SEQUIM — An old lawsuit filed by Ken Hays against the city of Sequim — before Hays became a City Council member — has reached resolution.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge George Wood ruled in the city’s favor last Friday, denying Hays’ petition contending that the Sequim City Council acted illegally when it amended plans for a major subdivision near his home.
Hays, an architect and longtime Sequim resident, sued the city in February 2007 over traffic and growth in general and the Cedar Ridge subdivision in particular.
Cedar Ridge
His complaint was about a unanimous Sequim City Council vote in January 2007 that allowed an amendment to the plans for Cedar Ridge.
The plans had previously included requiring its developer, Larry Freedman, to build an extension of Spyglass Lane. The lane was supposed to ease circulation of traffic through and around the subdivision, which was being constructed in three phases.
In approving the amendment to the plans, the council gave Freedman a kind of reprieve: It let the developer wait to build the Spyglass extension until an unspecified later date when phase 3 of Cedar Ridge is done.
Before the change, the plans had required Freedman to finish the road along with Cedar Ridge’s phases 1 and 2, which are now complete.
Hays’ attorney, Craig Miller, said Wednesday that his client believed the Spyglass extension was part of the Sequim Comprehensive Plan, the blueprint for the city’s development over the coming decades.
Miller added that Hays also wanted the road built to mitigate the traffic impacts of Cedar Ridge, a development he would have to live with if he stays in his northeastern Sequim home.
“The City Council had before it expert opinion that supported its decision to defer the construction of the road,” Wood wrote in his Superior Court decision.
The city of Sequim hired Parametrix, a traffic consultant, to conduct a study on Cedar Ridge’s impacts, and it reported that the Spyglass extension wouldn’t be needed until later, when the subdivision’s final phase — about 65 homes — is built.
On Wednesday, after hearing of the judge’s ruling, Hays sought to explain why he filed the lawsuit more than two years ago.
“The reason I pursued this has nothing to do with personal gain,” he said. “The previous City Council was letting developers do whatever they wanted to.”
Hays was elected to the council in November 2007 and took office in January 2008; since then he has served with three members of that “previous council,” Bill Huizinga, Paul McHugh and Walt Schubert.
Former mayor speaks
Schubert was mayor at the time of the Cedar Ridge decision and defended it Wednesday.
“We didn’t want to burden the developer with that extension until phase 3 was built and the road became necessary,” he said.
“[Freedman] had already done a huge improvement to the road up there,” and the council saw no need to mandate more construction until phase 3’s dozens of new houses warranted it.”
Hays’ contention is just “wrong,” Schubert added.
“Every development went through the Planning Commission” before the City Council ruled on it. And though Freedman, Cedar Ridge’s builder, was chairman of the Planning Commission, he recused himself from any votes taken on the subdivision.
Schubert, moreover, doesn’t believe it was a conflict of interest to have Freedman voting on other project applications.
“There are six other members of the Planning Commission,” he said.
Freedman, however, resigned from the panel in February this year, saying he no longer wanted to be the subject of the council’s debates on conflicts of interest.
Phase 3?
Asked on Wednesday when phase 3 of Cedar Ridge will be built, Freedman couldn’t answer.
“A lot of factors are unknown,” such as what will happen to the economy in the town, region and nation.
“Right now, there’s an abundance of land and houses on the market in Sequim,” Freedman said, adding that the only kind of homes he’s inclined to build are so-called “work-force housing,” affordable to working-class people.
On the other side of town from Cedar Ridge, Freedman is trying to put together another work-force development: CityWalk, about four dozen townhouses on 2.4 acres on Fifth Avenue near Fir Street.
One bank has already backed out of financing the project, so he’s working with another in hopes of moving forward — and putting the condominiums on the market for under $200,000 each.
As for the lawsuit, “the bottom line is I’m relieved to have it over,” said Freedman, “and we can get on with our lives.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
