Wallingford residents are mobilizing to try to prevent King County from selling a piece of Metro-owned property near Gas Works Park to a developer in a deal estimated to be worth $11 million.

The property is called the old "tank farm" site because fuel was once stored there.

The county has been talking to Touchstone Properties, a commercial real-estate company, about a sale that would give it $3 million in cash and a property exchange worth another $8 million.

"Over the last three years the Wallingford community has endorsed a vision for the tank farm site as a regional and community water education, pool complex and meeting space," Janet Strong Stillman, executive director of the Wallingford Neighborhood Office, said in an e-mail sent to Wallingford residents asking them to protest the sale.

"But King County is ignoring neighborhood wishes and planning to sell the property to an interested developer with the price tag set high above the appraised value.

"Chances are good that a very large biotech building will take the place of the existing historic buildings and erase the views, light and dreams of the community."

The King County Council is scheduled to vote on the issue Monday as it considers authorizing the county to put out a request for proposals (RFP) to sell the property.

That would not authorize the county to sell the land directly to Touchstone, without the RFP process, even though the company made an unsolicited offer more than a year ago.

Douglas Howe, Touchstone president, wouldn't talk about his proposal, but said he's been considering such a deal for three years and would prefer the county sell the land directly to Touchstone.

"We're good developers and we work well with the community," he said, declining to talk specifically about the Wallingford unrest. "If we're successful in acquiring the property, we'll be sensitive to the community."

The property, about the size of a city block, was used as a Metro maintenance facility and is appraised at $4 million. Kevin Desmond, Metro's general manager, said there are two options in the RFP that match what Touchstone has offered: the buyer pays $3 million plus replaces the Metro facility, or the buyer pays $11 million with no replacement. Touchstone has proposed moving the Metro facility to property on Aurora Avenue North.

Desmond said it's no coincidence that the price reflects Touchstone's offer. "If that is the market price, why put out a proposal for anything less?" he asked. "This wasn't done to steer the proposal to anyone."

Metropolitan King County Councilman Bob Ferguson, who represents Wallingford, said he will vote against the proposal Monday. "The county has done a lousy job of working with the Wallingford community on this," he said, adding that Metro hasn't made a case that it needs a replacement facility.

"This is unique property and we're moving too quickly to sell to the first developer," he said, pointing out that if the property were sold, the money wouldn't go into the county's general fund but to Metro's budget.

Nearly two dozen Wallingford residents crowded council chambers last week when the matter was on the agenda. They have what they believe is evidence of a strong ally, a tape of a radio broadcast County Executive Ron Sims made last March. A caller asked him about the Lake Union property, and Sims said it would always remain in public use.

But Ryan Bayne, Sims' liaison to the council, said Sims was referring to other county-owned property on Lake Union, property that definitely won't be sold.

He said the county talked to the city about acquiring the tank-farm property for open space, but was told the city lacked the money and didn't want to buy more open space so close to Gas Works Park.

Bayne said the vote on Monday won't be to sell the property but to put out the RFP, which would allow anyone — including the Wallingford community — to submit a bid.

"King County was not planning on selling this property, but an unsolicited offer was worth checking out," he said.

Wallingford resident Nancy Rottle is a member of the stakeholder group appointed to review the potential use of the tank-farm property. In a letter to the council, she pointed out that the land is well-suited for public use because it would preserve a public view of the lake and is close to Gas Works Park and the Burke-Gilman Trail.

"Privatization of this site for commercial use would be a shame, an irrevocable loss," Rottle said.