On November 4th, Sno-King Watershed Council filed another appeal of the Ironwood development. This is our second appeal of the project that proposes clearing 13.3 acres and grading about 50,000 cubic yards of cut to fill and 50,000 cubic yards of import to make the site suitable for future urban residential development in an area designated as a Priority Habitat Species (PHS) area by WDFW.
SKWC first filed an appeal to stop the early clearing of the Ironwood site on July 22, 2020. As a result of that appeal, the early clearing permit was withdrawn. Still, the County allowed the developer, Pacific Ridge to demolish all the existing homes on the Ironwood site, destroying several million dollars of existing homes, making an appeal even more difficult.
SKWC believes that the project is still flawed and that the County’s DNS decision should be withdrawn and an EIS required for the following reasons:
- Category II Wetland Incorrectly Classified as Category III
- Wetland Hydroperiod Will Not Be Maintained
- Impacts to Wetland A Buffer
- Infiltration Feasibility Not Determined
- Low Impact Development (LID) Not Implemented
- DNS Improperly Relies on Code Compliance
- Stormwater Flow Control & Water Quality Treatment is Inadequate
- Water Quality Treatment is Not Provided to East and West Basins
- Landscape Buffer Vegetation Buffer not Provided
- Lack of Reasonably Sufficient Information
- Project’s Impacts Are Actually Significant
We anticipate that a Hearing will be scheduled before the Hearing Examiner in early January, 2021.
WE NEED YOUR AMAZING SUPPORT AGAIN
Your donations to SKWC’s legal defense fund will go a long way to help us fight this unwise development. Please consider a donation to help us continue this appeal. http://snokingwatershedcouncil.org/donations/
We have also reopened our GoFundMe Ironwood page.
Your contributions and donations were the direct result of our success for stopping the early logging project. And we need your help again for our January battle. Please consider making a donation today and 100% of the funds will be used to fight the development of this critical interurban habitat.
If you can’t contribute now, here are some other ways you can help us out:
(1) Share the GoFundMe site on your social media!
(2) Speak out at the video conference hearing on November 17th at 10AM. Email sarah.titcomb@co.snohomish.wa.us and ask to become a party of record and request the video conference login. Since the hearing will be held through an online video conference, this is a great opportunity to participate. Each part of record is able to speak for 3 minutes. A strong showing from the community will go a long way to show the hearing examiner and County Counsel this project is very unpopular in our community!
(3) Write to your county counsel member (Jared Mead at jared.mead@snoco.org) and/or the county executive dave.sommers@snoco.org voicing your concerns about the Ironwood project and the corners being cut on environmental rules and our County’s development codes.
A huge shout out to Lider Engineering for donating its time on this appeal pro bono.
