| Parks
board wants the spit to stay in public hands
By
Jack Kintner
The Blaine Parks and Cemetery Board expressed its approval
last week of efforts by a group of local citizens to buy
out the land intended for the Seagrass Cottages Development
on Semiahmoo Spit.
“As a lifelong Blaine resident I hate to see it get covered over with houses,
and I know how hard it will be to keep the water quality up in Drayton Harbor
if we build too much around the edges,” said board member Charlie Hawkins
after the meeting.
The
board heard a presentation by Ron Miller, representing
what he described as a group of concerned area citizens, in which he asked
for their help in acquiring the 23 acre property. “We believe there is a unique
window of opportunity,” Miller
said, “since the developers have said they are open to discussion of a
purchase for open space.”
The developer is Gepetto, LLC, and has an Olympia address but is represented
by Jon Syre of Bellingham’s Trillium Corporation. Trillium sold
the land to Gepetto but will re-acquire it in early 2005, Syre said.
Miller
said that his group has over 300 Blaine residents who have signed a petition
that asks the city of Blaine to delay final approval of the project until
a new study can be made of all planned development on
the spit, and also that a citizens’ committee
be formed to explore ways to fund the purchase of the property without using
tax-generated revenues to do it.
According
to Miller, there are two additional projects planned
for the east end Semiahmoo Spit, each of which would
be multi-unit facilities. “We want
to make sure the public looks at all the projects together,” he said, “not
only Seagrass but these other two, and then there’s a bunch of other
stuff being talked about. Each one may have relatively minor effects but
there’s
a net effect of all of them together that we need to talk about.”
Miller
added that the comprehensive plan under which the Seagrass project was
approved is over 20 years old and predates development on the spit. “They
also want to make a number of substantial changes to what was planned,
such as relocating roads,” said Miller.
The
board members agreed that acquiring the property for
open space is a good idea but voted only to ask the Blaine
city council for direction. “We have
to be careful about conflict of interest,” Hawkins said, “because
the council will ultimately have to rule on the developer’s permit
application. We’re in favor of Miller’s plan but how we
get involved as a board is up to the city council.”
Blaine’s
community development director Terry Galvin, acting as the state environmental
protection officer (SEPA), has set forth 27 requirements for the developer
to meet in order to have permit approval for the Seagrass project.
A related public hearing scheduled for January 13 has been delayed.
Galvin is also the city staff assigned to meet with the parks board
and heard Miller’s
presentation. |
