Photo courtesy City of Fife
A BARRIER MARKS THE EDGE OF THE RADIANCE IV DEVELOPMENT. The project encroaches upon the 150-foot buffer required around wetlands. The Fife City Council is considering whether to redraw the wetland boundary to accomodate higher water levels.
Fife City Council is considering the revocation of an agreement that allows developer D.R. Horton to build single-family residences in the development known as Radiance IV.
City of Fife attorneys and the Puyallup Tribe are claiming that in spring 2007 D.R. Horton cleared an area within a wetland and the wetland buffer adjacent to the plat without a permit.
They also claim wetland conditions have changed since the agreement was made and that the wetland boundary should be redrawn, cutting into three lots in the development.
The preliminary plat agreement, approved by the city council on July 25, 2006, authorized D.R. Horton to build 41 detached single-family homes over 6.75 acres. The agreement was amended in December 2006 to include 13 more lots over two additional acres.
The agreement stated that the wetland on the eastern side of the project site was to be surrounded by a 150-foot buffer and could only be enhanced for natural habitat and flood storage purposes. The wetland is Category I, meaning it is relatively undisturbed. Wetlands in the state of Washington are ranked at four levels, Category I being the highest.
In March 2007, Bill Sullivan, the Tribe’s director of natural resources, said he noticed that areas of the wetland zone had been cleared. Included in the clearing were several cottonwood trees, two of which Bill Sullivan said must have been more than 100 feet tall and five feet in diameter.
“In my mind, it would have been impossible to cut the trees without standing in the water,” Bill Sullivan said.
He notified the city immediately. Fife issued a stop-work order April 19.
Meetings between the parties were held to address the issue of the wetland. The city commissioned a new wetland study to more accurately assess the current delineation, which was last done in 1999.
In late April, Kenneth Raedeke of Raedeke Associates Inc., a scientific consulting firm, and wetland biologist Lisa Danielski visited the site. They confirmed Bill Sullivan’s observations. They also noted that the wetland boundary was inundated with as much as one foot of water.
“Based on our brief reconnaissance, it appears that the original wetland boundary marked by the blue and white flagging is stale and does not represent the current wetland conditions,” Kenneth Raedeke and Lisa Danielski wrote in a letter to Fife Community Development Director Carl Smith.
A report by Raedeke Associates Inc. indicated that the wetland had expanded since the 1999 study, and thus the wetland buffer zone had expanded, affecting three of the Radiance IV lots.
The protection of the wetland is very significant for the Puyallup Tribe, Bill Sullivan said.
“We have Tribal residents on the river side of that wetland who have lived there for decades,” he pointed out. “The wetland is of cultural importance and natural resource importance to the Tribe…. This wetland prior to any development had deer, had coyotes, had foxes.”
Furthermore, the wetland is key to an ecosystem that supports salmon habitats, Bill Sullivan said. The wetland is passable by fish, including juvenile Chinook salmon, he noted.
Duana Kolouskova, an attorney for D.R. Horton, said the rise in the water level is temporary and due to a beaver dam and an unmaintained drainage ditch upstream.
Furthermore, Duana Kolouskova argued, based on legal precedent, the city could not revoke a preliminary plat agreement in this situation.
D.R. Horton would lose $5.6 million if the plat were revoked, she added.
City Attorney Loren Combs made an impassioned plea on behalf of the wetland, saying Fife could revoke the plat agreement based on the fact that the situation has changed – the water level has risen since the 1999 study – and that if the city had known the actual boundary, it would not have approved the plat agreement.
He also said the city could revoke the plat if it posed a serious threat to public health and safety. Several state regulations have stated that the benefits of protecting wetlands for the purpose of preserving habitats and providing natural flood control are significant.
“The right thing is to protect this habitat,” Loren Combs said. He also said it was imperative for the city to protect endangered species, adding that this was the only Class I wetland on the lower Puyallup River. He said the city should require D.R. Horton to restore the habitat that was destroyed.
He also noted the developer began pouring cement on the disputed plat only the day before the meeting.
At its Aug. 28 and Sept. 11 meetings, the Fife City Council heard arguments on behalf of the city and D.R. Horton, as well as comments from Bill Sullivan and Lisa Danielski. The council voted to leave the public hearing open until its next session, scheduled for Sept. 25.
Duana Kolouskova said the company would appeal if the council sided with city attorneys.
