Tag Archives: Skykomish

Take Five on the Rezone

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Yes, it looks like we will be fighting the commercial rezone of the valley below me for a fifth year. :-(

As I was writing my speech for last night’s Council meeting, I spotted these eagles taking advantage of the windy day. I was hoping it was a good omen. Nope.

Eagles and clouds-8233At the end of the day, the vote went as expected: 4 to 3 in favor of redoing the Environmental Impact Statement in order to get the needed approval from the Growth Management Board for the rezone. Several of us tried our best to get these four to justify their decision based on the environmental realities of the property or the best interests of the City, but they stuck with simply calling it a property rights issue.

The process will take another nine months to a year to complete. The City will need an extension on the Board’s time-line for compliance. I will petition the board to refuse to grant that extension, but I don’t anticipate having much luck there. Our side has a great deal more experience advocating for this property now, so I am reasonably confident we will prevail once again, but it is such a colossal waste of everybody’s time and taxpayer money.

Ground Fog — A herd of ghostly horses

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 It was a frosty morning and I had gotten up to check the sunrise for pictorial magnificence. Too clear, but as I watched the ground fog moving on the valley floor, I kept thinking, I should get a video of this. Unfortunately for you, it was too fascinating to watch for me to break away and get the camera. It really did look a bit like the ghostly figures of a band of horses rising up out of the fog hundreds of feet in the air and then disappearing—all within a few seconds. The underlying herd was in a stampede down the valley. When it eventually settled down, I did go out and take a couple of pictures of a much calmer scene.

 Skykomish Valley Fog OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Perseverance Pays Off

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Update on our commercial rezone fight—WE WON!!!!!

It is the dawn of a new day in the Skykomish Valley

Dawn Of a New Day

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.