WOODWAY — The developer trying to build an ambitious high-rise condo project along the Puget Sound shoreline in south Snohomish County has attempted to freeze in place current building rules to fend off opponents.

If successful, the maneuver would counter attempts through the Legislature and a state zoning board to effectively kill off the project at Point Wells, which is now a petroleum depot. Woodway, the city of Shoreline, state lawmakers and a community group have been trying to limit the scope of the plan to build more than 3,000 condos.

Developer BSRE Point Wells attempted to foil those efforts Monday when it submitted an application to divide the 61-acre property into nine lots. Snohomish County planners accepted the application.

“We had to do what we could to preserve the project,” said Gary Huff of Seattle law firm Karr Tuttle Campbell.

Huff contends the application allows the project to go forward under current building rules, so that any new zoning or legal changes would not apply. In legal speak, that’s called “vesting the project.”

Others aren’t so sure.

Shoreline’s planning director, Joe Tovar, said it “remains to be determined.”

Snohomish County planning director Clay White said his staff had not looked into the issue. Another application from the developer is expected next month. The application would fall under the county’s urban centers zoning rules. It would definitely freeze the rules in place, if accepted, White said.

Under current building rules, the project would still have to clear numerous layers of approval by county planners and the developer would have to submit an environmental impact statement.

For neighbors, the big worries about the project are traffic and community character. The proposal would eventually put an estimated 4,500 new people in the area, nearly four times the current population of Woodway.

Point Wells is home to a fuel storage depot and has been an industrial site for a century.

The only way to reach it is a two-lane road through Shoreline. The Shoreline City Council voted Monday to restrict traffic on that road to about half of what the fully built project at Point Wells would generate.

The plans for Point Wells include one 180-foot-tall building and several others of more than 10 stories. If built, they’d be some of the tallest buildings in Snohomish County.

BSRE Point Wells is part of Blue Square Real Estate Ltd., a major real estate developer. Blue Square, in turn, is part of Alon Group, a petroleum and real estate company with holdings in Israel, Europe and the United States.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.