This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

WE CAN WIN THIS! Reject the permit to destroy Wellington Park!

Help us fight this oversized design for our rural Park!

WE CAN WIN THIS!

The County is forced to reissue the LDA permit application to level the Park…when they get their documents together.

The Snohomish County PDS (Planning & Development Services) Department announced Friday, January 10th, that it has withdrawn the LDA (Land Disturbing Activity) permit application and will reissue it once ALL required documents are submitted by Parks and readily available for public review.  They apparently  reissued the application Wednesday, January 15th, and are requiring the Parks Department to make all documents available online at that time. 

Despite the fact that a SEPA Environmental Checklist was required at the time of the permit application, no SEPA Checklist was submitted by Parks.  The Parks Department attempted to claim reliance on a previous SEPA Checklist—the same one that they prepared last spring and were later forced to withdraw for not correctly following procedures.  And PDS incorrectly accepted the permit application as complete.
NSWP has long been emphasizing Parks’ failure to make documents readily available to the public for review and comment.  We have identified missing documents and pressured Parks to provide electronic copies.  

But your comments made the difference!   

PDS is now being required to follow their own rules and start this permit application process all over again.  This time they have promised that all documents will be made available online at the start of the comment period so that the public can have a fair opportunity to review and comment.
The new 21-day comment period began on January 15th and will close on February 5th at 5pm. 

What's next?

  • Please review the new application (on the PDS website) and the supporting documents.  This is a link to the PDS permit status for the new application:  http://www.snoco.org/app/pds/postcard/Details.aspx?view=0   -- there's no sign of the actual application form, but the documents that describe the proposed work are posted on the Parks website.  And please make a comment based on what you can now see about the project.
  • If you already made a comment, Tom Barnett (PDS project manager) says,  "All comments received during the initial comment period will be retained, and any new and/or revised comments will be included." 
  • Become a Party of Record for the LDA permit and the other permits already in the works for Wellington Hills.  By doing so, the County is obligated to notify you of any action taken on those permits.  It also demonstrates to the Snohomish County Council that there is substantial opposition to Parks’ plan for a sports complex.  (See  http://savewellingtonpark.com/   for suggested wording and more information on how to become a PoR.)
  • MOST IMPORTANTLY, keep making noise about this disastrous Plan! Tell the Council Members to scrap the Parks Department plan for an oversized sports complex and instead work with the neighborhood to design an appropriate park for this site.
Your emails and comments have already worked to force a little more transparency into this process.  Let’s finish the job and design a REAL community park at Wellington Hills!
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