Save Our Farm

My husband and I own a small farm in the Puyallup/Tacoma area of Western Washington. We bought the property knowing that it was in a flood zone. We pay for flood insurance & manage the drainage here so it's not much of an issue. We didn't learn until after we moved in that the county had been in the process of buying out all of the houses around us for years. We bought this place thinking that we would both die here and turn it into something that our kids could inherit. We truly thought that we had found our modest little piece of heaven. We have been in the negotiations process with the county for well over 6 months. We have continued to live here while watching our neighbors sell their homes to the county for fair market value with some added perks. We are close with many of them so we were privy to how it all went down for them.We had been told by the county & our neighbors that they would assess our property as though it were not in a flood zone, pay fair market value for it, cover all closing costs and cut us a check at the end of it. This is the deal that all of our neighbors got. We are the last ones here & figured it was time. They came and did the appraisal. We didn't realize until after the appraisal had come back that they changed the rules. They are now valuing our property as though it is in a flood zone, used comps that were as small as 0.52 acres (we have 4 acres), comps that were in distress and listed as total rehabs, another was listed below tax assessed value with massive septic issues to avoid imminent foreclosure, comps with no barn, fencing or livestock accommodations. Even after pointing out all of our issues with the appraisal, the county has not changed their position. The first offer they sent us was lower than our tax assessed value. After raising hell about that, they raised their offer to just above current tax assessed. Tax assessed, not market value, tax reassessed value. Our property isn't perfect and we aren't asking for 40 million dollars. We just want to be able to replace what we have with something else that is similar and be afforded the same courtesies that every single one of our neighbors was.

We are poor broke farmers that are now faced with the decision of either hiring an attorney that we can't afford ($375 an hour) to help us keep the county honest or accept their offer that is roughly $200,000 shy of what we should be receiving.

My husband spent 17 years as an investigator in human trafficking and child sex slavery. He's been shot more than once, seen things that no human should ever have to see, pulled children out of horrible situations then woke up the next day and did it all over again. For 17 years. He was retired in is mid-40s due to physical and emotional traumas he received while working to save exploited children. He is an orthopedic nightmare and has been diagnosed with cptsd. He deserves quiet life at the end of a road. We live on his disability and pension and what I make working part-time at a feed store. We happily live very simply and well within our means. 

We are scared to death that if we don't get someone who knows something about this on it, it's going affect the rest of our lives. The attorney is $375 an hour... We've sold 2/3 of our cows, a bunch of goats, the majority of our chickens and personal possessions we weren't interested in selling all to try and get money together for an attorney to keep the county honest. We have enough to pay for a days worth of work. My heart is breaking & panic is setting in. 

The current offer from the county would barely be enough for us to buy a house in the suburbs. Our closest neighbor right now is a couple hundred yards away. I can't be the only one that thinks we shouldn't have to give up our farm life & go back to the suburbs. This just isn't right!

I can't stand the thought of having watch my farm be demolished, tell my hero that we lost and send all of our livestock, many are pets to the auction. 

Please help if you can.

Gwenn & Tim

Funkytown Farm