Farmland owner balks at seling to his neighbors

BOTHELL

Luigi Gualtieri didn't want to talk.

With his Rottweiler, Mocha, barking loudly from the top of his long driveway, Gualtieri said only that he wasn't selling his land.

Any of it.

But half of the Magnolia Dairy's acreage is for sale - 34 acres for nearly $1.7 million, according to the Windermere real-estate agent who has the property listed.

A few months ago, the 31-year-old Gualtieri was willing to sell the whole farm for $4 million, but now he's vacillating between selling and not selling.

Neighbors speculate that it's his way of avoiding the inevitable controversy that selling the lush farmland will bring.

While there have been plenty of inquiries, no buyer has yet stepped forward to claim almost 80 acres of stubbly green fields that haven't seen a cow in years.

The problem is this: The property can't be developed for condos or a shopping center. It's Farmland Preservation ground; the development rights were sold to King County in 1986 by Gualtieri's father, Geno, who died soon after signing the $1.5 million deal.

Now, many of Gualtieri's neighbors atop Bothell's Westhill neighborhood are trying to put a plan together to buy the dairy. Even if they can sell the community on the idea - which would turn the property into a farm where local schoolchildren could learn about agriculture - they'll have to persuade the irascible Gualtieri to sell to them.

That, many say, could be a greater challenge than raising the money to meet his asking price.

Meanwhile, the property speaks to the heart. At the crest of the hill at Northeast 180th Street you can see the Magnolia Dairy stretching across the plateau, an open-space oasis surrounded by suburban ramblers and split-level homes.

It's where locals go in the evening to watch the sun snuggle into the Olympics. The bleachers at the Bothell High ball diamond, directly across from the dairy on 88th Avenue Northeast, are probably the best sunset seats in town.

On clear days, there's a spectacular view of Mount Rainier. Lake Washington also can be glimpsed from select vantage points around the dairy.

"It's a sweet piece of property," said Rick Franz, an associate agent with Windermere Real Estate in Bellevue who has been looking for a buyer. "Luigi absolutely loves the property. It's magical there, and it's not like you can find another piece like it anywhere around."

The price tag of $2 million for the dairy's northern 34 acres was dropped late last year to $1.6 million, Franz said. He said the rest of the land, which includes Gualtieri's 1917 Dutch-colonial home, two large barns and other farm buildings, was taken off the market months ago.

In the Gualtieris' agreement with the county, only 5 percent of the land can be covered with nontillable surfaces; the rest must remain as open space in perpetuity. However, development rights were reserved on a small portion of the property, so it would be possible, for instance, for a high-tech millionaire to purchase the land for an estate home, Franz said.

But, he added, "the upper-end market has slowed down," and so far no one has made a firm offer.

"I don't think Luigi really cares who he sells the property to," he said. "I think it's great the community wants to pursue purchasing it, but their challenge will be trying to get the funding. That's the big battle ahead of them."

But Sharon Ricketts, who has lived across from the dairy since 1959, says raising the money may be easier than gauging Gualtieri's mood.

Gualtieri isn't a motivated seller and doesn't need the money, said a man familiar with the dairy who asked not to be named.

"If Luigi sells to anyone," the man said, "he'll have to believe it's right for the legacy of the farm. And I respect him for that."

Named after his grandfather, Luigi Gualtieri inherited the Magnolia Dairy after his father died suddenly of a heart attack on New Year's Eve, 1986. In addition to selling development rights to the county in the weeks before his death, Geno Gualtieri disposed of his herd that same year under the federal dairy-buyout program instituted to reduce the annual milk surplus in the U.S.

Eighty years before the development rights were sold, Geno's father and grandson's namesake immigrated from Tuscany. In 1907, Luigi Gualtieri started his dairy on Seattle's Magnolia Bluff. A growing city forced the farm to move to the outskirts, the Sand Point area along Lake Washington. But the government took that land in 1939 for a radio station for the Navy's nearby airfield.

That same year, the Gualtieris' patriarch and his eldest son, Carlo, bought 63 acres in Bothell, purchasing additional land over the next two decades, according to county land records. Brothers Ernest and Geno also joined their father in operating the farm.

Ricketts, who started a community petition to boost support for the Gualtieris when they were looking to sell their development rights, said many Westhill residents are worried the county's covenants to preserve farmland may someday change. She also believes the community needs to buy the whole dairy because "there's not much we can do with 34 acres and no buildings."

Two community meetings to discuss buying the dairy have already been held with representatives from Metropolitan King County Councilwoman Maggi Fimia's office. A steering committee has been formed and residents calling themselves the Westhill Involved Neighbors hope to have an action plan drawn up by September.

"I would personally like to see it as an active farm," said Ricketts, who's on the community steering committee. "Passive bothers me because people start getting ideas. People here are worried because there are always loopholes and there's a distrust of the people in the county government.

"They're just developing everything to the max and that's another reason people are distrustful."

Although Judy Herring, coordinator of the county's Farmland Preservation Program, said citizen distrust is "a reasonable way for people to feel," the chances of the dairy being developed are slim.

Herring explained that the covenants - which now prohibit campgrounds, athletic fields, golf courses, racetracks, restaurants and parking lots on preserved farmland - could be changed if the County Council ever decided to take the issue to voters.

The Magnolia Dairy's glacial-till soil "isn't the best and is more suited for pastures than row crops," Herring said, so the county - with voter approval - could conceivably sell the development rights in order to transfer those rights to a property with better soil for cultivation.

But it's a long shot, she said, because the program - which now has 187 properties and approximately 12,800 acres protected in perpetuity - is seen by officials as a way of maintaining the county's esthetic values and quality of life.

"It's exciting stuff," Herring said about the Westhill push to use the dairy as an educational facility. "I hope they can pull it off."

Sara Jean Green's phone message number is 206-515-5654. Her e-mail address is sgreen@seattletimes.com.

---------------------------

Magnolia Dairy

A community meeting hosted by Westhill Involved Neighbors will be at 7 tonight to discuss financing the purchase of the Magnolia Dairy. The meeting will be at Third Place Books on the second floor of the Lake Forest Park Towne Centre, 17171 Bothell Way N.E. in Lake Forest Park.