Tacoma City Council Meeting for April 13, 2010
We’ve commented on short meetings before. Well, the Northshore Golf Course appeal that was heard last night seemed to scare away the rest of the agenda entirely. Our notes aren’t yet complete from the quasi-judicial hearing that began at 5:30. Here are the rest of our minutes:
PUBLIC COMMENT
Robert Hill came forward to speak against Resolution No. 38012 and Ordinance No. 27884. The Mayor worked quite hard to keep Mr. Hill focused on the topic.
R E G U L A R A G E N D A
RESOLUTIONS
Purchase Resolution No. 38011 awards contracts to:
- Exeltech Consulting, Inc., in the amount of $35,652.90, sales tax not applicable, for a cumulative total of $820,778.61, budgeted from the
Tacoma Rail Mountain Division Capital Projects Fund, to increase the contract for additional geotechnical and special inspection services for the Nisqually River Trestle Repair Project through June 30, 2010; and - Osmose Railroad Services, Inc., in the amount of $265,000.00, including sales tax, for a cumulative total of $838,270.85, budgeted from the
Tacoma Rail Mountain Division Capital Projects Fund, to increase the contract for additional project work for repairs to the Puyallup River Trestle.
Resolution No. 38012 declares surplus a 7,835-square-foot tract of frontage land located along Canyon Road East, and approving the conveyance of the property to Pierce County for the Canyon Road East road improvement project.
FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES
Ordinance No. 27884 Amending Chapter 1.12 of the Municipal Code, relating to the Compensation Plan, to establish six unclassified positions and provide for market-based pay ranges retroactive to January 4, 2010.
The main portion of the meeting was now done after a mere 12 minutes. There were no Council comments or questions. Wow. Time to take a breath before …
PUBLIC HEARINGS AND APPEALS
Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, P.C. representing the Appellants Northshore Investors, LLC and North Shore Golf Associates, Inc., appealing the recommendation of the Hearing Examiner regarding the request to modify an existing condition of approval placed on the golf course site in connection with Northshore Country Club Estates Planned Residential Development District in a previous rezone which occurred in 1981 and established the PRD designation for the site.
If you have an opinion, let it be heard. If you were there, tell us about it. We’ll finish our write-up on the hearing … eventually. In the meantime, you can read The News Tribune for their analysis of the hearing.
Filed under: City-Council, City-Council
7 comments
T Tacoma1 April 14, 2010
The golf course issue is a tough one. Although, I think that the council made the best decision they could here.
One one hand, I feel for the current owners of the golf course. They want to sell, liquidate their asset and retire. Who could blame them for that. In addition, all of the fertizizer and pesticides, and tons of water used at golf courses, tends to make them environmental disasters for the most part, so I would be happy to have one more obliterated from the face of this earth.
On the other hand, changing zoning on the land, and adding more cars and congestion in that neighborhood would have a big negative impact to the area.
R RR Anderson April 14, 2010
People before sod!
S Squid April 14, 2010
The easy solution is, turn it into a gravel pit, then back to a golf course.
T Tacoma1 April 14, 2010
I would approve of that idea. The gravel pit would obviously meet the open space requirement.
Then, even a golf course is better than a gravel pit, so that certainly would be an improvement.
B BPkid April 15, 2010
The roads out there are severely congested, parks are limited and the schools are bursting at the seams. There is still no high school out there although there were talks of building one as far back as 30 years ago. (Instead, the middle school was rebuilt and a new elementary school added.) Hey here’s an idea! Sell it to the school district and build a high school finally.
T tacoma1 April 15, 2010
How ‘bout the Browns Pt./NE Tacoma neighborhoods form an LID and do whatever they want to do with the land, park, school, gravel pit, whatever. Most Tacoma residents don’t frequent this area. Plus, many of the people that live up there do most of their shopping in Federal Way. That means that their sales tax revenues go to King County, not Pierce County.
T TacomaJoe April 15, 2010
Despite David Boe’s horror at the idea of this area reverting back to nature (gasp! it’s real estate after all, that must be profited from) perhaps the owners could donate it to The Nature Conservancy as a tax write-off, or ask the city/county/state to come up with a conservation grant to buy it and let it return to the wild. Seriously, who wouldn’t love a smaller version of Pt. Defiance in their neighborhood with more walking and bike trails for the whole city to enjoy?