An urban utopia offering an eclectic mix of shops and housing — meandering, tree-lined streets and nature trails, public parks and open plazas for picnics and a coveted farmers market.
That’s the vision for a 50-acre mixed-use development proposed at Mill Creek’s easternmost boundary.
The project, known simply as East Gateway — hailed by city leaders and community members for its promise of sustainable living — took a surprising nosedive Tuesday, Feb. 26.
“This project as it is planned right now is doomed to fail; it’s not viable,” said John Graham, whose limited liability company owns the property that was once the intended site for a proposed Wal-Mart. “There’s not a retailer out there that’s going to survive in development like this.”
Graham’s doomsday forecast at Tuesday’s City Council meeting led to a six-month moratorium on building permits for projects within the East Gateway boundaries and prompted one question: Why was East Gateway never subject to an economic feasibility study?
Council members were particularly concerned having heard a week earlier from a dozen or so Town Center merchants on the verge of closing their stores for lack of business.
“Town Center is supposed to be our star,” Councilwoman Mary Kay Voss said. “I see nothing here in our own plans that addresses the viability of (East Gateway). We need to know that businesses will have some hope of being successful in there, otherwise we’re going to have a bunch of empty buildings that will serve no one.”
Planning for East Gateway began in June as staff from the community development department unveiled a proposed amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan to establish a zoning designation for urban villages, or mixed retail and residential communities, aimed at protecting the city from strip mall development.
Graham and his associates suggest provisions in the proposed zoning designation, approved earlier in the month by the city’s planning commission, will deter larger retailers that generate customers for surrounding businesses.
“With Town Center, you had an established commercial base to build from,” said Graham’s colleague, Roger Pierce. “You don’t have that with this project. You need an anchor retailer, but you won’t get one the way this project is laid out now.”
The chief complaint: buildings are restricted to 60,000 square-feet at ground level.
While some two- and three-story buildings are permitted, multi-level facilities are more work to maintain and therefore not attractive to large retailers, Pierce said.
There also were complaints that site plans for East Gateway show limited access to businesses from an interior road, winding through the development between two signaled intersections on 132nd Street Southeast.
“There is not a single retailer that can survive in this type of development,” Graham said. “There hasn’t been any economic analysis of this project. We are experts in retail and I’m telling you this project is doomed. It is simply unsustainable and doomed to fail if sustainability is your objective.”
He alleged that Community Development Director Bill Trimm misled him about the status of the former Wal-mart site, which had been vested with the county before the property was annexed into the city in 2005. Graham said he was assured by city staff when Wal-mart canceled its plans for the Mill Creek store a few months ago that the site plans for the property would not be altered, allowing Graham and his partners to lure a new retailer and proceed with the previously approved site plans.
“(Bill Trimm) looked me right in the eye and told me we would remain vested,” Graham said. “The plans you are looking at tonight do not reflect that. We had already gone through and agreed to the city’s design guidelines for the Wal-mart building.”
Graham said a substantial portion of the property now sits within a wetland buffer zone since the site was brought into compliance with current environmental policies.
Council members had few options with Trimm on vacation and unavailable to address the property owners’ concerns.
They delayed action on East Gateway to investigate Graham’s claims and determine whether or not the project is economically feasible. It is not clear at this time when the issue will return to council.
“I’m very concerned by the things we’ve heard tonight,” Voss said. “We obviously need to talk about these things further and make sure we’re moving in the right direction.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
