It was his dream home. Lakewood plans to demolish it to upgrade a waterfront park

Ebrahim Mirjalili has put a lot of work into making his dream house along Lake Steilacoom.

After two years on the market, the local dentist said he bought his 1956 Lakewood home in ruins from the bank in 2008 and spent years renovating it before his family moved in over a decade ago. Nearing retirement, Mirjalili said he never considered selling his home and thought he would pass it on to his daughter one day.

Come July that’s all going to change.

The city of Lakewood is planning to seize Mirjalili’s property under eminent domain and raze it to build a parking lot to accommodate boat traffic along Lake Steilacoom. This move is part of several proposed park upgrades to the narrow Edgewater Park along Edgewater Drive Southwest, the lake’s only public boat launch.

City officials says about a third of Mirjalili’s house sits on public property predating Lakewood’s incorporation. In January a Pierce County Superior Court judge ruled in favor with the city, arguing Lakewood has the right to condemn the property for the public park project. The city will take possession July 1.

Mirjalili, who is an Iranian-American immigrant, claims the city is overreaching its control and has not offered his family a reasonable price to purchase his home. According to court filings, Lakewood initially offered Mirjalili’s family $250,000 for the property, which the family bought for $441,000 in 2008.

“The Pierce County Assessor Treasurer assessed the value of entire property at $1,028,400.00. The appraiser estimates the current value of the entire Property at $1,200,000.00,” said Eileen McKain, assistant city attorney, in a good faith settlement offer Feb. 28, 2023. “However, as noted above, much of the property, including the portion on which the house is located, is actually owned by the City. This leaves Ebrahim Mirjalili and Debra Lapertosa with ownership of a relatively small remainder of vacant land. The City estimates the value of that remainder to be $250,000.00.”

The city said a mediation with Mirjalili is scheduled at the end of April to finalize the purchase price.

Although some neighbors and park users say there is need for more parking by Edgewater Park, most told The News Tribune they opposed demolishing Mirjalili’s house and worried more traffic would exacerbate existing neighborhood litter and noise issues.

Improvements to Edgewater Park will be discussed in a Lakewood Council study session April 8 with a plan and grant proposals up for approval April 15, according to city agendas. If the city receives grant funding, design and permitting could take place in 2025 and 2026, and construction could happen in 2027-2028.

What upgrades are being proposed to Edgewater Park?

The city of Lakewood has been talking about renovating Edgewater Park for years after hearing complaints from residents about the lack of parking there, as well as traffic issues, invasive plants, lack of maintenance, no bathrooms and a steep and shallow boat launch, said parks director Mary Dodsworth at a Lakewood Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting March 26.

“There’s no parking for trailers, lots of stumps in the water — which are dangerous to people and to boaters,” Dodsworth said. “Then there’s safety conflicts because people are swimming in the same areas that people are launching boats and fishing, and there’s not a lot of separation.”

Among the changes in the master plan would be to build a new car and trailer parking with 19 total spots on the north end of Edgewater Drive Southwest, put one-way roads along Edgewater Drive Southwest and Foster Street Southwest, add crosswalks and replace invasive species with native species.

The plan also proposes adding a designated fishing pier/beach, a designated swimming area with a beach, a designated hand-carry boat launch area, a new boat launch with a floating dock and a public toilet. Picnic tables, benches and a porch swing would also be added, Dodsworth said in her presentation. Changing some of the roads to one-way would discourage speeders, she said.

Roadway and safety engineers determined it was the safest and most accessible option to have the parking lot where Mirjalili’s house is, Dodsworth said March 26 in response to questions from residents.

The improvements would happen in phases and be paid for with grant funding, Dodsworth said. A cost estimation will be available April 8, she said.

“The thing to remember is that the folks that don’t live on the water have the right to have access to the water,” Dodsworth said at the March 26 meeting. “Public access to water is really important, and we’ve heard from folks that don’t live along the waterfront or have waterfront property that they want to go to the water.”

‘We worked hard to pay for this home’

Stacks of surveyor maps and property paperwork covered Mirjalili’s dining table Tuesday as he pointed out discrepancies between various surveyor maps. Mirjalili’s neighborhood dates back centuries. In the 1800s a road once ran through the property, which has been the source of some of the major boundary disputes, he said.

Mirjalili said he believes his 5,000 square foot home is worth over $1 million, but the city of Lakewood said land surveys indicate about a third of the home is built on public land and the city can only pay for the private property, not the public land it already owns.

“The home does not meet code requirements due to non-permitted additions and renovations. In its current condition, the home is likely not marketable,” the city wrote online.

Mirjalili said he believes the city is trying to abuse its power to take advantage of him and his family. He argues the city could have bought his house before he did, or bought another property nearby to raze for a parking lot.

“We believe that we are targeted,” he said. “We worked hard to pay for this home. … We didn’t ask for a penny. And now this city wants to devalue what we’ve done, what we have worked for.”

In a Jan. 19 court filing, the judge found there was “no evidence of fraud (actual or constructive), abuse of power, bad faith or arbitrary and capricious conduct by the city” in condemning the property.

Lakewood communications manager Brynn Grimley said Edgewater Park has been largely untouched by the city since its incorporation in 1996. As the city is updating its Master Plan, it’s acknowledging the park needs to be improved, she said.

When Lakewood learned about the land encroachment on public right-of-way property, by law the city had to act and couldn’t turn a blind eye, Grimley said Wednesday. Mirjalili had the option to purchase that land from the city, but after several years of trying to find a solution, “we finally had to move forward with this park improvement plan because, again, this park serves anybody and everybody who wants to use it, whether it be residents or visitors,” she said.

The city’s role is to provide public services, and purchasing the house prior to Mirjalili “wouldn’t have been a wise investment because we didn’t have a plan for the park at that time,” Grimley told The News Tribune Wednesday. “If we bought it at that time, it would have largely probably sat vacant until now, almost 20 years later.”

“I know a lot of people feel like we’re trying to do a land grab for a park improvement project, and that’s not the case,” Grimley said. “Whether we were improving Edgewater Park or not, we would still have to address the issues of encroachment on public property.”

Neighbors wary of improvements

Neighbors say the park is usually quiet, except for a couple weeks during the heat of summer. Boaters and fishermen float on the calm waters and ducks swim in the tall reeds.

Some residents say they don’t want to attract more noisy and polluting motorized boats to the lake and worry more traffic will clog the already-narrow street.

Christina Manetti has lived in the neighborhood since she was a kid in the 1970s and said the need for more parking is clear, but the city’s plans for the park aren’t suitable for its needs. In the winter the park is hardly used, and neighbors have already had to take on the task of cleaning up litter there because the city hasn’t, Manetti said.

“The way it is now the neighbors have told me they have to go and empty the garbage, they have to pick up garbage. That’s just not right,” she said. “It’s not up to the neighbors to maintain the park and it’s not cool that the city wants to increase use when they don’t even take care of it now. It’s going to be more work for the neighbors, is that fair?”

Grimley told The News Tribune Thursday that the city has crews that regularly maintain the parks and encouraged residents to use the MyLakewood311 system to report issues.

“They’re not out there every day, because we have 14 parks plus other areas, but we are out there pretty frequently,” she said. “It’s not a problem that’s going to be unique to this park, you see [garbage] anywhere you go … and if we’re made aware of it, our crews will go out there and respond to get it cleaned up.”

Manetti, who is founder and president of the Lakewood environmental advocacy nonprofit The Garry Oak Coalition, said pollution already threatens wildlife on Lake Steilacoom and believes the city should be doing more to improve the water quality and restore the salmon population.

“This just does not make any sense at all, neither for the neighborhood, nor the environment or the fish. It’s a terrible idea,” she said. “It sounds ridiculous to say you’re going to invest this amount of money and eminent domain somebody’s house to do this.”

Puyallup resident Christian Pervier said Tuesday this is his third year fishing for bass on the lake. He tries to get there early on weekends, because on nice days it’s hard to find parking for his truck and boat. Pervier said there’s a need for more boat parking and a better boat launch.

As the sun dipped lower in the sky Tuesday afternoon, Tacoma resident Justis Tumlin sat along the shore of Lake Steilacoom, fishing for trout. Tumlin said Tuesday was the second time he’d visited the park and he thought it was a good idea the city was considering adding more parking, building a better boat ramp and a new fishing area.

With those improvements, Tumlin said he would consider bringing his boat in the future, although he expressed concern about Mirjalili’s house being razed without fair compensation.

“I see people parking their boats up on that hill,” he said, pointing up a steep drive. “If there are other avenues to develop this park, I think that’s a good idea, I think that’s a good thing in all communities.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2024, 5:00 AM.