Evan Smith: Local groups must wait until April for decision on challenge to Point Wells zoning

Point Wells with Brightwater Project

By Evan Smith

ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

The cities of Shoreline and Woodway and the community group “Save Richmond Beach” won’t get a decision until late April on their challenge to the zoning of the Point Wells area.

A Thursday story in the Everett Herald reported that the State Growth Management Hearings Board has until April 25 to reach a decision on arguments it heard Wednesday.

The two cities and the community group challenged Snohomish County’s decision to zone the Point Wells area as an urban center in a hearing before the growth management board, meeting at the County campus in Everett Wednesday.

Save Richmond Beach activist Caycee Holt, who attended the hearing, told me Thursday that attorneys for the two cities and the community group told the board that designating the area as an urban center is inconsistent with other urban center zones in the county.

Holt said that attorneys for her group and the cities had pointed out that the County’s other urban growth areas are in the cities of Everett, Lynnwood and Bothell, places near highways and bus lines.

Holt noted that the developer had said that the area’s being next to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad track provided a transit option but that Sound Transit had no plans to put a station so close to its station in Edmonds.

The Herald quoted the attorney representing Woodway as telling the board that the Town of Woodway would like to see smaller development of homes and businesses on the property.

Herald writer Noah Haglund reported that a reversal of county zoning wouldn't necessarily stop the Point Wells development.

Two-lane residential road is only access to Point Wells site.

He wrote that the developer's attorneys say the development rules can't be changed since Snohomish County officials have already accepted their initial plans, adding that County planners aren't so sure.

Haglund reported that the Tulalip Tribes also have joined the case as a "friend of the court" observer to try to protect historical artifacts and fishing rights that might be harmed by development. The Snohomish Tribe, one of the members of the Tulalip tribal confederation, historically lived in areas stretching from Richmond Beach to the north.

Point Wells is now home to aging fuel tanks and an asphalt plant. BSRE Point Wells is part of Alon Group, a real estate and energy company headquartered in Israel.

One of Alon's principals, Israeli attorney Shraga Biran, envisions transforming the 61-acre site into a signature development with some buildings as tall as 18 stories. He's enlisted the help of world-class architects to do it, promising cutting edge environmental techniques, European design and public access to the waterfront.

The County Council changed zoning at the site from Industrial to an urban center in 2009. Last year, the county finalized its rules for urban centers. The rules allow for buildings of up to 180 feet -- about 18 stories -- if certain conditions are met.

The development could include, more than 3,000 units, but would be accessible only by a two-lane road through the Richmond Beach area of Shoreline.

It is part of Woodway’s urban growth area, but it would be far larger than the town of 1,200.

Shoreline and Woodway are concerned that they would absorb the impacts of the development while Snohomish County would get the added tax revenue.