Superior Court says ‘not so fast’ with an EIS rubber stamp

Good news is rare in land use challenges but a group of downtown homeowners stood their ground claiming that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared 18 years ago could not credibly evaluate the impacts of a massive project planned next to them in today’s downtown. Last week, a King County Superior Court judge agreed. (Search by Case number 20-2-09241-0 for details)

“It was clearly a big win for us and validates what Escala and its attorneys have said from Day 1: A downtown-wide EIS is insufficient for site-specific projects because conditions are so different for all of them,” said John Sosnowy who spoke for Escala Condominium’s HOA in the case.

At issue were environmental impacts from Altitude, a 54-story hotel and residence planned for the block shared by Escala, a second proposed mixed-use commercial tower and other existing commercial buildings.

The City had issued an environmental Determination of Significance (DS) for Altitude which requires an EIS but the City maintained it didn’t need to prepare a new EIS because the impacts were considered in the earlier EIS along with an Addendum prepared for the project.

But the Superior Court said in part these documents were “incomplete and covered very little of what is required by statute and ordinance to evaluate the current project” and “did not provide the city with sufficient information to make a reasoned decision.”

Altitude will now need to complete a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) that specifically reviews the environmental impacts of Altitude under State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) standards. With the required scoping and comment periods, the process could take months or longer.

Or says, Sosnowy, Altitude could also appeal the Superior Court decision. Whatever happens he says it should send a message for the City to update its approach to support downtown livability. 

He says, in addition to commercial and residential density that has exceeded projections, the City still hasn’t recognized impacts from rideshare and delivery vehicles. None of these were factors when the current EIS was prepared. “It’s a whole different world now and it’s time to stop rubber stamping decisions.”