What was not made clear in the otherwise excellent article on the false controversy between Barbara Dykes and Master Builder’s Association (MBA) is that the “group working to smooth things out” is completely one-sided. (Sunday, “Builders object to hearing examiner, but activists back her.”)
Budgeted by scarce county dollars, it leaves out any representatives of the public. I attended a meeting (allowed to observe only) after hearing about it through the grapevine, and learned of continuing meetings after the fact. Public attendees were advised to check an obscure Web site. This is not a balanced process.
The problem is not Ms. Dykes, who was only the second examiner to deny the KRKO towers, and is no pioneer. Unlike recent predecessors, she provides detailed, professional opinions that are defensible in court. The problem is county staff policies that hang over from the old conservative council — of Jeff Sax, Gary Nelson, John Koster, and blessed by Executive Aaron Reardon — demanding that staff expedite plat reviews during the boom period.
Too many corners cut incur neighborhood outrage. When division manager Tom Rowe testifies before the examiner, under oath, that the planning department supports a developer’s attempt to violate state law, based on verbal agreements with a state agency, all credibility has been lost. Verbal agreements between agencies, favoring “clients” over lawful public interest, qualify as legally obnoxious, violating constitutional rights of due process.
To MBA’s dismay, bad projects lost under scrutiny, under various examiners. Neighborhoods have endured hundreds of thousand of dollars of legal costs defending their hearing examiner victories in lawsuits filed by builders, only to win again anyway. (On land-use suits, prevailing parties are not awarded real legal costs.) Any developers with substantive claims over hearing examiner decisions may test them in Superior Court, not play games behind the scenes to get our most conscientious examiner in years fired.
Laura Hartman
Snohomish
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