Unhappy Richmond Beach residents comment on City's negotiations with Point Wells developer

Overflow crowd at Point Wells meeting.  Photo by Steven H. Robinson.

By Diane Hettrick

On Wednesday, August 31, the public was invited to a session held by Shoreline City Staff to update people on the just announced Letter of Intent (LOI) the City has been working on with the Point Wells developer, Blue Star Real Estate (BSRE).

Over 200 people, primarily Richmond Beach residents, overflowed the City Council chambers, to the extent that staff opened the walls to the outside courtyard and the inside lobby.

Present in the crowd, but not introduced, were five of the seven city council members, the public information staffer for BSRE, King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson's Shoreline legislative aide, the police chief, and all key Shoreline city department heads. Members of the local media were present, as well.

City Manager Julie Underwood gave a very brief introduction, explaining that the purpose of the meeting was to present the terms of the Letter of Intent (LOI) and hear what people had to say about it. In statements later, she explained that nothing had been finalized, nothing had been voted on, that it was still in process and that is why people were being asked for feedback.

Planning Director Joe Tovar and Public Works Director Mark Relph reviewed Point Wells from the City's viewpoint. It is a piece of land that juts into Puget Sound, formerly used for oil storage. The land is in unincorporated Snohomish County. There was formerly a road from Point Wells to Woodway, but it washed out about ten years ago and was deemed too expensive to replace. Currently the only road to Point Wells is through Shoreline and a small area of Woodway.

Planning Director Joe Tovar
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

Snohomish County approved a permit to the developer for an "urban center" about a month before the State Growth Management Board ruled that the development did not meet the growth management standards.

Joe Tovar explained that under the current state law, the permit overrules the GM board because it came first.

Snohomish County has every reason to approve the project. A large piece of isolated, contaminated land will be cleaned and developed, creating new tax revenues for Snohomish county.

If the project is developed as planned, the City of Shoreline will get all the impact of the project, including years of soil cleanup and construction vehicles on the streets, then a population which will eventually equal the size of two current Shoreline neighborhoods.  All this traffic will be traveling on small Shoreline roads, and the new residents will presumably be using Shoreline services like schools, parks, and libraries.

Snohomish County would get all the benefit and revenue and Shoreline would get all the impacts.

Public Works Director Mark Relph
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

Mark Relph said that there were three options available to Shoreline.

• To negotiate with the developer to try to mitigate the impacts.
• To litigate in Snohomish County Superior Court to try to overturn the development permit.
• To comment on the project environmental impact statement to the Snohomish hearing examiner and the Snohomish County Council.

King County has no jurisdiction in Snohomish County.

Shoreline's proposed solution is to negotiate with BSRE. The proposal on the table is to annex Point Wells into Shoreline, cap traffic flows, and in return, Shoreline would not sue to stop or limit the development.

Citizens lined up to comment. It was clear that they had expected a different kind of meeting. They expected to see the city council in their seats, and they expected a full response to all their questions that evening.

Caycee Holt of Save Richmond Beach
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

Caycee Holt, leader of the citizen group Save Richmond Beach, pointed out that the terms of the permit will allow 2800 units on the site. Three buildings right at the waterfront would be three times the height of the Brightwater cranes. And toxic chemicals would be stirred up, dug up and transported through city streets.

The first half of the comment time brought questions about the process and timing of the LOI, and comments about things not mentioned in the presentation, like overflow parking, fire, police, and school busses. There were questions about property condemnations, relative to the narrow Richmond Beach Drive that leads to Point Wells.

Some present took the opportunity to make unrelated comments about issues which had not been answered by other methods.

As people started going to the microphones for the second, third, fourth, and fifth time, the mood turned emotional. 

People felt blind-sided that the annexation talks were going on when they didn't know about it. The mood of the speakers seemed to be against annexation, with some claiming it was just a ploy by the city to get more revenue.

Many people commenting were upset that there had been only seven days notice of the meeting.

Speaker after speaker urged the council to get a good attorney and fight the developer in the courts, using all the resources of the city to block the development. Many threatened city councilmembers that they could expect to be voted out of office if they didn't do what the citizens wanted and aggressively fight in the courts.

City staffers wrote down all the comments. On Tuesday, September 6, the City Council is in a study session with the primary topic Point Wells. City staff will make presentations to the council about the proposals, options, and the feedback from citizens at the August 31 meeting.  

Download the agenda or go to the council webpage.  City council meetings are broadcast live online and available afterwards on podcasts which can be viewed on your computer.

Citizens will, as usual, have the opportunity to comment.

City project page for Point Wells

City staff will be at the Richmond Beach Community Association meeting on September 13, 2011, at 7:30pm in the sanctuary of the Richmond Beach Congregational Church, 1512 NW 195th St.