Family that lost Tacoma land to Sound Transit not surprised by court ruling

Last week’s court decision by a Pierce County Superior Court judge favoring Sound Transit over lower car tabs brought back déjà vu for Pierce County resident Ken Miller. Over a decade ago, that same judge, Kathryn Nelson, allowed Sound Transit to take his family’s industrial property, a decision that was upheld by the state Supreme Court.

“I think the way of picking that judge was somehow orchestrated by Sound Transit,” Miller said to KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson.

In 2004, Sound Transit filed eminent domain against Miller’s family to take its 1.25-acre property in the south end of Tacoma for a park-and-ride lot.

RELATED: Sound Transit wins car tabs suit — and will again at Supreme Court

“They had many other options around south Tacoma … they chose to take our site for no good reason,” Miller said. “There’s just an arbitrary kind of process — they don’t have a process, is what it boils down to.”

Sound Transit took the land, along with the historic, century-old house that sat on the property and the industrial facility where the Millers had manufactured wood products. The property had been in the family for 26 years when the case went to court.

“[Sound Transit] is a rogue outfit,” Miller said. “There’s no control of those people at all … those people have no conscience at all about taking your property for whatever reason they choose, at any time.”

Miller pointed out the decision was not well thought-out, as the parking lot was built on the other side of the train tracks from the passenger loading platforms; everyone has to cross the train tracks to get from the parking lot to the trains. There were multiple other properties in the area that would have been better-suited, in Miller’s opinion.

“There was the former station … up the street at 50th and Adams,” Miller said. “And there were actually several hundred acres that the railroad owned right there that was available anywhere they wanted to put a station all along the tracks — they didn’t have to take our piece of property from us.”

Miller received $500,000 from Sound Transit at the time, but most of this went to cover court costs. Additionally, he said the transit agency took $10,000 for the cost of demolishing the house. Had Sound Transit not taken it, the property would be worth several million dollars now, Miller estimated.

“We didn’t even get reimbursed for our original purchase price,” Miller said.

He wants to see Sound Transit checked by the democratic process so that the agency is not able to run wild with people’s private property.

“We need to have an elected board, not these people who are appointed by the certain powers that be in each area,” he said.

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