The cities of Black Diamond and Maple Valley have drawn their lawyers out in a duel over the traffic impact from YarrowBay developments The Villages and Lawson Hills.
Maple Valley City Council passed a motion tonight at a special meeting ratifying two notices of appeal to Black Diamond concerning the traffic impact of the developments on Maple Valley.
Michael R. Kenyon, one of the city attorneys for Black Diamond, filed a response rejecting Maple Valley’s appeals as “untimely.”
Kenyon’s documents noted the deadline for filing an appeal of the final environmental impact statement or FEIS, which outlined YarrowBay’s plans for traffic mitigation, was “late last year.”
Kenyon goes on to write, “Put more plainly, Maple Valley is not a party here, and has no right to participate. Black Diamond has advised Maple Valley that its submission is untimely. The bare fact of Maple Valley’s submission does not obligate the other parties to spend time and money preparing a response to a non-party.”
Maple Valley objects to the proposals from Kirkland-based YarrowBay in the FEIS concerning traffic problems created by the developments. The Villages and Lawson Hills would build more than 6,000 homes in Black Diamond.
According to Maple Valley the traffic mitigation from the FEIS is inadequate.
The city wants its appeal heard by the hearing examiner and the Black Diamond City Council, but Kenyon stated the “examiner has no jurisdiction to hear Maple Valley’s request. Black Diamond has advised Maple Valley that its submission has been rejected as untimely.”
At the Maple Valley City Council special meeting tonight, City Manager David Johnston stated the city may seek a writ of mandamus, which would be an order from a court forcing the Black Diamond City Council and/or the hearing examiner to hear the appeal.
