The City of Renton has put a hold on its review of a large-scale development on Lake Washington after the EPA raised doubts about the draft review’s basic environmental assumptions.
The project is Quendall Terminals in north Renton, right next to the Seahawks headquarters. It’s a federal Superfund site, because of the extensive industrial waste dumped there decades ago, including creosote.
Proposed for the nearly 22-acre site are 800 residences, offices and retail space and a restaurant. The property’s zoning allows for such development, subject to environmental constraints the city is determining through the review process.
Twice the city extended the public-comment period on the draft environmental impact statement. The city received 72 letters from the public, including nearby neighbors, with about 500 individual comments.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the lead agency overseeing the property cleanup. In its letter to the city, the EPA wrote it’s still developing a cleanup plan with the property owners.
That plan, according to the EPA’s letter, is designed so that human health and the environment are protected. The final plan will outline what restrictions will occur at Quendall Terminals.
“Until EPA makes a cleanup decision, it seems it would be difficult for the proponent or the City of Renton to accurately define a baseline,” the EPA wrote in the letter.
The EPA in its letter indicated that a decision on the final plan isn’t anticipated until mid-2012. City officials are hoping to meet with the EPA in the next month or so to discuss its concerns.
How long the hold on the project is unknown.
“We have a long road to hoe,” Alex Pietsch, the administrator of the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development, told the City Council sat a briefing Monday night.
The site is owned by the Cugini family of Renton and the Baxter family in California. As the proponents of the project, they provided the information upon which the city is developing the draft environmental impact statement.
A developer for the proposed project hasn’t been selected. The Cuginis also did the initial site development for the Barbee Mill residential community next door.
The EPA offered clarifications on several post-cleanup assumptions in the draft environmental review. For example, the “nature and extent” of a soil cap over the entire project site “is unknown at present.” The same is true for a shoreline cap of 3.2 acres.
It’s also too early to locate stormwater outfalls or determine setbacks from buildings, roads or wetlands. And the final plan will weigh on private and public access to the lake’s shore.
Chip Vincent, the city’s planning director, said the situation is a “big deal.”
Without accurate information, he said, “you can’t make an informed land-use policy decision.”
The EPA’s concern’s “could cause the whole thing to be totally redesigned,” council member Don Persson said of the project.
Council members assured a large audience in its chambers that the public will continue to have a say in the development, including before the city’s hearing examiner and potentially before the City Council.
They also urged those in the crowd to “stay tuned” for future developments. Part of the briefing included an outline of the city’s review process and when the public has had a chance to comment.
The public’s comments also will factor into the final document spelling out how the project’s environmental impacts will be mitigated. Concerns have been raised about the size of project and its affect on traffic.
