The city of Maple Valley purchased 2.79 acres of land for $1.1 million at Southeast 264th Street on Nov. 18.

The purchase was made at a foreclosure auction after the City Council authorized City Manager David Johnston to bid for the two property lots a special meeting Thursday, Nov. 17.

The resolution allowed Johnston to bid up to $1.3 million on the property lots.

“This has been a long process with lots of ‘challenges,’” wrote Victoria Laise Jonas, deputy mayor, in an email interview. “But in the end I am very pleased.”

According to Jonas, the city intends to use the property as a maintenance facility to store Public Works department vehicles, as well as an Emergency Operation Center (EOC), which is currently located at the King County Sheriff’s Office Precinct 3. When the precinct closes the EOC will be moved to City Hall

“Now, we now can utilize the existing panabode type modular house that is on our new property for a maintenance office for our crew and for an EOC,” Jonas wrote. “I see it as a win-win situation, for our maintenance staff, preservation (of) our Lake Wilderness environment. It meets a significant city need and you never can go wrong purchasing land for the long term.”

Jonas added that the city also plans to use the property to build a bypass road which will go through the 54 acre Legacy site. The road would connect to Kent Kangley Road.

“The specific location of this bypass road was a very controversial issue between the city and the surrounding business owners in the (northwest) quadrant area,” Jonas wrote. “Now this specific issue has a positive resolution.”

Right now there is a light industrial shop building, a small wooden frame office and a temporary storage cover on the property.

The land was originally owned by Western Asphalt. The trustee who sold the property was Schweet Rieke and Linde, PLLC, a Seattle-based law firm.