Regatta Estates filed a Land Use Petition Act (LUPA) lawsuit April 26, 2022 in Snohomish County Superior Court against developer Lennar NW and Snohomish County PDS for issuing building permits on the Frognal/Bexley Ridge project without an approved landscape design. This is a clear violation of County Code. Lennar representatives Carl Stevenson and Geoff Tamble have been served summons to appear.
PDS continues to issue building permits despite PDS Director Mike McCrary’s promise in a March 10, 2022 letter that, “PDS had placed a “hold” on issuance of the building permits for these retaining walls pending approval of a revised Landscape Plan to ensure that these side walls did not obstruct areas that may be designated for landscaping.” Lennar has not yet submitted any landscape proposal as to how it will replace the 200+/- trees that were deleted but are required to screen the original terraced retaining wall was eliminated. The 200-trees were eliminated when PDS approved Lennar’s 60-foot-high rock-faced retaining wall with no landscaping.
Regatta Estates’ goal is to get the terraced, tree-landscaped wall installed, as was originally approved by both the Hearing Examiner and PDS.
While a code change will not affect this lawsuit, please let your County Councilmember know that a code change is required to prevent PDS from approving future monster, un-landscaped retaining walls that are a visual blight on the community and can be built right on the property line.
SKWC supports the Regatta Estates appeal and encourages donations to help in this appeal at its website https://snokingwatershedcouncil.org/donations/
