Dispute over new road continues.

Langley city leaders say the Island County Fair Association’s legal analysis on the Fairgrounds Road dispute is based on a foundation that’s flat-out wrong.

The city and the fair board have been wrapped in a year-long dispute over a strip of land at the south end of the fairgrounds. Langley wants a piece of the fairgrounds for a new road; fair supporters say it will make an adjacent piece of the county-owned property unusable.

Langley officials dispute much of a recent legal memo that was sent to county officials by the fair board’s lawyer, Elaine Spencer.

“Ms. Spencer speaks in her memo of loss of usability of roughly 2 1/2 acres. We know what we asked for and it’s less than half an acre,” said Langley Mayor Neil Colburn.

“In the front of the letter it says ‘facts’ — there are no facts,” he added.

Spencer, a Seattle-based lawyer who has been advising the fair board, outlined her legal opinions on the city’s case in a memo sent to county commissioners last week. The memo was paired with a petition signed by fair supporters, and a request by the fair board for the county to take its side in the dispute. County commissioners have said earlier that they don’t want to spend money defending the fair board if the city files a condemnation lawsuit to get the land for the road.

The fight over the sliver of fairgrounds property goes back to last year.

Langley said it needs to build a connector road between Al Anderson and Langley roads to handle traffic coming from new and existing housing projects in the area.

About 400 feet of the new connector road would cross the fairgrounds property.

The road would be 18 to 22 feet wide, and the city had asked the fair board for 60-foot-wide easement across the fairgrounds.

All together, the city has offered to purchase 19,030 square feet. Twenty-five percent of the length of the road on fairgrounds property lies between the existing gate and the “toe” of a bluff.

The remaining 75 percent of the road continues up the slope and through a forested area. And that’s land the county fair is not using and can’t be developed, city officials said.

After being turned down twice by the fair board for an easement request, Langley started taking legal steps to acquire the stretch of the fairgrounds property needed for the new road.

Earlier this month, the city offered the county $12,075 for the land needed for the new road.

In response to the Spencer memorandum, the city sent a letter to the county that disputed the claims made by the fair board’s attorney.

In the letter, Langley officials say it’s time for the fair board to step aside and let the county and city resolve the property dispute.

“No one has suggested that the fair board turn a blind eye to events that could conceivably impact the county fair. The responsibilities of the fair board, however, do not include determining how the city or the county should act in the public interest,” the mayor wrote to the commissioners.

Colburn went on to say that the county and the city are quite capable of resolving the road issue.

“For the fair board to interject itself and insist that one public entity pit itself against another public entity, all at taxpayer expense, does not seem sensible or reasonable,” Colburn wrote.

In a later interview, the mayor took aim at a recent opinion piece in The Record that was written by Marilyn Gabelein, the secretary for the fair board. Gabelein had suggested that the city should have looked at other options for routing the new road.

“The idea to put it (the road) over private land – that’s ludicrous,” Colburn said.

The mayor also pointed out that the triangle of fairground’s property that’s south of the proposed road would remain usable as a campground or parking area. Fairgrounds supporters have said it will be useless once it is cut off from the main fairgrounds area by the new road.

Colburn also disputed Gabelein’s claim that the new raod would make it tougher for vehicles to get into the fairgrounds once the new road is built.

Colburn said access will be improved because rigs and trailers will now enter through a paved road, and the grade of the road will be improved so vehicles don’t bottom out like they do now when they use the south entrance to the fairgrounds..

The mayor said the frustration is growing for everyone involved as the fair board has shown no interest to negotiate, despite the city’s agreement to a number of demands such as fencing, gates and other infrastructure issues.

“We already agreed to the laundry list the fair board wanted,” Colburn said.

He said the city council stands solidly behind the administration as Langley continues its quest to get the land needed for the new road.

“We have to have the connector road,” he said.

Colburn said he has made it clear to the commissioners that he is still open for negotiations with the county. Even so, the city is serious about getting the land.

“We won’t hesitate to go to court, not to be punitive, but because it’s the right thing to do, to protect our citizens,” Colburn said.

Island County commissioners met Wednesday for an executive session on the fairgrounds issue. However, no decisions were made after the closed-door meeting.

Commissioner Mac McDowell said the commissioners need more time to explore their options.

“We will be working on this further,” McDowell said.

“We’re gonna see if any stones have been unturned,” he said.