Renton School Board denies neighborhood group request

Published 1:04 pm Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Renton School Board has denied the request of the Tiffany Park Woods Advocacy Group to get access to undeveloped property owned by the district in hopes of having it analyzed by the group’s wetland specialist.

The Tiffany Park Woods Advocacy Group, or TWAG, was hoping a private specialist would add more significance to the pristine nature of the woods that are currently slated for development. The development of the land is contingent upon Henly, USA, the applicant, passing the City of Renton’s environmental review process and the State Environmental Protection Act regulations.

The group of five neighborhood residents, with an additional 100 people participating online, have petitioned the school board once before, asking for permission from Superintendent Merri Rieger. Rieger denied the request for access in early August saying, “it is not in the best interest of the district, its students, taxpayers and (the district’s) educational mission.”

TWAG President Renate Beedon was not surprised at the second rejection.”I knew they would,” she said in a phone interview. School Board President Lynn Desmarais responded to the request citing the superintendent’s earlier refusal, the right of the group to appeal this decision at a later date and reaffirmed the school board’s decision to sell in the first place.

“In doing so, the agreement created an obligation for the Board to cooperate with the purchaser as it seeks to obtain the required permits,” wrote Desmarais in her letter. “To do otherwise could put the purchaser’s investment at risk, and could conceivably create a financial liability to the Renton School District.”

Beedon said that now she and her group, TWAG, will wait for the environmental review hearing the City of Renton is holding on Sept. 22 and also for the publishing of the State Environmental Protection Act regulations report.

“To me, if that was a flat piece of land with nothing on it, I wouldn’t care,” Beedon said. “It’s the trees and the animals in there that I care about that are so important to me. We don’t have pristine woods like that especially in neighborhoods.”

For the City of Renton’s part, Beedon said officials have been very help as they facilitate this public process.

“The city has been very accommodating and helpful to us; they really have, especially Rocale,” she said of Senior Planner Rocale Timmons.

TWAG will await both September meetings before members decide whether or not to appeal the sale of the land.