The City of Renton finds itself in an awkward position, as officials try to offer information to upset Tiffany Park residents about the sale and development of an undeveloped parcel of land in their neighborhood.
At a meeting Tuesday night at Tiffany Park Elementary School, a room full of disgruntled residents showed up to listen and offer their comments and questions concerning the Renton School District’s sale of 21.6 acres of land to Henly, USA, a group that wants to develop single-family homes on the property. The City of Renton’s Senior Planner Rocale Timmons facilitated the meeting.
The school district purchased in two separate transactions in 1960 and 1972, two swaths of land intended for a middle-school site. The district has since deemed the property unsuitable for a school because of student growth elsewhere in the district and the proximity of two other elementary schools. In 2013, the school district approved the purchase and sale agreement to Henly, USA for their development.
The company plans to develop 96 lots and retain 30 percent of the trees in the area.
The sale of land is going through the City of Renton’s public process and Tuesday’s meeting was one of the first times any of the parties came together to address any of the issues raised in the 70 comments submitted to the city by the community.
“I believe the City of Renton is not paying attention to the needs in the Tiffany Park and the Cascade neighborhoods,” said resident Marina Higgins. “I have seen the development of the Highlands and think the city is paying disproportionately more attention and spending more city resources there.”
Higgins was one of a number of people who spoke up about their concerns with the new development. She also attended a meeting of the Renton School Board before the sale of the property and expressed her concerns there. She said she felt slighted at that meeting too, as if the decision had already been made to sell the land without much community input.
School Board Director Lynn Desmarais was at Tuesday’s meeting in her official capacity and as a Tiffany Park resident.
“I thought the city staff did a good job of keeping the meeting focused on its purpose, which is their process going forward, while responding to many of the related questions,” she said. “I attended the meeting last night as a school board director, but also as a longtime resident of the neighborhood as it has been my home for 33 years, so I do understand and care about the concerns of the community.
“I also care about the Renton School District as a whole, and the decision to sell the property was based on the long-term interests of the district as it is growing and changing,” she continued.
Many of the concerns that have been brought up have to do with traffic, environmental impact, and drainage issues residents have with the client’s proposal.
“The city now has an opportunity to listen to us and to limit the variances they grant for this proposed development,” said Higgins. “This land is rich with bird habitat and wetlands and it would be good if the city preserved these characteristics.”
The next step is the issuance of the State Environmental Protection Act threshold determination or SEPA, which is set for Sept. 26. That will determine whether the project meets the state’s environmental regulations.
“The city held [Tuesday’s] community meeting in an effort to assists in channeling people’s questions and concerns into the public process so they are heard by the decision makers,” said Timmons.
Timmons would not speculate on whether Henly, USA, would be able to satisfy all the concerns that were raised about the project.
