SEQUIM – A 160-lot subdivision on the former Spath farm in eastern Sequim won unanimous approval from the City Council on Monday night, though one councilman twice expressed his displeasure with it.
Willow Creek Manor, a development planned by father and son Fred and Kurt Grinnell, will include 130 market-rate single-family homes plus 28 duplexes on 56 acres just east of Carrie Blake Park.
A few people have expressed concerns about the environmental impacts of the project, which lies south of Bell Creek.
“I want to be assured that the stormwater would not go into the wetland,” Sequim resident Pat MacRobbie said during Monday’s public hearing.
“There is to be no more stormwater runoff post-development than there was pre-development,” project designer Ken Clark replied.
Kurt Grinnell, a lifelong Clallam County resident and member of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Council, has promised to make two donations to nonprofit groups as his subdivision takes shape.
He said he will donate $10,000 to the Sequim Elk Habitat Committee’s elk fence project, and $10,000 to the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
After his project won approval, he said he’ll work with the Jamestown tribe’s natural resources director, Scott Chitwood, to form another committee to decide how to spend the fence donation.
The Audubon Center gift will be spread out over the next nine months, Kurt said.
The Grinnells will also pay the city $169,788 to help fund a traffic signal at the Rhodefer Road-Washington Street intersection.
Kurt said he hopes to start construction of Willow Creek’s first phase in mid-April – but the stoplights will come much later.
Amid the long discussion of the development, Councilman Don Hall asked whether any of Willow Creek’s homes will be classified as affordable.
“We considered every option,” Kurt began.
“We talked to our marketing people to see if this was going to work . . . there’s a certain equation that’s been working in the city of Sequim,” and the developers didn’t think it wise to deviate from that.
“I’m terribly disappointed,” Hall said.
In an unusual twist, Randy Rapp of Port Orchard said during the public hearing that “there’s a possibility my ancestors are buried somewhere” on the project site.
They homesteaded there, Rapp told the council.
“I’ve spoken with Kurt Grinnell,” he added, “and I’m confident that if any remains are found,” the developers will deal with them respectfully.
The council members made no comment on Rapp’s remarks.
