The two YarrowBay master planned developments in Black Diamond continue to inch forward despite legal tangles spreading across a couple of superior court chambers and the Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.
The city’s hearing examiner, Phil Olbrechts, conducted a nearly four hour prehearing conference Monday to begin to iron out some of the details before the public hearing begins on the development agreements.
Kirkland-based developer YarrowBay is planning to build two master planned developments in the city, Lawson Hills and The Villages. The two projects would add about 6,000 residences with commercial, office, open spaces and schools.
According to city staff, Olbrechts will set the date for the hearing about 30 days after the final draft of the development agreements are complete.
The earlier drafts and the final development agreement draft will be posted on the city’s website, www.ci.blackdiamond.wa.us/Depts/CommDev/mpd_page.html, and a copy will be available at City Hall.
The estimate from the city is the final draft could be completed in early June and the public hearing before Olbrechts would begin in mid to late July.
Olbrechts set June 13 as the date for all prehearing motions to be filed and disclosure of expert witnesses.
June 20 is the date responses to motions and the list of experts witness will be due. Final responses to motions and expert witnesses are due June 24.
All filings will be posted on the city’s website.
The development agreement is a document setting down the rules that will govern the two projects. The agreement provides more detail on the projects than the master planned development environmental impact statement and other documents that were presented during the hearings last year resulting in the approval of the projects by the City Council.
The development agreement provides more detail on the construction of the projects and must be consistent with the city’s code and the ordinances approved by the council on Sept. 20, 2010.
Legal puzzle
The projects were challenged by the Black Diamond group Toward Responsible Development after the City Council approved the ordinances.
The group asked the Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board to review the process and they filed a LUPA, or Land Use Petition Act, appeal in state superior court.
In a Feb. 15 ruling, the board sent the ordinances back to the city for compliance with the Growth Management Act. The board ruled the City Council should have used a legislative process to approve the ordinances rather than quasi judicial.
While remanding the process back to the city the board did not invalidate the ordinances.
David Bricklin, the attorney representing Toward Responsible Development, requested the board reconsider invalidating the ordinances. The board denied the motion March 17.
Bricklin then asked the board to approve a direct review by the state Court of Appeals. The board denied that motion May 18.
Bricklin appealed the board’s first decision to not invalidate the ordinances to the superior court.
The board’s ruling to remand the ordinances back to the city has jumped to the Court of Appeals for a direct review.
State Superior Court Judge Cheryl Carey granted a stay April 8 on the Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board’s compliance schedule set down for the city. The stay was requested by YarrowBay.
Bricklin stated despite the legal puzzle surrounding the process the City Council can chose to invalidate the ordinances.
“The City Council has the power to pull the plug,” Bricklin said. “They can do it and do the right thing.”
YarrowBay’s side of the argument is the process should move forward since the ordinances are approved.
“This May 18th ruling underscores the city of Black Diamond’s authority to continue forward with processing YarrowBay’s development agreement and preliminary plat applications under the existing MPD permit approval ordinances,” Jenna Kaluza, director of pubic affairs for YarrowBay, wrote in an e-mail.
