EDMONDS — A 27-home planned residential development at the former site of the Woodway Elementary School playground will move forward, after more than five years of appeals by neighbors.
The Southwest Edmonds Neighborhood Association said the development, planned by Bellevue-based Burnstead Construction, violates city code and state laws. They further charged that the proposed stormwater management system would not withstand a 100-year storm. And they worried about the impact of the development on a wildlife area.
The neighborhood association’s latest appeal was dashed 6-0 by the City Council in a special meeting last month. The council said the planned development complies with city code. Councilwoman Lora Petso recused herself from the proceedings. Petso, who is an attorney, and her husband, Colin Southcote-Want, initially appealed to the city’s hearing examiner and filed suit against the city.
At the meeting last month, the council set two conditions in an effort to assure stormwater runoff from the proposed site would not flow into the neighborhood: Burnstead is asked to engineer drainage systems on each lot and the maintenance bond on the project’s drainage system is to be extended from two years to five before reverting to the homeowners association’s responsibility.
“The plan is faulty,” said Cliff Sanderlin, one of the neighbors. “They should scrap the plan and start over.”
Correction, June 4: The headline on this story has been corrected since it was first posted to accurately locate the residential development.
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