The city has begun negotiations to purchase 7.15 acres in Spring Valley for conservation purposes.

The property, located at 36817 12th Ave. S., is part of the West Hylebos Creek wetlands. It will be purchased from Ruth Enticknap for $252,124. A grant from King County will assist with the acquisition.

Federal Way is interested in purchasing and protecting properties within its boundaries with high conservation value, surface water manager William Appleton said. The surface water management department has identified several properties that meet this description. Many of them, including the Enticknap property, are located along the West Hylebos Creek, Appleton said.

“The Hylebos is one of the streams in the city we’ve targeted with restoration projects,” Appleton said.

The Enticknap property is especially desirable because it features class-one wetlands. The wetlands, amounting to 311,756 square feet, are located at the headwaters of the West Hylebos Creek. They feature juvenile salmon rearing habitat, Appleton said.

“It’s a very nice preserved wetland complex there,” he said.

The city has been interested in purchasing the property since this past summer. Owners Ruth and Ted Enticknap were aware of the desire and spoke with the city about selling their land for conservation purposes, Appleton said. Ted Enticknap passed away in 2009.

“He’s been a bit of a conservationist himself,” Appleton said. “He had always expressed an interest to do something to try to preserve the wetlands and habitat they had on their property.”

Negotiations on the purchase and sale of the land began in December. Mutually agreed upon terms include a handful of stipulations. A boundary line adjustment will be drawn. This will turn two lots and 35,150 square feet of a third lot into one large parcel. The city will pay for the adjustment. Enticknap will maintain naming rights to a pond located on the property. She and the city will split the closing costs on the land.

The purchase will be paid for, in part, with funding received from King County. The city was the recipient of $132,000 from King County Conservation Futures. These funds are collected by the county through property taxes and awarded to agencies wishing to purchase and permanently protect open space lands.

The Enticknap property is one of several acres the city has purchased in or near Spring Valley, with the intent of protecting. Other recent acquisitions include the Kwon and the Kim properties, Appleton said. The Kim property is roughly 10 acres on the corner of Pacific Highway South and South 373rd Street. It was bought in 2007 and features a spring-fed lake that flows into the Hylebos, Appleton said. The Kwon property is about 22 acres, located east of Pacific Highway South, just north of the Spring Valley Montessori. It was acquired in 2008. Both properties were purchased with assistance from King County Conservation Futures money, Appleton said.