Lawyers hold up Lighthouse project

Opponents of a developer’s proposed renovation and expansion of the old Lighthouse building on First Street scored a project delay with a lawyer’s challenge.

La Conner Town Administrator John Doyle said the Planning Commission meeting that was to occur on Tuesday was cancelled, as was a public hearing before a hearing examiner scheduled for next week.

Both sessions will be rescheduled after a new Proposed Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance is prepared and reviewed by Town Attorney Brad Furlong, Doyle said.

Comments were due last Thursday and produced 98 pages of written comments signed by more than two dozen individuals, 11 of whom live in houses on S. Second Street on the hill overlooking First Street and the Swinomish Channel.

California businessman Michael Girdner bought the old bank-owned lighthouse property last year, after it had been sitting mostly vacant and deteriorating since 2010. He wants to add a second story to accommodate three apartments and offices upstairs and retail spaces downstairs and turn it into The Galleria.

The expansion will alter views from the backyards of homes on Second Street between Calhoun and Washington streets.

Seattle attorney David A. Bricklin, representing “Historic La Conner,” submitted a letter demanding that an environmental impact statement be prepared before the project moves forward. Doyle said the town’s attorney will determine whether that comprehensive study is actually necessary.

Bricklin’s letter also noted that the Notice of Application and Proposed Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance document prepared by the town was flawed in that it did not contain wording required by state law.

“He’s right,” Doyle said. The attorney found errors in the town’s paperwork, so it will be re-done.

And before it is sent out again, “We’re going to have our attorney take a look at everything so this doesn’t happen again.”

According to the written comments from the opponents, reasons given for opposing the project ranged from they just don’t like it, to adding too much retail, to fear it will harm the town’s historic district.

Historical Architect Nicholas Vann with the state Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation examined the proposed plans for The Galleria project and wrote a letter, saying the old building — which was brought to town on a barge in the 1960s — is not historic, and there is no requirement for his office to weigh in on it.

Nevertheless, Vann praised the proposed architecture, saying it is in keeping with the town’s character and offered minor suggestions to improve it further.

After an outcry in August from the neighbors overlooking the project, the developer down-sized the plans and made sure every aspect is in keeping with present town codes.

Doyle said under state law, even if codes are changed after the application is accepted, the applicant, in this case Girdner, will be vested in the current codes.