Property Manager Looks to Oust Scrap Yards

Four businesses along ``junkyard row'' at the south city limits in Kent, Wash., are bogged down in a legal and environmental quagmire.

A property manager yesterday obtained a court order requiring the businesses to move out by Dec. 1. But the judge's order will be withdrawn if the property leased by the businesses is sold and the parties agree on how to pay for cleaning up areas contaminated by more than 30 years of auto wrecking, metal recycling and other industrial operations.

Larry Huang of Kent, owner of Japanese Auto Wrecking, is fighting to stay. High land prices and stricter environmental regulations make it nearly impossible to relocate anywhere in the area, he said.

``I've been everywhere. I can't find any place I can afford,'' said Huang, who employs 25 people.

``There must be at least 45 or 50 people work at these different businesses. They could lose their jobs,'' Huang said.

The owner of one business, Astro Auto Wrecking, has purchased an existing auto-wrecking yard in Federal Way and is moving out now.

Besides Astro and Huang's business, the eviction order includes Binford Metals, a recycling business, and C&N Refrigeration, which specializes in servicing truck and trailer refrigeration units.

The businesses are on a parcel of about 5.2 acres at the corner of 78th Avenue South and South 262nd Street. Several other auto-wrecking and recycling businesses are strung out along 78th Avenue along the Green River.

A state Department of Ecology official said the property has ``moderate contamination'' from years of auto wrecking and other operations. It's classified as an ``independent cleanup'' site, meaning it's expected the owners and any buyers will agree on how to pay for the needed cleanup.

The property manager, Brad Corner of Corner Properties of Bellevue, said the property has been for sale for several years. There's currently an offer on the table, but he declined to elaborate.

Corner said he's been talking with the business owners since early this the year, asking them to come up with a cleanup plan for the property, which is owned by an investors group of 12 people.

``It's not like we didn't work with them for a long period of time,'' Corner said.

The issue became complicated after the owner of C&N subleased portions of his site to Huang and Binford without approval of Corner, who began eviction proceedings. After a civil trial on the eviction issue, an attorney for Huang told the judge some of the 12 investors now disagree with Corner's decision to seek eviction in the first place.

At a hearing yesterday at the Regional Justice Center, King County Superior Court Judge Robert McDermott signed an eviction order. He also scheduled another hearing for Nov. 29 to give attorneys and the business owners time to resolve the issues, in which case the eviction order can be lifted.

Attorneys declined to provide any dollar amounts for cleanup or purchase offers, but did indicate the potential costs of an environmental clean-up is a major sticking point. Current state laws require past and current property owners to share costs for such cleanups.

Richard A. Cole, a Seattle attorney, said it's unfair to blame current business owners for environmental problems.

``This property has been polluted for a long time before the current tenants were there,'' said Cole. He said he represents an investors group interested in buying the property, but wouldn't say who.

The property has been used by various auto wrecking and recycling companies since the late 1960s. C&N has been there about 16 years; Astro about seven years and the other two businesses only a few years.

``We're out of business now, really,'' said Clay Lee, owner of C&N.