Dedicated to Preserving the Rural
Character of Woodinville
10/12/22 City Council Mtg Oct 18th
10/21/19 CNW Endorsements
10/07/19 Meet the Candidates
05/09/14 CNW Celebrates Vote
03/17/14 Important City Council Vote
11/28/13 We're Thankful For
02/19/13 CNW News and Updates
01/29/13 CNW News and Updates
12/08/12 Montevallo Permit Application
09/05/12 Community Meeting 9/6
06/04/12 Updates on Important Topics
04/15/12 Protecting Our R1 Neighborhoods
04/02/12 You Make Difference!
02/28/12 Woodtrails Again!
05/09/14 CNW Celebrates Vote
06/16/11 CNW Prevails!!
07/11/10 Supreme Court Will Review
01/04/10 The Journey Continues
04/05/09 Wood Trails/Montevallo Update
03/08/08 Another Victory Celebration
02/18/08 We Won - Part II
08/13/07 Victory is Ours!
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Neighbors have asked lots of great questions about Wood Trails and Montevallo over the past few months. Here’s the scoop.
In 2004, a developer submitted applications for two developments that they called “Wood Trails” and “Montevallo.” Wood Trails is at the western end of 195th, 198th, 201st, and 202nd. Montevallo is on the northwest corner of 156th and 202nd. The developer asked to build 66 houses on each site.
The Concerned Neighbors of Wellington fought these two developments primarily on the basis of traffic impacts and safety concerns; landslide, wetland, and storm water impacts; habitat degradation for threatened and endangered species; and inconsistency between the proposed developments and character of the existing neighborhood.
In short, we argued that the Wood Trails and Montevallo applications were not consistent with Woodinville’s codes, and that it was not in Woodinville’s best interests to approve them.
The City Council agreed with us. They voted unanimously to deny the Wood Trails and Montevallo applications.
We were always pretty confident that, no matter which way the City Council voted, the other side would appeal and we would have to go to court. The way things turned out, the Council sided with us and it was the developer who appealed, but it still lands us in court.
Absolutely not. The hearings in March and April were the ONLY time that information could be introduced into the record of testimony that can be used in the Superior Court case. No new information can be introduced now or in future hearings. All the work we did had to be done, and had to be submitted last spring.
The hearing in February, in Superior Court in Seattle, is called a Land Use Petition Act (LUPA) appeal, and is simply the developer's appeal of the City Council's decision. It's the developer asking the courts to force Woodinville to grow where, when, and how the developer wants, instead of allowing Woodinville and its citizens to make those decisions.
If we’re well prepared for the hearings, our chances are excellent. Between the thousands of pages of documents we submitted last spring, your articulate testimony and powerful presence at the hearings, and the City Council’s strong deliberations and resolutions in our favor, we have a strong case. We just need to present it well.
There are three reasons we should participate fully.
First, the City's level of commitment to the hearing will be decided behind closed doors. We don't know how vigorously they'll defend the neighborhood. The uncertainty is all the greater because of turnover in the City Council between August of 2007 and January of 2008.
Second, CNW is named as a defendant/respondent in the appeal, which is to our advantage because no settlement can be reached without our consent -- but if we don't participate we lose our standing in the settlement process.
Last but not least, it's our neighborhood. If we don't step up, we can't expect the City to.
We need to pay off our existing debt of $14,000, or most of it, by January 7, or our attorney can’t start preparing for our February hearing. The hearing will cost roughly an additional $16,000. That means we need to raise $30,000, or at least have commitments, by the end of February.
Absolutely! Virtually all of your contributions for the last three years have gone to legal expenses. Our technical experts have donated thousands of hours of work worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and board members have almost always paid costs for printing and other related expenses out of their own pockets.
Absolutely not. The Concerned Neighbors of Wellington is a non-profit corporation that was formed specifically to protect all of us from personal legal and financial liability in this fight. The only thing that could be seized by the developer is the balance in CNW's bank account.
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