Tyler Chambers must give the government an extraordinary pound of flesh. According to the state, Chambers cannot build a house on his private 66 acres unless he surrenders 44 acres to state control.
“Extortion. Theft. Unconstitutional. My family has been through hell,” Chambers says. “If you think you own land, then check out what the bureaucracy has done on my property.”
The rural resident of Chelan County, Washington already has spent almost $300,000 in regulatory requirements ranging from spotted owl studies to geotechnical reports, only for the state to add a remarkable demand: Relinquish 44 acres or never build.
“Don’t believe in conspiracy theories?” says Jeff Hallman, a licensed broker with 22 years of experience in Washington. “You’ll believe in them now. A conspiracy to destroy property rights is real, and Tyler Chambers is being put through the worst case of property abuse I’ve ever witnessed. Once people hear the full story, and find out what Tyler’s been forced to do, they’re blown away.”
Brick Walls
In 2021, Chambers, 59, and his wife, Wendy, bought three existing tax parcels with power and PUD (public utility) water in the arid hills of northcentral Washington, outside Wenatchee, near the end of No. 1 Canyon Road. Raised in the orchards and wheat fields of a farming family, Chambers, a small business owner specializing in garage doors, hoped to return to his roots.
He found the acreage listed by Jeff Hallman of AGENT509, who carries a background in tree fruit agriculture specializing in rural land. “Tyler did his due diligence,” Hallman recalls. “He did a 30-day feasibility, went to the county and spoke to the planners, and had a surveyor and engineer take a look. He went by the book on his end, but he had no idea it would turn into the worst governmental restrictions I’ve seen in my life. I used to never speak up, but I don’t give a f*** anymore. I’ll tell the truth about what the county and state has done.”
In all, Chambers purchased 66 acres zoned residential. “The area was historically in apple production, and it’s still rural today, but the roads are paved and there’s PUD access, and numerous homes around,” he describes. “All our lives, we saved our money and followed the rules. Our dream was to build a home and pole barn, plant a few orchard acres, and maybe have our kids or grandkids someday build on this ground since we had three tax parcels.”
“At the start, we naively believed if we followed the rules, everything would be fine. We were wrong and terribly misled.”
In fall 2021, Chambers got a green light to build from Chelan County Community Development Director Jim Brown who did not require a habitat and mitigation plan.
“Jim Brown was a former Fish & Wildlife director, and he was old-school,” Chambers notes. “Basically, he was just a very reasonable gentleman and helped us follow the rules.”
“Everything above board and by the book. We made certain with the county that we were zoned residential to build a home. I met with PUD, paid to have a geologist perform a hazard assessment, paid for soil testing compaction, got a surveyor to ensure our property lines were right, brought an engineer in to check things, did a PERC test, and several other things.”
Chambers began moving dirt on the cusp of home construction. However, he soon got a visit from an area homeowner, Bob Bugert.
“I had no idea who he was,” recalls Chambers. “This guy shows up one evening, says his name is Bob Bugert, and asks, ‘What are you doing and do you have a permit?’ Again, I did not know who he was, but he told me, ‘Good luck getting a permit.”
Bugert was a Chelan County Commissioner at that time. “I looked him up when I got home later and found out he was past director of the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust,” Chambers explains. “After that, I hit one brick wall after another.”
Riding the Loop
In a snap, several neighbors made a complaint to county code compliance regarding Chambers’ earthmoving. “All I was doing was getting ground ready, 100 percent in line with regulations, but suddenly the county was investigating me. Somehow, rumors were flying around that I was developing the land which was insane. The county enforcement official came out and checked things and gave me a thumb’s up.”
On Oct. 5, 2021, Chelan County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Foster responded to the complaint against Chambers: “…The county has investigated the complaint and determined it is unfounded … Unless circumstances change, the county will not be taking further action on this manner.”
Chambers believed his path to build was clear. However, the path was only just beginning to clog with a tangle of red tape and lawsuits.
In December, Chelan County Community Development Director Jim Brown resigned and soon was replaced by Deanna Walter in March 2022. A stop-work order followed several months later. Chambers immediately appealed the stop work order through his attorney, Aaron Harris, with Ogden Murphy Wallace, but Chelan County Community Development did not accept the appeal.
(Deanna Walter didn’t respond to an Agweb.com interview request regarding Tyler Chambers’ ongoing property dispute.)
“From then on,” Chambers says, “the county asked us for report after report and study after study. We’d get one done and then get hit with another. It was like being stuck on a bureaucratic loop with no end, but that was the county’s intention to begin with. I just hadn’t realized it yet.”
Carrot Before a Horse
Chambers’ hilly property purportedly was eroding.
“It was complete hysteria online and in the local newspaper,” Hallman contends. “Tyler was vilified because he moved dirt like anybody in history does if they’re going to build. Several neighbors and the local gossip columns said dirt was moving in the rain and the hillside was disappearing. Meanwhile, there was a stop-work order and Tyler couldn’t touch a thing. That’s like forcing a stoppage in mid-surgery: It creates more problems and the county’s administrative decisions are the reason.”
“That’s when everything became surreal and it was like living in a Third World country,” Chambers echoes. “I couldn’t do any work and couldn’t build, but I was getting blamed for erosion.”
Chambers submitted a report by Munson Engineers, Inc. (Wenatchee) to show his property was not a “geologically hazardous area.” (The report would be updated in 2023 and 2024, noting erosion on the property, but attributing soil loss to the work stoppage.)
More reports and more studies followed by county request: Stormwater, spotted owl, golden eagle, deer, shrubsteppe, geotechnical, mitigation, and others.
“They made him do every damn study in the world,” Hallman exclaims. “I’ve never observed this before with any other property owner. And these aren’t cheap studies. These are 5 grand, 10 grand, and 20 grand a pop. In my opinion, Deanna Walters and Chelan County knew exactly what they were doing: Putting a carrot before a horse to lead it wherever they wanted, and it’s going on five-plus years of this with no end in sight.”
“Walters kept requesting more and more,” Chambers concurs. “We had to do a geotech report where they drilled all over our land. It was nuts. The specialist drove two-and-a-half hours from Seattle, and he kept scratching his head, asking, ‘Why are you having to do this to build a house?’ All I could tell him was, ‘I don’t know.’”
“Literally, we even had to do a study to make sure we weren’t hurting spotted owls,” Chambers adds. “Also, just as another countless example, there’s a drainage ditch nearby and I had to get a study to prove it wasn’t fish-bearing. It was all crazy, but we kept believing each request was the final one and each hurdle was the last we’d have to jump.”
The biggest ask was yet to come.
Bureaucratic Rulebook
Chambers hired local architect Eric Soehren of SD+D. Soehren prepared and submitted the plans to Chelan County Community Development, which, according to Chambers, refused to review them. The county directed Chambers to complete a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) form, typically used for potential retail stores, housing developments, schools, and major construction projects. SEPA generally measures environmental impact.
“Deanna Walters asked us to fill out a SEPA,” Chambers contends. “We didn’t know why, but we had nothing to hide. We knew single family homes are exempt, so we filled it out and it went to the Department of Ecology. One more hoop to jump through, or so we thought.”
“Walters, who was director of Chelan County Community Development and Acting Administrator for Chelan County through the Department of Ecology (DOE), brought down the hammer,” he continues.
As mitigation, Chambers was required to set aside 44.2 acres, or 66% of his three tax parcels—permanently. Chambers hired Glen Grette of Grette Associates (now Farallon Consulting), who testified to a hearing examiner that mitigation was never meant to be a deed restriction.
“We were completely shocked,” Chambers recalls. “They demanded almost everything we owned, meaning 44 acres of our private property placed in a deed restriction; two-thirds of our land. It was obvious that everything we’d been required to do up to that point was part of a fixed game. I can’t properly describe the emotional damage to my wife, Wendy, and the loss of faith we’ve suffered in our county and state, along with extreme financial and mental stress. We’ve been targeted, and I know we are the only ones in Chelan County’s history ever to do a SEPA for a regular house.”
The 44-acre demand, according to Hallman, “is sick and downright evil. In Tyler’s case, the county didn’t even follow their own rulebook. If what has happened to Tyler and Wendy is allowed to stand, private property rights in Chelan County don’t exist.”
Seven Miles
Chambers refuses to bow.
“They want to break us. We won’t let them. We’ve been harassed, threatened, and robbed of our legal rights. Think about what a stop-work order does to your construction loan. We’re still paying $3,000 per month—except we can’t touch our land.”
“Property rights are crucial for freedom in this country,” he continues. “I’ve learned that if you stay silent or try to appease, your situation only gets worse. I’m a changed man now, and I’m not afraid to speak out against governmental abuse at all levels. One thing for certain: We will build our home on our own land.”
In conclusion, Hallman emphasizes a deep layer of contradiction in Chambers’ case.
“Think how unbelievably dictatorial Chelan County’s stance is. They demand control of two-thirds of Tyler’s land—three historical tax parcels with PUD water, power, fiber and road access.In my opinion, it’s because some county leaders, behind closed doors, genuinely believe private property doesn’t exist. They think all property belongs to the state. You pay the taxes, but live by their rules, since in their unstated view it belongs to the collective. They make and change rules as needed.”
“Guess how many of Tyler’s neighboring homes faced a wildlife habitat easement?” Chambers asks. “None. The people beside him are immune from this regulatory insanity. That should be a major tell for a neutral observer.”
“And let me end with this perspective,” Hallman adds. “Tyler was plastered all over the newspaper as an environmental outlaw for moving 1,000 cubic yards of dirt, and that’s an amount never measured by Chelan County Community Development, but it’s just their guess.”
“About 10 miles away, Microsoft is building a data center. Microsoft has moved 500,000 cubic yards of dirt. Tyler’s guessed amount of 1,000 is 1/500th of that—like $2 on a $1,000 bill. So how much land was Microsoft asked to set aside? Substantially less than Tyler. Still think conspiracies aren’t real?”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
