Shoreline City Council Delays Discussion on Ronald School Project

Correction: All four sides of the Ronald School are landmarked meaning they have historic designation. The back half has the option of expansion with the certificate of appropriateness.

The Shoreline City Council voted 4-3 to wait until next week to make any recommendations on what do with a plan that would allow the school district to build a new Shorewood High School at the Ronald School site while the city attorney investigates whether the commission that approved the plan followed parliamentary procedure.

Representing the Shoreline Preservation Society, an organization that opposes the plan, attorney David Mann argued that the plan passed by the Landmark Commission, a volunteer group of county-appointed representatives, would not meet standards for historic preservation set forth in documents from the Department of the Interior because the building’s overall character would be damaged.

“Don’t dissect the standards,” Mann told the council. “You’re not seeing the forest through the trees.”

He also argued that Shoreline was not properly represented on the commission because the only member from Shoreline recused herself from the vote.

However, Monday’s council discussion focused almost exclusively on how many members of the Landmark Commission were present when the commission voted to recommend the plan to council.

At the November meeting, five of the seven members were present, but two recused themselves citing conflict-of-interest, leaving only three members for the vote. Mann argued that three voting members do not constitute a quorum, rendering the vote invalid.

Attorney Rich Hill, representing the school district, argued that the quorum issue was brought up neither at the time of the meeting nor in appeals documents, noting that common law would have allowed one of the recused members to rejoin the commission if anyone complained about the lack of quorum and that both members had indicated in writing and through ties to the project that they would have voted in favor.

City council members disagreed on what to do about the quorum issue, with Deputy Mayor Will Hall, Councilmember Doris McConnell and Shari Winstead recommending the council go through with deliberation over the proposal in the interest of time.

“I think that when it comes down to it, we will find there was a quorum and the issue was properly raised,” Councilmember Chris Eggen said, though he later voted to delay discussion.

The plan would preserve the front and sides of the Ronald School Building but build an addition to the back that would connect to a new building for the future location of Shorewood High School.

The exterior of much of the 100-year-old Ronald School building has a historic designation with “distinctive features,” meaning it must be preserved. However, about half of the back portion was originally built with the option of expansion and does not have a historic designation. That portion would connect to the new Shorewood High School building, with the rest of the back portion preserved inside the school.

The plan calls for other buildings with somewhat similar aesthetics to the Ronald School building.

Hill said the school district hopes to move plans forward as quick as possible so students can begin attending the new school in the coming years.

The city council will revisit the quorum issue Monday upon guidance from City Attorney Ian Sievers after he conducts research in state and county law concerning parliamentary procedure.