King County Supreme Court Judge Jim Doerty has upheld his Oct. 27 ruling that the city pay all attorney fees, costs and penalties to the Shoreline Merchants Association (SMA) totaling $18,153.
He issued a written order Nov. 14.
The case involves the SMA’s appeal of the city’s design for widening Aurora Avenue North from 145th to 165th, in which the SMA argued that the city’s environmental review of the project did not consider the economic impact the project would have on existing businesses.
Doerty threw out the case, saying economic impact is not appropriate for environmental review, but awarded the SMA court fees and penalized the city for not providing documentation to the SMA in a timely manner, after the city missed a deadline for filing a brief with the court.
“The SMA is extremely pleased with the judge’s decision on this, because it goes back to saying that the city did not honor the process and the judge is holding them accountable,” said SMA spokesman Rick Stephens.
The SMA is also appealing the case the judge threw out, in state Court of Appeals.
“It was a surprise he ruled that way,” City Manager Steve Burkett said. “Since the documents in question were ones we did withhold, we reviewed them with the judge, and the judge determined they were documents we weren’t required to release in the lawsuit. So we technically violated the order by withholding documents he later reviewed and ruled weren’t required to be released.”
The city has appealed the order in state Court of Appeals.
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