A Kirkland developer has returned to Kent city officials with a revised application for a proposed East Hill commercial development that the City Council denied two years ago.
The application filed by developer Kent 25 LLC, part of the YarrowBay Group of Kirkland, goes before the city hearing examiner as part of a public hearing 9:30 a.m. March 3 in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 220 Fourth Ave. S.
The company wants to construct 75,302 square feet worth of retail and office space as well as a 76,128-square-foot, two-story senior-care facility. The development would be built on 13.3 acres near the northwest corner of Southeast 304th Street and 124th Avenue Southeast.
The commercial development is part of a proposal by YarrowBay to build 379 single-family homes, known as the Verdana or Bridges development, on the 155 acres at the southern edge of the city’s border from South 288th Street to South 304th Street. The property, zoned for single-family homes, bumps against the city borders of Auburn, including the Lea Hill and Crystal Meadows neighborhoods.
“They have revised their proposal,” said Fred Satterstrom, city planning director, in a phone interview Tuesday. “It is different than before.”
The Council voted unanimously in February 2008 to accept a recommendation by hearing examiner Ted Hunter to deny the initial application because the proposed commercial development would defeat the purpose of the city comprehensive plan to provide environmental, visual, recreational and wildlife benefits in the area. Hunter also found that the commercial development would detract from the site’s ability to serve as an open space separation between already developed urban areas.
Hunter, hired by the city as a neutral party to make land-use decisions, will conduct the hearing March 3 with testimony from city staff, the developer and residents.
After the hearing, Hunter will have up to 14 days to issue a recommendation on the application, Satterstrom said. That recommendation then goes to the City Council to accept or not.
Residents of several Auburn neighborhoods testified in November 2007 against the commercial development because it would be detrimental to their property and retail stores already were available at other locations near the neighborhood.
“Residents in the area have been following it and I expect a few of them to be at the hearing,” Satterstrom said.
Brian Ross, a managing partner with developer YarrowBay, did not return several phone messages. Ross said in an interview after the Council denied his application that the company would go back to the drawing board and work with city staff on a revised application for the mixed-use development.
There are several key changes by the developer under the revised application, said Sharon Clamp, a city planner assigned to the Verdana project.
The changes include clustered buildings; construction of seven rather than nine buildings to create more open space; parking lots moved to the interior of the site and 398 spots rather than 446; and three two-story buildings are proposed to be built on the interior of the complex rather than the perimeter.
Other changes include more landscaping to block off an office building from a nearby subdivision; additional, denser plantings of trees and shrubs all around the project; a relocated detention pond to the north end of the property with a walking path and additional landscaping to be blended into nearby wetlands.
YarrowBay has not yet started construction of homes on the property, but the streets are paved and utilities are installed.
For more information about the Verdana project, call the city Planning Services office at 253-856-5454.
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