What the county didn’t want to do with the land
Nobody debates the existence of dangerous materials on the land that was once Camp Bonneville. In fact, any more talk of it may produce an eye-rolling response, as the issue is essentially resolved, and plans are in motion to transfer the 3,800-acre property from Army to Clark County hands. Regardless, some residents remain unhappy with the plan, and a small group of investors have come up with what they believe is a better idea for the property, but feel they may be too late with their pitch – at least for now.
The county has decided to let the Army – for $27 million – clean 1,500 acres of the property and then create a regional park, offering hiking trails on the land, fencing off the "unclean" areas to restrict access. Governor Christine Gregoire is expected to give the green light to the plan by the end of the month.
Real estate investor Mark Benson thinks the county’s plan is a bad idea. He doesn’t buy the official position that Camp Bonneville is safe, and thinks the partial clean-up is bad for the community. He has a particular interest in the issue: His family home in the Autumn Hills neighborhood shares a fence line with the camp, and he doesn’t like the idea of potentially unexploded bombs in his backyard.
"If you’re gonna do it, you should do it right," he said. "They keep saying they’re going to clean the property. They’re not. They’re going to clean the trail – surface amounts of the trail. They are not going to clean the entire park."
Benson’s list of concerns is debatable, but worth consideration. He points to a 1997 document published by the Army Corps of Engineers, categorizing the risk from unexploded ordinance as "catastrophic," or of the highest possible risk, while this year the risk was categorized as "improbable." Benson said he feels the criteria for risk was changed to fit the agenda. He also wonders how the property can be safe if the fire department would not be allowed to fight a fire on or near land known to have unexploded ordinance without being accompanied by an EOD official. Further, the Department of Defense prohibits firefighters from going within 500 feet of UXO.
Waste not
In light of these factors, Benson feels it’s not only unsafe, but unwise from a business perspective to just fence off the land and put trails on it. Jerry Barnett is a project manager with the County Commissioner’s office. He said he feels the best path has been chosen for the park use plan, and indicated a "clean as we go" policy to the ordinance problem.
"If (officials) find a UXO, they’ll cordon off the find with a 1,000-foot grid, and as they find others they’ll do the same," he said.
Benson argues that if even the small probability of a potential danger exists, it should be addressed before anything happens. His dealings with officials concerning the matter have left him seeing red. His nature as a businessman, however, leads him to see opportunity as well.
"What we’ve come up with is a ‘market-driven’ solution to the problem," said Benson. "The solution is to be able to take the property and utilize some of it for a park, use some of it for a cemetery, and then use the remainder of it for mixed-use assisted living care facilities, maybe a couple of lakes, a potential golf course, retirement communities and a variety of different things."
Those are big plans, but first Benson would have to get the entire property cleaned up. Estimates put that price tag at around $100 million. So who would come up with that money?
Enter Explosive Ordinance Demolition Technology, a Tennessee-based company that specializes in cleaning up places just like Camp Bonneville. They’re the biggest of their kind in the country and are currently rather busy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oddly enough, EODT has very recently branched out to the enterprise of cleaning up Bonneville-like sites "for free" in order to turn a profit on redevelopment. The firm is prepared to clean up Camp Bonneville entirely on its own nickel – in exchange for an equity stake once the site is redeveloped.
"There’s a lot of money to be made there," said EODT Director of Strategic Ventures Bill Pierce. He said he feels the county’s plan for the property just seems to be aiming low.
"I think a lot of compromises have been made for convenience," Pierce said. "As it stands, it’s going to be a very expensive hiking trail out there. We have put forth the notion of cleaning the site in terms of a business arrangement other than the (plan) put in place."
What Pierce and Benson want is a contractual transfer of the 2,300 acres left uncleaned for Pierce’s firm to transform and then develop with investment partners, formed as an LLC, as they see fit. He said a total clean-up of Camp Bonneville would take three to four years, and would likely require less than the projected $100 million. Pierce currently has two other Bonne-ville-scale projects underway.
"One of the advantages of our approach is that we work entirely on our own," he said, touting the angle that EODT would take on the project, finances and all. "There are communities I know that would love to have a Bonneville range to redevelop."
Want not
Pierce said the little detail he calls "reality" will likely prohibit his self-declared "hair-brained scheme" from coming to fruition, acknowledging the idea may have been pitched a bit too late.
"The die is cast," he said. "If it becomes un-cast, somebody should call me."
So, if Benson has assembled a small army of professionals ready to transform the property and then develop money-making real estate – and foot the bill for the whole thing – then why didn’t the county go for it?
"The biggest push-back I’ve heard from the county is, ‘You’re outside the urban growth boundary. Can’t do it,’" Benson said.
County Commissioner Mark Boldt said it is extremely unlikely that Camp Bonneville would find its way into the growth boundary.
"I don’t see anywhere in the foreseeable future that we could even come close," he said. "Essentially, we pretty much have our horse. If we went with Benson’s plan, we’d have to start over from square one."
In negotiating the land transfer, Boldt chose the Conservation Conveyance option, which provides federal funding (the $27 million) for clean-up operations. Under the conveyance, the Army still manages the land. The other option, called the Economic Development Conveyance, would require the county, or any other interested party, to purchase the land from the Army for "fair market value." Boldt said he went with the conservation option out of necessity.
"I think it really was our only option," he said, "because we couldn’t make money on the property, and we need park land."
Boldt added that it’s hard enough to put a park on Camp Bonneville, let alone a big development.
Still, he left an interesting door open to the Mark Bensons of the world.
"We can always buy the land in the future for fair market value," he said. "If Benson wants to buy that land from the Army, he’s welcome to it."
That said, it is clear the direction the county has chosen does not eliminate future plans for the site, and that keeps Benson holding his banner high, and ready to rally the troops for the cause of progress.
"We’re all Americans," he said. "We’ve got a damaged piece of property. We’ve got the federal government on the hook. We’ve got the state looking out for our best interests; we’ve got the county looking out for our best interests. And we’ve got an opportunity as Americans to try to find a way to come out of a problem. Could we do a test site for an actual master-planned city out there? Of course we could.Why not?"
