The amazing sunrises this time of year are almost a routine event. This one was a doubleheader. These are from the same day, a few minutes apart.
Last night the Planning Commission voted 6-1 in our favor to keep commercial development out of this valley. Unfortunately, that doesn’t kill the rezone. There is still a majority on the City Council that will approve it anyway. But, it does give us more ammunition when it goes back to the Growth Management Hearings board.
7:18 AM
7:34 AM
It’s back!!!! No, not the Super Blood Moon Eclipse, the rezone I have been fighting for 5 years!
Yes, The City has published the new “Supplemental” Environmental Impact Statement and the findings are as fake as this photo, but not nearly as well faked, if I do say so myself. This was the photo I had hoped to get, but the haze and the full eclipse made the moon nearly invisible at that point in the sky.
If you are new to the story of the rezone on the property below my house, or need a refresher, here it is:
Church buys oxbow/slough and 43 acres of wetlands in1999. They see the property as perfect for a 500 member church. Over time, the church realizes they are in way over their heads—the project would be far too expensive, besides they only have 40 members. They latch onto the idea they can make a pile of money on the property by getting it rezoned from Limited Open Space to General Commercial and selling it to a big box retailer. For many years they try getting the idea past the Planning Commission without success. This failure is partly because the City’s Comprehensive Plan has the property zoned Limited Open Space for the specific purpose of preventing commercial sprawl into this valley, partly because the property is a mile away from the city’s other commercial districts (already struggling to fill vacant space), and largely because, environmentally, the idea is insane.
By 2010, the Pastor of this church is feeling very frustrated. The pastor’s son, a skilled political consultant, finesses the take over of the City Council and the mayor’s office. The new team ignores the planning commission and pushes forward with the rezone and its enabling comprehensive plan amendment. To proceed, they first need an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The City staff is put to the task. It becomes clear that any City staff members who voice concerns about the rezone will not have their jobs long.
A few of my neighbors and I appeal the resulting EIS. The Hearings Examiner agrees with us and invalidates the Comp Plan and rezone. A month later, the mayor fires the Hearings Examiner. This was 2012.
In 2013, An international engineering firm with a “team of experts” takes the job of producing a “real” EIS. They accept a lien on the property as guarantee of payment for their services. The new EIS is over 200 pages—very long on detail, and very short on reality. Pretty much everything in it is outrageously inaccurate, but the most outrageous claim they make is that removing the blackberries on the property will provide 30,000 cubic yards of compensatory flood storage (No, I’m not kidding). They continually insist that their LIDAR-generated TOPO map is far more accurate than the conventional survey map. This is because the LIDAR is interpreting the 8′ high blackberry bushes along the slough as solid ground that can be excavated for flood storage.
We appeal, but the new Hearings Examiner sides with the City. A special session of the City Council is called on December 26, 2013 to approve the rezone so that the mayor can sign it into law before his four years in office are over.
We appeal to the State Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB). In September of 2014, the GMHB invalidates the comp plan amendment/rezone and sends it back to the City for a re-think. By this time, the City has spent over $250,000 in taxpayer funds on a private party’s rezone attempt.
When it comes time to decide whether to drop the whole thing or try to address the concerns of the GMHB with a new version of the EIS, one council member is absent. The vote is a tie. In this situation, the new mayor who opposes the rezone is allowed a vote. He breaks the tie. The rezone is finally dead……..we thought. After we all leave the council chamber in celebration, one council member invokes Robert’s Rules of Order and announces his intention to bring the decision back at the next council meeting when his compadre would be present. Of course, the vote goes the other way at that following meeting.
So, here we are. On August 28, 2015, the new 200 page “Supplemental” EIS is published and we are given 30 days to respond. The blackberry bushes are no longer playing a role, but the claims in this new EIS are just as staggeringly bizarre. I turned in my 18 page response. The battle goes on.
You can’t always get what you want, but……this is the photo I did get that night—in between writing like mad to meet the next day’s deadline.
Update on rezone battle:
Sunrise September 23, 2014
My presumed victory and end point of last week was swept away when the Four Horsemen (Councilmen) of the Shopalypse showed up this week to rescind last week’s decision. The word got out this was about to happen and I was encouraged by the public outcry in the press and a capacity crowd at the Council meeting. The last time that happened was clear back at the beginning of the process, four years ago. About 15 people gave very articulate, impassioned shame-on-you speeches—the gist of which was, “You’ve already spent a ¼ of a million dollars of our money for the benefit of one property owner’s attempt at a rezone which almost nobody wants and the City certainly does not need. STOP!” But, of course, these guys have no shame. They went into executive session for an hour, so the public could not hear what they were saying, came out and voted to rescind on the grounds that the importance of the issue demanded a Council decision, not a tie-breaker by the Mayor. Also, they needed “more information on the cost of continuing,” putting a vote off until next week when I’m sure they are hoping the crowd does not reappear. The property owner was there– an enormous guy, dressed all in black, down to his cowboy boots– but he never said a word. It seemed rather Godfather-ish, as if he were only there to make sure his minions towed the line. On the other hand, I can see why he didn’t speak—most of the people there didn’t know who he was and he was definitely in an unfriendly crowd. The back story on this whole thing is the stuff of novels where it all seems too outrageous to be true. As you can see, Tuesday morning was lovely, but it turned to rain by the time of the Council meeting. Stay tuned, it ain’t over.
Update on our commercial rezone fight—WE WON!!!!!
It is the dawn of a new day in the Skykomish Valley
Sunrise–September 17, 2014
As the result of our appeal, on August 26 the Growth Management Hearings Board invalidated the rezone based on the inadequacy of the Environmental Impact Study. Although we won on the EIS issue, we could not convince the Board to overrule the City on the location issue. This left the City with three options: (a) Challenge the Board’s decision in Superior Court; (b) Try to fix the EIS to the Board’s satisfaction; (c) Forget about it. Fortunately, at this last Tuesday night’s Council meeting, a Councilman who would have voted for option B was absent, and the other votes were split 3 for and 3 against. This allowed the new mayor to cast the deciding vote–option C was approved! It took four years and a new mayor, but common sense has triumphed over cronyism.