Community land trust makes offer for Family Grocery building; city flags deferred‑maintenance and potential costs

Council heard an update on a community land‑trust effort to acquire the Family Grocery building. Staff said the group has a 60‑day feasibility period and reported 45 individual pledges totaling $890,000 and about 600 people on its community mailing list as it proceeds with underwriting and lender interest.

Staff cautioned that the property has deferred maintenance and that a change in use could trigger code requirements that are expensive to implement. "If the use changes from a grocery store to some other mixed‑use community event space where more people are congregating, there might be fairly expensive modifications to that property that we, by code, are required to ask them to do," staff said, noting city support but warning the project could require $1.5–2.0 million to convert depending on the final use.

City staff described possible grant opportunities tied to different uses (U.S. Department of Agriculture rural grants for food‑oriented uses; arts grants for cultural uses) and said some fees (building and utility hookup fees) may not be waivable under Washington law; the council discussed potential modest fee waivers for staff‑level processes such as site‑plan review but cautioned against waiving fees that the city would have to absorb from its general fund.

Ending: Staff asked to be kept informed and said the city will offer technical support and keep meeting invitations open to the trust as it finalizes plans and funding. Council did not take action but welcomed further updates during the offer/feasibility period.