Negotiate or Take it to Court: Shoreline Faces Limited Options on Point Wells

The anger and frustration expressed by over the city’s strategy of negotiating with the developer of Point Wells was still evident last night. During the Shoreline City Council meeting yesterday, many citizens continued to demand the city and Council fight back to protect the city and Richmond Beach from the traffic effects of the project.

People also offered alternatives to that plan, as the Council hinted that it has considered legal options to battle developer Blue Square Real Estate. 

Still, after the three hour meeting on September 6, it's clear that the Shoreline City Council and city staff face an uphill battle in fighting or even mitigating the proposed 3,100-condo development at Point Wells on behalf of residents who want a scaled down development or none at all.

“How do you mitigate the destruction of a whole community?” asked John DeMuri, a Richmond Beach resident, one of many in the audience who wants the city to pursue litigation to stop the project. “It’s a total waste of time.”

The problem for Shoreline is that Snohomish County holds nearly all the cards. The 61-acre Point Wells property is within the County's boundaries, its urban center code is what makes the application and permitting for the project possible, and Snohomish County Superior Court is the court of record if a lawsuit is filed. The city of Shoreline will have input during the drafting of an environmental impact statement, but yet again Snohomish County is the decider.

Further, there’s the matter of vesting. The BSRE’s completed application was filed in April and a lawsuit would have to challenge that vested application, according to Shoreline city attorney Ian Sievers.   

“We have currently no control over what happens at Point Wells,” Shoreline Councilman Chris Roberts said. “As a city we’re in a really bad spot. We’re in a horrible spot because we have very few if any cards on the table. Snohomish County is the one to blame.”

The Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board is making BSRE go back and revise its application in regard to its comprehensive plan but that won’t kill the project since the urban center code that the project is vested under is still legal.

“The plan has no effect on the permit. The code has effect on the permit,” Shoreline Planning Director Joe Tovar said.

Save Richmond Beach and the Town of Woodway have said they plan to pursue litigation while the City of Shoreline is still backing a primary plan of negotiation with the developer while keeping its legal options open.

Shoreline City Council Position 6 candidate Jesse Salomon, a public defender, advocated not giving up the legal fight and taking the fight to higher court than Snohomish County Superior Court.

"Snohomish County has a development area. They get the revenue, we get the impact. It's not fair," Salomon said. "If we work this and it gets up into higher courts possibly the state Supreme Court, I would just guess they would look at the equity of this, the fairness of this, and try to find a way to rule in our favor."

State Rep. Ruth Kagi attended the meeting. She said one likely option is that the city can appeal to the Legislature to change state law regarding the rights of neighboring cities in Shoreline’s position or redraw the county boundaries.

The project does have support of a few residents.

Mark Davies, who lives in Richmond Beach, touted some of the benefits such as the proposed Sounder service in and out of Point Wells.

Several representatives of Point Wells developer Blue Square Real Estate were in Council chambers last night.

“We’re just listening,” said Barry Bartlett, whose Seattle firm is handling public relations for BSRE.

The landowner and visionary for the project Shraga Biran said in an interview with Patch in February that if people did not want the project he would pull back, but Bartlett said that’s unlikely.

“He does not speak solely for the Alon (the parent company of BSRE) ownership,” Bartlett said. “Those were his personal views.”

The property which is currently an industrial site houses a marine fuel operation and asphalt plant and is profitable, Bartlett noted.

Some, including City Council Position 6 candidate Robin McClelland, suggested buying the property and turning it into a park, which would be a desirable use.

However, councilwoman Shari Winstead pointed out that would require asking the voters to approve a bond and with the economy still in the dumps it’s unlikely that would be feasible.