Is it fair to have your home destroyed for a parking lot and only getting a quarter of what you paid for? on March 26th was Ebrahim Mirjalili’s fight to stop his well-furnished home’s demolishment so that it can be turned into a parking lot. Ebrahim is frustrated because he paid a lot of money for his family to live here and was not allowed to make any improvements in 2013 when he asked the city for a streetlight, and they told him they didn’t have the funds. The city, meanwhile, claimed that ambitions for the land date back for further. The southern end of Edgewater Park, where Mirjalili’s house is situated, is to have a parking lot as part of renovations announced by the city of Lakewood in 2019. The city claims that enhanced boat launch access is one of the proposed changes. The city reportedly made Mirjalili an offer of $250,000 for his land, while the tax-assessed value of the site is more than $1.3 million, according to public data. The home’s valuation was contested by the city, which said that because of unapproved additions and improvements, the house does not adhere to code and is probably not marketable as is. Additionally, the city said that the tax-assessed valuation did not account for the fact that “much” of the land that Mirjalili is occupying is held by the government. Is it a bad thing that the city is giving him less than the value of his property?
It doesn’t seem likely that they will be able to convince him to sell, and this offer doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. However, they will continue to make strong efforts to turn this property—which is located close to lake Steilacoom, and they want to improve more access to the lake—into a parking lot for people. Is this a wise move?
“By law, the city can’t give away publicly owned land,” the city said in a statement. “That means the city cannot give Dr. Mirjalili the land, regardless of how long he used the public property, including lake frontage, as his private property.” this statement by the city shows how they claimed that the land he purchased was not his and that it was private property it assumed that the city is trying to make a bad image and find ways for him to accept their low offer of 250k. The Officials have come out and stated that they will be moving forward with it and will demolish his home.
