The Blaine City Council unanimously approved a 150-unit manufactured home park Monday night, backing city staff recommendations that expanded several development exceptions beyond what the city’s hearing examiner endorsed.
The project, known as Creekside at The Ridge, will be built on about 49 acres east of Harvey Road and north of H Street Road near the Harbor Hills neighborhood. Plans include manufactured homes, private roads, stormwater facilities, trails, recreational amenities and a community clubhouse.
The council approved the project through a planned unit development, or PUD, ordinance after staff recommended a series of modifications to the hearing examiner’s earlier conditional approval.
The vote highlighted a sharp divide between the city’s professional staff and Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts, who had warned in his April 20 recommendation that many of the waivers the developer requested exceeded what Blaine’s municipal code allows.
“This recommendation unfortunately comes with several significant revisions to staff recommended development standard waivers,” Olbrechts wrote in his findings. “The staff report includes scores of recommended ‘exceptions’ and waivers to City development standards that are not authorized by the Blaine Municipal Code (BMC).
“Sixteen such waivers were identified directly in the staff report and additional waivers were incorporated by reference from the Applicant’s draft master plan. Only six of the 16 waivers recommended in the staff report are approved. Two of the waivers are found unnecessary. The remaining 8 waivers are denied.”
At Monday’s meeting, Blaine Community Development Director Alex Wenger urged the council to restore or broaden many of those exceptions through revisions included in the final ordinance. Those revisions were approved Monday night with the unanimous vote.
“Most of those were fairly innocuous,” council member Richard May said.
Wenger argued the flexibility was permissible under the city’s PUD regulations, which allow departures from standard zoning requirements in exchange for what officials described as “superior design” and more efficient use of land.
Among the changes, staff supported:
While Olbrechts ultimately ruled that many environmental issues could not be revisited because the city’s earlier critical areas determination had not been appealed, he did require additional stormwater review conditions during final engineering review.
The council’s unanimous vote now clears the way for the project to proceed under the revised conditions approved Monday night.
