By deciding not to decide, the Edmonds City Council Tuesday night decided to wave good-bye to a residential-office structure proposed for the south end of Sunset Avenue.
The proposal by the Edmonds-based Hotel Group and property owner Don Drew was opposed by Council members Deanna Dawson, Michael Plunkett and Dave Orvis. Supporting it were Richard Marin, Mauri Moore and Peggy Pritchard Olson. Jeff Wilson, for whom Tuesday night was his last regular council meeting after losing a November bid for re-election, recused himself over a $200 campaign donation from an attorney once in the Hotel Group’s employ.
If the applicants want to appeal, it will have to be done via a land-use petition in Snohomish County Superior Court, according to city attorney Scott Snyder. The deadline for an appeal is 20 days from return of the findings of fact in Tuesday’s action, which will place it in January, Snyder said.
The council’s decision and the path to it were confusing for those involved with the ambitious proposal that would have been the first project to use the newly created Master-Planned Office and Residential (MPOR) zone.
On Nov. 15, the council split along the same lines – Wilson recused himself – on whether to rezone the property from RS-6 to the new zone and approve the building design. Because an ordinance hinged on an affirmative outcome, the mayor could not cast the tie-breaking vote.
After that vote, the city attorney indicated the tie was tantamount to denial of the proposal that sought to locate a residence/office/parking garage structure that would rise two stories above Sunset Avenue and appear as three stories from the water side. After reviewing the matter, Snyder notified the involved parties early the next morning that he had spoken prematurely. Four options had to be considered, he said, before the matter could be resolved.
So on Tuesday, the council voted on both outright approval and denial of the project (both 3-3 ties) and then let a motion designed to mollify the dissenters to die from lack of a second. With the impasse clear, a vote to send the issue back to the Edmonds Planning Board for an overhaul was not necessary, according to Snyder.
Dawson, Plunkett and Orvis again voiced their opinion that the project did not meet requirements of the new zone in terms of required setbacks, building mass and size. They also said they believe the project failed to make the case of being a transition between residential and business neighborhoods, which is the purpose of the MPOR designation.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
