PORT ANGELES — Best Western Olympic Lodge owner Tod McClaskey has filed a lawsuit to try to stop the proposed $16.5 million Oak Street hotel and conference center.
The lawsuit’s papers are being served this week on the Port of Port Angeles, state Board of Natural Resources, state Department of Natural Resources, Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland — and on the project’s developer, Randal Jay Ehm.
The suit had been expected for more than a month after McClaskey claimed that the proposed facility would draw away customers from his 105-room Olympic Lodge at the eastern edge of Port Angeles.
The legal papers were quietly filed last Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court.
The suit demands a judgment to void a land trade necessary for the downtown project agreed to by DNR and the Port after six months of negotiation and approved by the Natural Resources board July 19 in Olympia.
The deal was later reviewed, approved and signed by Gov. Gary Locke.
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