Plan sees houses through the trees

It looks as if an impasse has been bridged between the developer of a proposed subdivision in the Seaview/Perrinville area and the neighborhood.

After several meetings between The McNaughton Group and neighbors concerned about impacts of the 27-home planned residential development (PRD) named Anglers Crossing, a plan has evolved that satisfies, if not thrills, those affected.

The PRD is proposed for about 5.5 acres between 80th Avenue West and Olympic View Drive at 184th Street Southwest. On Thursday, Jan. 18, the Edmonds-based developer will take PRD and formal plat requests as well as nine height-variance requests to the Edmonds Hearing Examiner for consideration. The examiner’s findings will be issued within two weeks.

The project, which would create a new community of $800,000-and-up homes in what’s now a heavily wooded site across from Seaview Park, is in its preliminary stage, according to Steve Bullock of the Edmonds Planning Department. It eventually must win construction approval and acceptance of its final map of individual lots before those lots can be sold and building permits issued. The area is zoned Residential Single-Family (RS-8).

Kevin Hanchett of The McNaughton Group said his firm is involved in litigation with the current owners of the land but expects an eventual resolution. Once the project gains necessary approval, the lots will be sold to a builder who has not yet been selected.

For nearly a year some neighbors have voiced strong opposition to Anglers Crossing. They have been concerned about a proposed site-spanning road from which all subdivision traffic would enter from and exit onto 80th Avenue West and Olympic View Drive. They also protested the planned removal of 89,000 cubic yards of soil, fearing aggressive grading would trigger drainage, flooding and pollution problems. Removal of many of the trees to make room for homes and the road also was a hot button.

In response to neighbors’ concerns and a recommendation by the city that would send the plan down the path of a lengthy and expensive Environmental Impact Statement process, the developer withdrew and redrew the plan.

In the revision, the one long road was replaced with two cul de sacs. Six lots will access off 80th Avenue West and 21 lots will access off Olympic View Drive. To fulfill requirements of the contract rezone condition, an emergency-service road barricaded by electronically triggered bollards to allow police and fire access will be required, according to Hanchett. Bollards at both ends of the service road, he noted, will cost his company about $100,000.

The redesign proposes removal of two-thirds less soil than called for earlier. Although much of the woods will be cleared, a stand of second-growth Douglas fir covering about two-thirds of an acre will be spared, said Duane Farmen, who lives across from the site.

Neighbors originally rallied under the battle cry of “Save Perrinville Woods,” Farmen said. That, he added, has “kind of gone away once the trees were saved.”

Farmen said he “was pleased with the effort McNaughton put into wanting to listen to us.”

Hanchett said both he and Mark McNaughton “… are from here and live here. We care about our neighbors.”