Politics & Government

Richmond Beach Beach Residents Feel Betrayed by City Over Point Wells

Some believe Council and city staff have caved or "sold out" in order to bargain with developer

Frustrated Richmond Beach residents spoke out Wednesday night, directing much of their anger over their lack of say in the Point Wells project at the Shoreline City Council and city staff, who many of them said they believe are no longer fighting for their concerns.

The overflow crowd of more than 200 Shoreline citizens, most of them from Richmond Beach, packed into Shoreline City Hall to hear city staff talk about the status of Blue Square Real Estate’s Point Wells project and then gave them and the five Council members present an earful.

Some people said they believed the city had caved and “sold out” by entering a Blue Square Real Estate.  

Find out what's happening in Shoreline-Lake Forest Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Point Wells is a 61-acre parcel in the southwest corner of Snohomish County on Puget Sound, but the only way to access it is through Shoreline’s Richmond Beach Drive, a lightly traveled two-lane road. Blue Square Real Estate is the developer of a proposed 3,000-condo development that would be completed by 2030 following cleanup of the site, which currently serves as an oil tank farm and asphalt plant.

City manager Julie Underwood made opening remarks about the latest developments regarding Point Wells and introduced how the hearing would proceed. She also discussed the letter of intent sent to BSRE, designed to “protect the city from project impacts,”and its attorney Gary Huff by the city with her signature on it.

Find out what's happening in Shoreline-Lake Forest Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“The letter of intent is just that. It’s not an agreement, it’s not a decision, it’s kind of our desire to move forward in this direction,” Underwood said. “We have already heard from a number of you. We’ve heard from a 12-year-old girl who sent an e-mail, we’ve heard from a resident who has been here 50 years so I really believe tonight be just one of many other meetings and we’ll continue to accept your e-mails and welcome those.”

Planning Director Joe Tovar then detailed three options the city believes it has going forward.

  • The first option is to negotiate an agreement with BSRE to limit the traffic impacts and long-term impacts on city taxpayers.
  • The second option is to seek to file a lawsuit to attempt to overturn the vested Point Wells development permit.
  • The third option is to comment on the project environmental impact statement prepared by Snohomish County and to the Snohomish County hearing examiner and County Council on the permit.

Using some or all of the options are a possibility, Tovar said.

Finally, Public Works Director Mark Relph discussed traffic impacts and how they might be mitigated.

Five Council members were present at the meeting: Mayor Keith McGlashan and Doris McConnell who are both Richmond Beach residents, Chris Eggen, Chris Roberts and Shari Winstead. Not present was Deputy mayor Will Hall, who is recusing himself from all matters regarding Point Wells since he is employed by Snohomish County which is handling BSRE’s permit, and Terry Scott, who is not seeking reelection.

Then the floor opened up and people offered questions and opinions, and many vented frustrations.

Susan Chang, a civil engineer, who has lived in Richmond Beach for two years, pointed out by the city even upping the minimal standard of service for traffic to D, on a scale of A being best, and F worst, that still isn’t very good.

State Rep. Cindy Ryu, who also lives in Richmond Beach, agreed, saying,”It’s not just a number it’s quality of life.”

Tom Jamieson who lives on Richmond Beach Drive described the traffic scenario using an anatomy analogy, comparing Richmond Beach Drive, to a capillary.

“What I envision this Point Wells thing to be and I think people will see it this way without any studies of traffic and any ABCD, is that we’re putting a kidney at the end of a capillary and if we do that we’re going to have gangrene running up to Aorta Village,” he said.

Afterward, citizens chatted with each other and city staff and Council members.

“We just felt the meeting was very rushed and like everyone else we all felt blindsided by this letter of intent,” said Caycee Holt of Save Richmond Beach, which will file a lawsuit soon. “We understood that there were confidential negotiations with the developer but I think there should have been more public input before the letter of intent was sent to the developer. It’s almost like the cart before the horse.”

Others were concerned about the perceived lack of input.

“Hopefully, they did hear what we had to say, there’s two sides to everything so I understand the city has to take things into account, it’s not as easy as us saying we don’t want it,” said Joey Sullivan, also of Richmond Beach. “But at the same time, it seems if the Council understood that this was going to be the outcome of signing the letter of intent. It would have been better to go over it with the citizens first, to have a meeting prior to signing it. Because at this point it certainly appears like the developer is moving forward with the process and the city of Shoreline’s decided to go along with it, versus deciding to stop it.”

Jerry Patterson, a retired educator, who moved to Richmond Beach recently with his wife Janice, wondered what the city had left to negotiate with.

“I feel the community spoke,” said Patterson, who lives on Richmond Beach Drive in Shoreline near Point Wells. “They did not say no development. The city LOI says in exchange for engaging in an agreement we will give up our challenge of the urban center. The city must feel that they’re giving up something they could do and want to do but now they’re giving up.”

It was clear from many in the audience, that although all three options could be used, they wanted to litigate now.

“We’re going to be updated with our attorney on Tuesday night,” Mayor Keith McGlashan said, referring the regular Council meeting on Sept. 6 where Point Wells will be discussed. “What we have known so far about litigation is we can litigate. We can spend money doing it, it will stretch it out for years.  But if we lose in our litigation then we could get this development without any mitigation or minimal mitigation. And that’s why some of us on the Council think it’s better if we get some kind of agreement with the developer, do a phase-in, (consider) trip counts, level of service at intersections--if you do any of these you then you’re development’s done you have to refocus.”

As for the criticism levied at the meeting at the Council, McGlashan wasn’t too surprised.

“I think it’s what we kind of expected,” McGlashan said. “There wasn’t a chance for us to even talk to the citizens because we were dealing executive sessions with lawsuits and stuff already taking place. That was our goal to get something moving that we could then get out and talk to the public about it.”

After BSRE’s application was filed in March, the city was going to try to hammer out a municipal agreement on lingering issues but it fell through.

 “We were having meetings between Woodway, Shoreline and the developer for that municipal agreement and that was falling apart which was leaving us kind of in the dark,” McGlashan said. “Woodway’s issues are obviously different than ours. So with the municipal agreement, we finally go to the point where that wasn’t going to happen. Our next best bet, we wanted to get something moving to limit development, since the (city) can’t (directly) do anything to limit it, so we’re directing staff to come up with ways to limit development. Then we wanted to get out to the public about it. And what the staff came up with was to do this letter of intent which basically states we’re willing now to work with you on an agreement and we can obviously go out to the public and talk to them.”

Shoreline also expressed its desire to annex Point Wells in the letter of intent, a move which has been in its comprehensive plan for some time, in the letter of intent. The audience, for the most part, was behind that effort, which could only happen if the owner, Shraga Biran, agrees to it.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Shoreline-Lake Forest Park