Judge refuses ordering Aegis to vacate

SHORELINE — In a June 26 hearing King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick refused to order a senior assisted living facility be vacated, which would have required residents be evicted and staff contracts terminated.

The facility, located at 15100 First Avenue NE, was built near a channel of water that some consider could be a salmon habitat.

Erlick issued an order voiding the facility’s building permit.

The judge voided the amended building permit issued by the City of Shoreline to Aegis Assisted Living because in it, a channel of water east of the site between the building and I-5 was recharacterized from a stream to a ditch, with no public review process, which is a violation of State Environmental Protection Agency requirements, Erlick said.

The judge denied environmentalists requests for him to order an injunction on the facility because “there are too many open and unanswered questions” and “it is not clear that continued occupancy creates an adverse environmental impact.”

Erlick added, however, “This record is very clear — Aegis has proceeded on its own risk, and that (an injunction) may be the ultimate unpopular decision,” but until some questions are answered and the proper SEPA process is carried out “this court is not prepared to issue an injunction.”

The judge remanded a portion of the case back to the city of Shoreline for public notice on the recharacterization of the north channel of water.

He also wants a determination from the city’s hearing examiner on the techniques used to measure the buffer from the building to the water, specifically, how the hearing examiner measured the location of Thornton Creek as it passes through Peverly Pond. If the hearing examiner used an alternate method from what’s required by the city’s municipal code for measuring the buffer, he must explain why, Erlick said.

Finally, Erlick declined Aegis’s request that he certify some of his decisions as final judgments so that the company could proceed with appeal while the case is being remanded.

Aegis attorney John Riper said he doubts the company will ultimately have to tear down the building. Aegis plans to appeal if it comes to that.

City attorney Ian Sievers said, “We know what we need to do to reinstate the building permit — the judge needs better findings from the hearing examiner and needs public notice for SEPA.”

Patty Crawford, who, with her husband Tim, live near the facility and brought the case against Aegis and the city of Shoreline, said “We are fairly disappointed in his ruling.

“The last time he remanded this case back to the city hearing examiner, the stream was reclassified as a ditch and they built a building,” she said. “Now that it’s in the hands of the city, it will be cowboy development.”