Questions. We have been getting questions on a number of items we present in our Illahee Updates.
Examples. What are the new Illahee community boundaries? What was a peacock doing in the Preserve? Why were you glad to see the commercial corridor removed from the Community Plan? What are bio-infiltration swales? What is tightlining and why is it bad? Where is Illahee North and its detention pond? What is happening with Timbers Edge and what are the legal issues? Where is Timbers Edge? When is the sewer going to be installed? Are they still dumping untreated stormwater at the Illahee dock? When are you going to put in my wildlife report? What is happening around the Illahee Preserve by the Mental Health facilities? We saw some flagging on Almira - is it for the proposed Preserve parking lot?- is it going to be built soon? When is the final updated Illahee Community Plan going to be issued? Are you going to have party to celebrate? Is the Citizens Advisory Group going to disband or keep meeting?
These and many more are questions residents have asked and we would like to start answering them as best we can. If anyone would like to try and answer any of these, please feel free and we will pass them on.
Timbers Edge Response. Timbers Edge items are the most often asked questions. First of all, Timbers Edge is a proposed development going in along the ridge south of the main fork of Illahee Creek. Residents in the area of the development are concerned about the small legacy sized lots (many are 3400 square feet), and the traffic impact on Fir Drive, which is not being upgraded. Others are concerned about the impact to Illahee Creek fearing further loss of the base flow in the creek will result in it no longer being a viable salmon stream. Those concerns were substantiated by studies paid for by community residents several years ago that cost approximately $14,000. This past year the Port of Illahee/Department of Ecology grant report also substantiated the concern of the residents regarding the base flow in the stream.
Residents Not Against Development. The residents in the area are not against development, just the high density development being proposed, and the detrimental impact to Illahee Creek.
Compromise Recommended. Resident representatives met with the developer and recommended larger lots with septic systems as being acceptable to the community, but were told that the cost of putting in sewers was small in comparison with the anticipated profit, and therefore the developer rejected the idea.
Legal Battle In Progress. The community met and agreed to hire a lawyer to contest some of the development issues. Most importantly, they provided the dollars necessary for the legal battle. This was on top of the legal costs associated with the Illahee Outfall Project that was appealed to the Shorelines Hearings Board and is currently going through a settlement process. Those costs in 2008 for both appeals amounted to a few dollars short of $20,000; mostly for lawyer fees and expert witnesses.
Legal Costs Continue. The legal costs for Timbers Edge continued with written closing arguments and the Illahee Community Club urgently needs contributions to its legal fund, which will be substantial again in 2009.
Legal Documents. We have received copies of the legal documents and are going to send out them out over the next few days. We have found them well written and interesting. There are four documents so far with the latest being sent out on Friday 1/9/09.
Document #1 Illahee Community Club Closing Brief Regarding Lack of Compliance with County Code (Attached)
Document #2 Illahee Community Club Closing Brief Regarding Lack of Compliance with the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA)
Document #3 Timbers Edge Rebuttal to the Illahee Community Club's Closing Brief.
Document #4 Illahee Community Club Reply to the Timbers Edge Rebuttal
Legal Appeals Costly. As a person reads these documents the high costs become evident. A synopsis of the comments of many residents is something like this: "We will live here for many years, possibly our lifetime. If we don't stand up for what we think is right, we will end up with a mismatched development, road/traffic problems, a degraded or failed salmon stream, among other things. This appeal is the only opportunity we have to try to get this development done right and if you don't do something now we only have ourselves to blame."
Large pdf Files. These documents are large pdf files and many email providers do not allow these large attachments, which is one of the reason we are sending them separately. Even this first email Update may not be received my some and may have to be resent with out the attached file. We would then look at putting it up on the website. NOTE: These files are too large at this time to be posted on the website.
Jim Aho
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