12/2/24 letter to City of Blaine and 12/5/24 request for confirmation of receipt of appeal:
I wish to appeal the City of Blaine 2024 work plan and the Central Business District zoning amendments to shoreline setbacks, parking requirements and building heights. I refuse to pay a fee as the Blaine Hearing Examiner system behind closed doors where the public is not allowed to question or rebut misrepresentations by the Blaine Community Development Services director violates my civil rights. The habitual violation of public participation requirements under the State Environmental Policy Act, Growth Management Act, and Clean Water Act by the City of Blaine--especially by Blaine Community Development Services--invalidates the work plan and associated amendments to the Blaine Comprehensive Plan adopted by Blaine Planning Commission and Blaine City Council.
Comprehensive Plans under Growth Management must include Critical Areas Protection (e.g., city aquifer) and Sustainable Economic Development (i.e., downtown recovery). The developer-driven requests for rezoning properties above the aquifer and downtown were intentionally fast-tracked separately from the legally required Comprehensive Plan process in order to avoid community discussion.
The Central Business District Project Charter must be sublimated to the Comprehensive Plan now underway as an element of Growth Management. Since the Project Charter touts a "robust" public involvement that was undermined by official misconduct, it should be abandoned entirely as a failure. The 2024 work plan to implement the developers' requests--presented by Community Development Services and adopted by Blaine City Council—is thus invalid.
One of the reasons for "early, continuous, and inclusive public involvement throughout the planning process" being required under the Washington State Growth Management Act is that this gives public officials the opportunity to hear the community's vision for their future and to consider alternative means of achieving that vision. Community visioning under Growth Management typically begins with an orientation to the Comprehensive Plan process followed by numerous town halls where open two-way discussions are hosted and facilitated by independent professional planners.
Alternatives to the developers' vision now being railroaded by Community Development Services include preserving the downtown views as presented to the city during the 2014 Comprehensive Plan ten-year update by Salishan Neighborhood Association. This proposal, which was supported by the city council at the time, was never raised as an alternative for consideration in 2024. Nor was the proposal I recommended to seek grants for civic center redevelopment--including a community art center, city museum, and new library with parking garage above all-in-one as a way to kickstart prosperity.
Views and arts, both attractive to tourists and fulfilling for residents, were eliminated from the discussion as Blaine City Council and Community Development Services pounded us with propaganda in developing the 2024 work plan devoted to developers' wishes at our community's expense. With the rapid growth of our community, an alternative use for the lots on the west side of Peace Portal is to expand the tiny public plazas at G and H Streets which are entirely inadequate for touristic events. This idea was supported by the city ten years ago when presented by Salishan Neighborhood Association.
The City of Blaine planning commission and council went in circles with the unlawful zoning text amendments for building heights and privatized parking on Peace Portal, a State of Washington thoroughfare. This expedited scheme--hatched by Community Development Services --did not consider the economic impacts to downtown commerce, nor to the city as a whole which is in a state of financial desperation. The collusion between downtown developers and Blaine Community Development Services (on instruction of the city council) to facilitate self-dealing by developers while eliminating public participation invalidates the entire process. As an example of the widespread corruption involving Mayor Steward and Community Development Services director Alex Wenger, Councilman Hill—a downtown developer--did not recuse himself in the process.
For two years, I implored the City of Blaine to involve the public in creating a civic center master plan for public holdings around the library downtown as a means of tourism development for economic recovery. A master plan including a new library, art center and city museum would be competitive for state and federal grants and generate revenue for our city. A wall of view-blocking condos on Peace Portal combined with no on-street public parking will kill downtown economic recovery, propelling our city toward bankruptcy.
Had the City of Blaine chosen to abide by the law regarding public participation--holding town halls to discuss the developers' proposals and alternative community visions for downtown redevelopment—you might have learned the 2024 comprehensive plan update and city work plan to implement it are inconsistent with the city's goals of tourism development and violated the State Environmental Policy Act in not considering impacts to the economy, environment and community of Blaine.
The widespread corrupt practices by Community Development Services with the support of the city council make a mockery of the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine, and trample on the rights of Blaine citizens under the Growth Management Act, State Environmental Policy Act, Civil Rights Act, Clean Water Act, and even Blaine's Central Business District Project Charter regarding public participation. Proceeding with this unlawful charade exposes the City of Blaine to significant liability.
Official misconduct by the City of Blaine over the last year is analogous to racketeering by a criminal enterprise, manipulating the public process on behalf of crooked developers at the expense of public participation and a hopeful future. How can we believe in the rule of law when it doesn't exist in our community?
Keeping track of the unlawful Blaine Community Development Services shell game involved in upzoning downtown for developers requires fortitude. The June 10, 2024, vote by Blaine City Council, including council member Mike Hill,
reduced parking requirements for downtown developers. (The slide show at the meeting by Alex Wenger, director of Community Development Services, examined council member Hill's property behind Starbuck's.) This is self-dealing, and as that is a crime in Washington State, the Hearing Examiner--as an officer of the court--should contact the FBI and the Washington Attorney General regarding official corruption.
In her
November 26, 2024, article on increasing downtown building heights, Grace McCarthy, editor of The Northern Light, shows she has mastered the art of concealing the truth. Granted, she answers to Patrick Grubb, publisher of The Northern Light, but that doesn't excuse her abetting fraud by Blaine City Council, Blaine Planning Commission, Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon, and Community Development Services.
In her article, she justifies the illegal council action upzoning properties downtown by referencing the downtown advisory committee support for increasing building heights but does not mention that the committee's votes on building heights and parking requirements choreographed by Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon and Community Development Services director Alex Wenger involved financial conflicts of interest on the part of two committee members--Gurdeep Bains and Scott Meaker--as well as the improper voting by committee member Kevin Owens, a Blaine Planning Commissioner. (See dissenting DAC report by committee member Glen Pentland.)
This advisory committee was revamped in June 2023, by Mayor Steward, City Manager Mike Harmon, and Community Development Services director Alex Wenger into a voting body despite the inherent conflicts of interest. Their corrupt vote to increase building heights and reduce parking requirements for downtown developers--such as council member Mike Hill--preceded any public participation in planning the redevelopment of Blaine's Central Business District as required by the WA State Growth Management Act and Blaine Municipal Code.
As Pentland remarks, "The appearance of steering the committee can compromise its independence and integrity and also brings into question the objectivity and validity of its recommendations."
Continuing, he says, the Central Business District Project Charter (approved on August 8, 2022) includes a comprehensive Public Participation Plan. Some statements from that plan include: "This charter, like the update to the City’s central business district regulations in 2018, proposes a robust public participation plan, and will be consistent with the State Growth Management Act provisions for public participation and current best management practices for participant involvement [and] The purpose of the following Public Participation Plan is to describe how City of Blaine will encourage early and continuous public participation throughout the process of reviewing and updating the CBD Development Standards and targeted sections of the Shoreline Master Program [and] Engage in two-way communication with citizens, and create an environment for open decision-making, and responsiveness to citizen input."
Public participation has yet to occur.
Additionally, the City of Blaine Shoreline Master Program comes into effect due to the setbacks for development required by the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that the city is neglecting to enforce. The proposed west of Portal Way condominiums for which the Blaine Municipal Code was changed by Blaine City Council in June and November of this year fall within the setbacks required by SEPA and NEPA in order to protect Drayton Harbor and the contiguous saltmarsh. I have seen river otters and bald eagles in the saltmarsh. Drayton Harbor is the estuary for California and Dakota creeks, which are salmon-bearing streams. Juvenile salmon reside in Drayton Harbor until they are large enough to go to sea. Pollution from unlawful shoreline development in Blaine harms them. A recent article notes that the Washington State Department of Transportation is
restoring the nearby Cain Creek as a result of a federal lawsuit by Northwest treaty tribes, such as Lummi Nation of which Drayton Harbor is part of their traditional territory.
Pentland says, "It appears that early and continuous public engagement is to occur before decisions are made. To date, the Blaine community has not been invited to participate in two-way communication since City Council approved the Project Charter 16 months ago...While other cities and towns have taken months, even years, of extensive work, research, and discussions to make zoning recommendations...Blaine’s DAC [downtown advisory committee] completed their recommendations in a couple of hours." Concluding, he notes, "The Committee appeared to become a public relations ploy to help “sell” height increases and parking requirement decreases to City Council, the Planning Commission and the Community."
It isn't easy to get information from the City of Blaine website, so I asked the city clerk for help.
The three city documents I requested were: the 3/24/2023 City Council Retreat minutes--where they changed the Downtown Advisory Committee from an advisory group to a quasi-official body voting on amendments to city development regulations and decided on what recommendations the committee should make to the city council--the 6/6/2023 Downtown Advisory Committee minutes--where the vote was taken to make the Council-recommended changes to city development regulations--and the 7/10/2023 City Council Resolution 1923-23--moving the recommendations forward to the planning commission.
Instead of the City Council Retreat minutes, the deputy city clerk sent me the City Council Agenda and said Retreat minutes are in Documents somewhere. I was unable to find them. Regarding the City Council resolution, the clerk said, "I confirmed that this resolution is listed on the City website in the Documents section. Unfortunately, it seems that the search function is not working, however if you go to the last page of Resolutions you will find 1923-23." I could not find it. As for the Downtown Advisory Committee minutes for 6/6/2023, the clerk said, "I am confirming with the CDS Director that the draft minutes on file for this meeting are approved for release. I will circle back on this one tomorrow."
Note that the missing minutes from June 6, 2023--eight months previous--were the basis of the City Council Resolution to amend development regulations forwarded to the planning commission. The 2024 Docket of Amendments to the City of Blaine Comprehensive Plan and Text Amendments included the Downtown Advisory Committee recommendations for changes to development regulations that the city had yet to publish.
The Pentland report by Glen Pentland--a member of the Downtown Advisory Committee--was submitted to the city council on December 12, 2023. In his submission, Pentland says, "I did not support any of the Downtown Advisory Committee recommendations because: · The committee did not complete the work needed to become knowledgeable on the issues to develop the downtown; · The committee was not going to develop rationale to justify their recommendations; · The committee failed to hear from any subject-matter-experts, stakeholder groups or invite members of the Blaine community to provide input; · Voting irregularities appeared to have occurred with members having conflicts-of-interest in the downtown and not abstaining from voting."
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