It may have been the first time anyone delivered a sermon at a Mill Creek Planning Commission meeting.
Neil Hoopengarner, one of 20-or-so parishioners in the audience from Advent Lutheran Church, held little back in his criticism of the city’s plans to establish a 50-acre mixed-use development along 132nd Street Southwest and Seattle Hill Road. There were even suggestions the city’s community development department was strong-arming property owners to acquire rights-of-way for the proposed East Gateway urban village.
“Our objective first is to spread the word of God and be good neighbors in our community,” Hoopengarner said on Thursday, Dec. 20, of his fellow parishioners. “The city’s plan to develop the property surrounding our church puts a road within eight feet of our pre-school where children play. It opens the area to crime — gives vandals and pedophiles a reason to come here and harm our children.”
Discussion of East Gateway began in the summer when planners suggested an amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan to include a special zoning designation for mixed-use developments like Town Center. The city could then re-zone commercial properties to prevent strip mall development.
It will be months before the proposed amendments go to the City Council for final approval.
And, even then, city leaders say development plans for East Gateway are far from final.
Despite assurances from planning commissioners that the city cannot just pave over private property, Hoopengarner and other church members pressed for answers regarding the East Gateway master plan, which shows an access road between 132nd and Seattle Hill Road cutting through Advent Lutheran’s campus.
“I’m really, really puzzled by this,” parishioner George Cook said. “The church has been very clear on this issue, yet every plan for this East Gateway development shows this road creeping farther and farther north into our property. Why is that?”
Church leadership had hoped to construct a classroom center and complete several renovations to existing facilities by year’s end, but the city’s permitting process delayed construction.
“We were denied the building permit we requested,” Church Council President John O’Brien said. “The city denied us the classroom building we wanted. We’re a little leery this process will set the guide for roads, so when we come back with a revised application we won’t be able to do anything.”
City officials characterize the East Gateway master plan — prepared by Tiscareno and Associates Architecture and Urban Design — as a guide to illustrate the development potential. The rendering also is used by the Department of Ecology to measure and predict any environmental impacts of development.
“This plan does not mandate that a road slice through your property,” Commissioner Charlie Gibbons explained. “As a parent and a grandparent I am not unsympathetic to your concerns about having a roadway so close to a pre-school, but there are child care facilities along much busier roadways. We’d all like to have a bowl where we can have safety, but that just isn’t realistic. It’s up to all of us to be good citizens and neighbors and look out for each other.”
An open house is scheduled for Jan. 10 at the City Hall Annex, next to City Hall, to review the proposed amendments to the city’s comprehensive plan and discuss development options for East Gateway.
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