Brief History of the Illegal Businesses Next Door

The property currently occupied by AC Custom Metal Work used to belong to Joe and Julie Elsholz. Joe built the large garage there to work on his hobby of restoring antique tractors. When an electrical inspector came out, he said the building would fail to pass. He said it didn't meet commercial requirements. Joe told the inspector, no, this wasn't a commercial building (which would have required the wiring run through conduit, which it wasn't), it was just a building for his hobby. The inspector said, well if it is just for residential use, then he passed the building. And Joe used it for his tractors the whole time he lived there. Joe and Julie were paying Roger White, the owner, rent with the idea that they would eventually purchase the building, and they would live there, a part of Water Gardens. During those days, there wasn't a fence between, but rather, the road ran right down to Joe and Julie's house from Water Gardens.

But Roger White reneged on his agreement with Joe and Julie, and when Roger White completed construction of Water Gardens in 2007, he sold Joe and Julie's property right out from underneath them, and evicted them. That is one of the sad chapters of Water Gardens. And so, the property went into the hands of what was to become AC Custom Metal Work, a fence and gate manufacturing company. The owner lives in Renton, and has rented out the house, which is now the base of an illegal car repair business.

The gate business owner bought the property in 2007 and brought his business to the Maple Valley location shortly thereafter from Renton. Maple Valley City has reported that in those days, they did not vet businesses applying for a business license. If an applicant submitted a request for a business license, it was just stamped and approved, regardless whether the business was operating legally or illegally.