A high-end real estate agent who admitted to illegally cutting down more than 140 trees in King County’s Grand Ridge Park has sold his Renton home for $6 million, even as a civil lawsuit and a state criminal investigation tied to the tree-cutting remain unresolved. Vlad Popach bought the property in Renton’s private Highlands neighborhood in 2023 for just over $2 million, and King County assessor records show the recent sale price at $6 million, roughly $1 million over an earlier asking price he had set after the cuttings.
The case traces back to work that Popach’s company carried out on public land inside Grand Ridge Park, a 1,300-acre forest of backcountry trails wedged between the Issaquah Highlands and rural forest lands, according to King County Parks. As reported by The Seattle Times, Popach hired a company that cut down 45 trees entirely, chopped the tops off 18 more, and stripped 72 others of their limbs — a total of more than 140 trees damaged inside the park. King County officials counted dozens of trees slashed and sawed after the damage was first discovered.
The cutting was uncovered not by government inspectors but by grassroots advocates: members of the Issaquah Alps Trails Club and a neighbor whose trail camera caught footage of a large log barreling down the hillside, according to the club’s own account of the investigation. That early evidence became a key piece of the puzzle as county officials began estimating the scope of the damage, which they eventually put at more than $2.3 million.
A View Worth Millions, or a Safety Concern?
King County attorneys have argued that Popach cut the trees to improve the view of Tiger Mountain from his home, boosting its market value, per the same Seattle Times report. Popach has instead cited the property’s once-in-a-lifetime mountain views and argued that the trees posed a threat to his home, telling one contact by text that the property was the best in the neighborhood. He has also said an automated county phone message granted him verbal permission for the work, though he admitted to the illegal cuttings themselves…