A city-appointed hearing examiner denied multiple requests last week for reconsideration of a 215-single-family home subdivision application off South Seventh Avenue.
Hearing examiner Andrew Reeves previously approved developer JWJ Group’s Rolling Hills property in an Aug. 29 decision, and imposed 65 conditions. A month prior, he heard testimony from the developer and neighbors in a hybrid meeting in the Sequim Civic Center. City of Sequim staff said those looking to appeal the application’s reconsideration decision have until Oct. 12 to file in Clallam County Superior Court.
According to city documents, there were more than a dozen requests for reconsideration; however, only five were found to be timely and considered to have standing.
Noting the Sequim Municipal Code, Reeves wrote that many of those appealing the decision did not qualify as parties of record because they did not submit or comment during the open record hearing, but he did review their requests and determined that “none would warrant a correction or amendment of the decision.”
In the concerns Reeves considered, residents claimed the City of Sequim did not correctly notify the public in accordance with its code, that the project will cause significant traffic impacts on South Seventh Avenue and River Road, that its density doesn’t fit in with the area, that water on the property was misidentified, and that there is elk habitat on site.
Reeves wrote that the requests “do not identify procedural errors, legal errors, factual errors, or new evidence warranting a correction or amendment” of his previous decision.
He wrote residents’ issues, including environmental review, density and critical areas “were adequately addressed in the (August) decision.”
Reeves added that his previous decision did not specifically address the potential presence of elk habitat, and “the requests for reconsideration do not identify any legal error with respect to this issue.”
Reeves wrote, “This process does not entail revisiting issues addressed in the Hearing Examiner’s decision based on a disagreement with the Hearing Examiner’s analysis or the decision’s outcome absent such errors.”
JWJ responded to the reconsideration requests on Sept. 13, that none met standards for correcting or amending Reeves’ decision under Sequim’s code, according to city documents.
Development
Rolling Hills is a planned three-phase project on 44.1 acres at the southeast corner of South Seventh Avenue and McCurdy Road. JWJ representatives told Reeves at the July hearing they plan to build the homes within five years with phase 1 including 62 lots, phase 2 with 76 lots and 77 lots in phase 3.
City staff report the “middle income” homes range in lot size from about 4,217 to 7,942-square feet.
JWJ Group representatives also said at the July hearing that they agreed to city staff’s conditions with many later meshing with Reeves’ 65 conditions. One of those includes a professional archaeological survey of the project as state officials reported there’s a “high sensitivity” on the site as it’s “adjacent to a previously recorded archaeological site.”
Conditions were set for a required lighting plan, stormwater plan and documentation on how bikes/pedestrians and school bus stops are accommodated.
Reeves previously agreed to traffic plans despite some concern for congestion at the South Sequim Avenue and U.S. Highway 101 on/off ramps and intersection.
He wrote that the intersection “would operate at a deficient level of service under future conditions,” but plans to add a traffic signal on the bypass in the city’s six-year Transportation Improvement Program plan would offset the development’s impact.
City staff plan to install an all-way stop in partnership with Washington’s Department of Transportation as an interim measure.
The plan adds an estimated 2,122 average weekday daily vehicle trips to the development area, according to city documents.
City staff also required Norman Street to connect Third and Seventh Avenues and be improved to city standards, while Reeves required sidewalks be added, too.
As for improving notifications of future developments, city staff said at the July hearing they’re looking to update the city’s code in the near future.
For more documentation about the Rolling Hill development, visit sequimwa.gov/471/Current-Projects.
