Fate of "Galleria" rests with hearing examiner

Bill Nielsen, La Conner’s Hearing Examiner, has a mountain of documents and hours of lawyer-speak and testimony to sift through.

He has 10 working days – until the middle of December, to decide whether Michael Girdner’s plan to renovate and expand the old Lighthouse building on First Street can proceed.

On Tuesday, about 30 people turned out for the hearing at Maple Hall.

The audience started thinning in the first two hours, which consisted of a procedural inventory of all the exhibits – a stack of paperwork at least six inches thick, tubes of maps and drawings, photographs, a computer thumb drive – followed by a PowerPoint presentation by Girdner’s attorney Robert Carmichael.

And then, Carmichael began deposing the project’s architect, Mike Underwood, who said the old building has no historic architectural design. “Absolutely none,” he said. “It has been added on to five different times by former owners. There is no architectural style to that building.”

Girdner bought the old, rundown Lighthouse building last year after it had been sitting mostly vacant and deteriorating since the bank took it back in 2010.

He wants to expand its footprint from 7,325 to 9,447 square feet and put a second story on it. The old building would become “The Galleria” with retail space downstairs and three condos and four offices above.

Carmichael addressed each objection to the proposal. Most of the people opposed live on Second Street and have a view of the channel and the Lighthouse building. Over the past few months the residents have filed about 150 pages of letters of objection and they handed over another pile of documents on Tuesday.

They worry the development will impact their views and also say it’s too big in comparison to other buildings in town and cuts into “view corridors” for the general public. Five people spoke against the project at the hearing.

In contrast, resident David Elling presented a petition signed by 47 residents who want to see the project approved to cure what many consider to be a dilapidated eyesore in the middle of the town’s waterfront. Three people spoke in favor of it at the hearing.

On Nov. 15 the town’s Planning Commission recommended that project be approved, albeit noting that there were items of concern to be addressed with the developer and architect.

Town Administrator John Doyle filed a 27-page staff report, which also recommends that permits be approved for the project to proceed.