Excavation begins for Center Street project

No building permit has yet been issued, but excavation began at the 306 Center Street condominium project site last week to find the water table on the property so that paperwork could be completed for removal of contaminated soil.

Following that initial dig, a soil removal plan was drafted and submitted, according to Town of La Conner Assistant Planner Ajah Eills.

Public Work Director Brian Lease approved the plan and soil removal commenced, Eills said.

That work was completed and by early Friday afternoon all equipment had left the site.

The three-story complex, with six ground floor short-term rentals, will be built where fuel storage tanks and a garage once stood behind the former full-service fuel station that now houses The Slider Café and several other businesses.

A fill and grade permit was issued to KSA Investments, the firm developing the property whose principals are Kate and Brandon Atkinson.

The soil removal, though, has led to some near literally rocky moments.

Lifelong resident and professional builder Gary Nelson, a former planning commissioner who lives across the street from the site, told town council at its Dec. 12 meeting that on the first day of excavation a work vehicle was parked across his driveway.

“I’m urging the Town to rein them in,” said Nelson. “They need a designated parking area for their workers. It’s common practice to have designated parking when you’re working under a conditional use permit.”

“They shouldn’t be parking across anyone’s driveway,” agreed Planning Director Michael Davolio. “That will be addressed.”

Davolio said that the Town and KSA have reached agreement on several pre-construction issues. But one difference remains outstanding, he noted. The structure cannot exceed the Town’s 30-foot height limit. A proposed elevator shaft appears in violation.

“We’ve told them that there are no exceptions to it,” Davolio said. “It seems strange to me that their argument is that the elevator shaft is not part of the building. We’re firm on that.”

Lease told council he had made three separate site visits earlier that day.

Center Street resident Debbie Aldrich asked that Lease or other staff continue to do so.

“I hope the city will keep an eye on them,” she said. “The residents shouldn’t have to stay home and watch what they’re doing.”

Center Street resident Linda Talman said the work makes walking on that block of North Fourth Street difficult.

“There are no sidewalks on Fourth Street,” she said. “You have to walk in mud. There’s no place to park and it’s kind of scary to walk on that street.”

Marilyn Thostenson, who resides next to a residential development atop Snapdragon Hill, said she has mostly remained mum regarding home construction near her house. Thostenson said she has endured mostly in silence drilling and early morning noise for four years.

“My backyard is right next to a new house,” she said. “I have an historic house and now there’s a brand new million-dollar house next to it.”

It’s the way things go, she inferred.

“Property is property,” said Thostenson. “People buy it.”

Neither the Atkinsons nor any other KSA representatives attended the meeting.

KSA has secured a conditional use permit to locate the multi-family Center Street building on property that was rezoned in 1986 from residential to commercial use.

The Atkinsons have cited the local housing crunch as a reason the site is now better suited for housing than retail development.