On May 5, the City of Tacoma issued a draft of a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on The Point at Northshore for public review and comment. This document seeks to identify the environmental issues concerning the proposed conversion of the Northshore Golf Course into a high-density housing development. Issues will be either designated as subject to mitigation (negotiated corrective action to be funded by the developer) or adverse (uncorrectable).
Through some legal slight of hand, the developer has managed to become grandfathered under two earlier EIS’s issued in 1979 and 1981, addressing the development of the existing housing adjoining the golf course. This maneuver brings regulations some 30 years old into the mix.
The citizens of Federal Way may well become unwilling participants in some unfavorable impacts if the proposed development of the golf course goes forward:
1. Substantial increases in the current abhorrent traffic on SW 320th St. and SW 340th St.
2. Added pressure on your parks and athletic facilities from the some 2,500 new residents.
3. Increased load of stormwater-born pollution both on the emerging salmon run in lower Joe’s Creek (in which Federal Way has invested substantial funds) and on the established run to the Hylebos through Commencement Bay.
4. Additional flooding pressure on downstream Joe’s Creek (meandering through the Twin Lakes development).
5. Increased flow of nutrients to the flourishing crop of sea lettuce in Dumas Bay (the removal of which creates a further drain on Federal Way’s budget).
6. Future make-up costs to the tax payers after the provisions for the mitigated items prove inadequate and the developer’s LLC (limited liability corporation) has disappeared.
It is unfortunate that the rules of the game dictate that the future of this development will probably by decided by bureaucrats who have never set foot on the golf course. Those of us who are most familiar with the issues must be heard.
You are urged to make your concerns known to the City of Tacoma by letter or e-mail by June 18, 2009. Mail address: Jennifer Ward, Land Use Administration Supervisor, 747 Market St., Room 245, Tacoma, WA 98402. E-mail: jward@cityoftacoma.org
If you elect not to comment, your future rights to complain will be forfeited.
Gene B. Foster, NE Tacoma
