BRINNON — An attorney representing residents opposed to a 252.6-acre master-planned development planned at Black Point has appealed a Thurston County decision supporting the resort.
Gerald Steel, representing the Brinnon Group, said he filed an appeal Thursday afternoon in the state Court of Appeals challenging a Thurston County judge’s decision supporting Jefferson County, Canadian developer Statesman Group and the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board.
In June, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks ruled in favor of Jefferson County’s argument that the public and the Brinnon Group were granted ample time to participate in the Hood Canal development’s planning process.
The judge in effect upheld the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board’s decision rendered in September.
Hicks concluded that the Brinnon Group had not met its burden of proof requirement under state law.
After filing the appeal in state Appeals Court Division 2 in Olympia, Steel said, “The court just didn’t have time for this administrative appeal.”
He said that Hicks lamented he did not have the staff to properly research the legal matter before him because of county funding cuts that resulted in court staff reductions.
“We’re taking it to the Court of Appeals because we think it is a complex case, and the Court of Appeals is the first court who writes decisions that go into the record of the state,” Steel said. “The Court of Appeals does a much more thorough job of researching it.”
The two basic questions before Hicks were whether Jefferson County followed proper public process and if the Brinnon Group was allowed the required opportunity to comment.
Public review
Steel argues that the process lacked written documentation for public review.
“We do feel the citizens were duped by the process that the county and developer used,” Steel said.
“Even the Planning Commission was duped, because the Planning Commission sort of felt they would go along with the proposal, but they didn’t think there was any text that was going to explain the proposed in the comprehensive plan . . . There was no text and the public never got to look at the text.
“We complained to the Board of County Commissioners that there was no text so the planning staff put up some limited text . . . The public never got to see and comment on any text.”
Judge Hicks agreed with the Growth Management Hearings Board that ample opportunity to comment was allowed through public hearings and written comments to county leaders.
The second issue before Hicks fell under the State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, and whether the county accounted for appropriate rules and guidelines during the process.
Hicks agreed the county followed that policy.
Resort plans
Statesman proposes the Pleasant Harbor Marina and Golf Resort as an 890-unit master-planned development on 252.6 acres of Black Point south of Brinnon, and farther south at adjoining Pleasant Harbor Marina.
The project’s most recent cost estimate was $300 million.
The Brinnon resort would encompass and improve the existing Pleasant Harbor Marina to the south, which will remain at 284 slips. A “retail village” with 90 condominium units would be added around the marina.
Jeferson County Deputy Civil Prosecuting Attorney David Alvarez, who has long represented the county in the case, said Friday that he had expected Steel would appeal the decision on behalf of the Brinnon Group.
Alvarez said the county sufficiently documented the public process in text, contrary to what Steel argues.
He said the case has already gone from the county commissioners to the state hearings board and to Superior Court, and he was confident Jefferson County would prevail at the state Appeals Court level, determining that the Brinnon master-planned resort to be compliant with the Growth Management Act.
The hearings board hears issues and makes decisions regarding challenges to and enforcement of the 1990 Growth Management Act.
The Growth Management Act was adopted because the state Legislature found that uncoordinated and unplanned growth posed a threat to the environment, sustainable economic development, and the quality of life in Washington.
Jefferson County commissioners in February contracted Seattle consultants ESA Adolphson to complete a state environmental impact study of the resort proposal.
Cost of the study – $75,684 — will be passed along to the developer.
The county commissioners in January 2008 rezoned the acreage from rural residential to master-planned resort with 30 conditions that the Canadian corporation must meet.
Proposed is an 18-hole golf course constructed as part of the resort on property previously used as a private Thousand Trails campground.
Housing for resort employees also would be developed.
While many in the tiny Hood Canal community argue the resort is too much development, Statesman Group representatives say the project would add 280 jobs, and that the resort’s estimated assessed value upon completion would be $450 million, which could bring in $2.5 million in annual tax revenue to Jefferson County for schools, roads and emergency services.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
