SEQUIM — Larry Freedman, longtime Sequim developer and chairman of the city Planning Commission, put an end to speculation about how those roles conflict by resigning from the commission late Monday night during the Sequim City Council meeting.
Freedman’s latest proposed development, a 48-unit townhouse project called City Walk, was the final straw in a years-long debate over whether a developer should head a panel that advises the City Council on building and zoning questions.
In January 2008, the newly elected Mayor Laura Dubois asked for Freedman’s resignation, saying she’d heard voters complain that too many in the real estate industry had infiltrated city government.
Freedman did not do as Dubois asked then. He said he still wanted to work toward a Sequim that offers high quality of life as well as affordable home prices.
Freedman then presented City Walk, a project without precedent in this town.
Freedman envisions four dozen townhouses clustered on a 2.4-acre parcel between the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center and the office plaza at 675 N. Fifth Ave.
These homes would be priced at $150,000 to $180,000, and offer a place where shopping, schools and the Sequim Boys & Girls Club are within walking distance.
City Walk “is something we need in this city,” Freedman told the council Monday night, as he’s done several times in recent months.
Change code
But in order to build it, Freedman needs the council to amend its municipal code to allow much smaller lot sizes than the 6,250-square-foot minimum currently mandated.
During its meeting Monday, the council held a public hearing on lot-size reduction, and got an earful from people who don’t want City Walk to happen.
So many units so close together equals “a ghetto,” said Andy Romano, who lives in Happy Valley south of Sequim.
Romano also suggested that Freedman, as a developer and as Planning Commission chairman, made deals with city officials to further his project. Such a development doesn’t belong here, Romano added. “Is this Chicago? Or is it still Sequim?”
Romano said he’s seen such “ghettoes” stain Southern California, and added that even if “you put lipstick on this pig … it’s still dirty.”
Jennifer Howell, a mother of three children in Sequim’s schools, also fears crime will fester at City Walk.
“When I first heard about this, I was horrified,” she said. Building affordable townhouses “is a wonderful thing to do … but it’s the wrong placement. Little children are going to be around,” at Helen Haller Elementary and the Boys & Girls Club, which are on Fir Street just south of the City Walk parcel.
Virginia O’Neil, also a mother of three, said she has no problem with the high-density subdivision, and cautioned the council against heeding “fear-mongering.”
Back and forth it went. Alan Peet, a dentist with an office near the City Walk land, warned that the traffic it generates will “reduce quality of life for everyone in the city.” He asked who benefits from such a project, and answered: “the developer.”
Affordable housing
But Mark Burrowes and Bruce Snyder, both of Sequim, said affordable townhouses are what the city needs if young professionals are to join the community.
Following the litany, Freedman walked to the podium.
“It’s been very clear to me … my presence on the Planning Commission is detrimental” to City Walk’s progress toward approval, he said.
“I’m proffering my resignation, effective immediately.”
Ken Hays was the first council member to speak.
“Despite the unfortunate bickering,” he began, “I’m in favor of these kinds of projects.”
Still, Hays said, City Walk is a square peg being forced into a round hole, a tightly packed complex that doesn’t belong in this part of Sequim.
Hays asked Freedman: “Is it really, in your opinion and expertise,” not feasible to build City Walk with fewer than 48 units?
This is the only way to “make it pencil,” Freedman answered.
Accepted resignation
The council members then took a seven-minute break. Upon their return they voted unanimously to accept Freedman’s resignation, “with regret,” as Dubois said.
In a later interview Freedman said he’d thought about stepping down for some time.
“When I became the issue,” during the council and Planning Commission’s talks about City Walk, it was time, he said.
As for the project, Freedman plans to persevere. “There are people out there who would build an apartment complex,” on the parcel, but he wants owner-occupied homes, not rentals.
“If I can bring it in as affordable condominiums, I’ll do it,” he said.
But if Freedman can’t win city approval for a high-density subdivision, he said he’ll abandon the City Walk idea.
The City Council will hold another public hearing on City Walk on a date yet to be determined.
Meantime Sequim has a vacancy on its Planning Commission.
Applications are available at www.ci.Sequim.Wa.us or at City Hall, 152 W. Cedar St., and the deadline to apply is March 31. For information, phone 360-683-4908.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
