.”
Councilmember Woessner favors continuing a contract the city has with a firm doing engineering and design work and that stopping now would “just waste the investment the city already made, but deciding whether to construct the road is a different matter.” The City Council put off any decision concerning keeping or ending this contract.
Councilmember Bryan Stucky asked why the contractors out at the construction site had put up a sign that contained the Oak Harbor city logo. City Administrator Blaine Oborn said the contractor had already agreed to remove it.
For more details, see the story by Jessie Stensland in the Whidbey News-Times.
