A new “Letter of Intent” is set and signed for the Port of Port Townsend’s purchase of the Short’s Family Farm.

With a price of $1.4 million, the deal is in line with an earlier appraisal of the 253-acre property on Center Road in Chimacum.

To fund the purchase, the deal remains contingent on the port receiving $1 million in funding from the state.

Eron Berg, executive director for the port, signed his name to the agreement with the negotiations spelled out on Monday, Feb. 13; a special meeting of port commissioners was scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 15 to make it official.

“This is the start, where we get to potentially buy this property and begin a creative and imaginative process of putting it to its most beneficial use to the public,” Berg said in an interview with The Leader.

While the initial estimate from port staff was around $2 million, various issues kept the price down.

One constraint on the property comes in the form of a conservation easement managed by the Jefferson Land Trust preventing the farm, one of the largest in Jefferson County, from ever being subdivided or converted away from agriculture. The easement means the entire 253 acres must be sold to a single buyer and must remain in agriculture and open space use, with a number of other limits on what can and cannot be done with the property.

Perhaps the biggest damper, however, is the seasonal flooding that has continued to keep the farm mostly underwater for much of the year.

“The seasonal flooding has gotten worse over the past several years due to a combination of factors,” wrote Greg Halberg, a Washington state certified general appraiser with Halberg Pacific Appraisal Service, after he inspected the property on Jan. 16.

“The reasons include continued infestation with invasive canary grass, the difficulty of clearing the drainage chokepoints annually. The long-term effect of the longer flooding season is detrimental to the health of the soil for agricultural purposes,” Halberg continued.

These difficulties are something the port believes it’s capable of handling, however.

“The potential to take a piece of property that’s challenging and puzzle through and have an outcome that can support the ag community as well as fish habitat restoration, who wouldn’t want to be part of that? That’s very, very exciting,” Berg said.

While all three port commissioners have expressed their intent to move forward, after the deal is signed there will be at least one year before the port will take the plough.

The agreement allows the Short’s possession of the entire property for one year after the date of closing for no rent.

“It’s actually quite perfect from my perspective, because it gives the Shorts time to wrap up their decades of farming, but it also allows them one last year to steward the land while we’re doing farm planning with the farm community, so we don’t end up with the land before we’re ready for it,” Berg said.

The deal also includes a lease agreement for Roger and Sandy Short to remain in their home on the property for up to 10 years after the initial rent-free year at a rate of $1,000 a month, as well as leasing the land under Kevin Short’s mobile home to him for five years for $200 a month.