Lacey set to change controversial process surrounding Meridian Market, Hicks Lake votes
Lacey City Council appears set to change a controversial process and return the council to the role they are most suited for: acting as elected officials who are free to talk about land-use issues with their constituents.
“We really should take you out of the land-use process and put you back into a policy-making mode,” said City Manager Scott Spence during a sometimes contentious three-hour work session on Thursday.
At issue for the council, staff and angry residents has been the “quasi-judicial process,” steps the city takes when a hearings examiner makes a land-use recommendation. Two recent recommendations, which were followed by council approval, that enraged residents were Meridian Market and Gas in northeast Lacey and the more than 300 apartments planned for Hicks Lake.
Particularly frustrating for council members and residents is that the process effectively cuts them off from communicating directly with each other because the council is acting in a quasi-judicial role, reviewing the hearings examiner’s decision, and wants to prevent what is known as “ex parte” communication and maintain the appearance of fairness before the council votes.
“The quasi-judicial system needs to be more than the city’s method of dotting its i’s and crossing its t’s to meet the state’s environmental requirements, and simply a check-off box in the approval process for developers,” said Hicks Lake resident Janet Ikeda in a letter to the council. “The quasi-judicial system needs to be revised or replaced.”
And so it will. City staff are now set to create a new ordinance, subject to council approval, that would amend the process. Instead of the council acting in the quasi-judicial role, the council seemed most interested in this option: having the hearings examiner make the final decision, subject to appeal to Thurston County Superior Court.
By taking the council out of the process, they would be free to have that dialogue with residents, said Rick Walk, the city’s community and economic development director.
The cities of Olympia and Tumwater follow that proposed process, according to information shared during the meeting. In fact, after a check of 85 cities throughout the state, only Lacey and the city of Bremerton have hearings examiner recommendations that come before the council, said Grant Beck, planning and development services manager.
Thursday’s work session was divided into two parts: A discussion about the quasi-judicial process, followed by a conversation about neighborhood commercial zoning — the zoning that allowed Meridian Market and Gas to be built in northeast Lacey.
Councilman Michael Steadman came ready for a fight. He repeatedly sought a moratorium to stop the process so that the council could review their next steps.
He said right now, a developer could “drop in an application for a gas station or a convenience store and here we go again.”
He supports the proposed changes to the quasi-judicial process, but wanted to take it a step further with a moratorium.
“A moratorium will prevent this happening a third time,” said Steadman in reference to Meridian Market and Gas and Hicks Lake.
“We knew about it with the gas station and now it happened with Hicks Lake and it’s going to happen again if we don’t do something,” he said. “That is my concern.”
Steadman made a motion for a moratorium that would “pause convenience stores, gas stations and variety stores as permitted uses under the neighborhood commercial zone until a full review and public process can be conducted.”
His motion failed from lack of support from the other council members, and Steadman took a shot at them.
“My opinion is we are part of the problem then,” he said.
Steadman wasn’t done.
“We have to do something here, guys. They are tired of this, hundreds of them,” said Steadman in reference to the outpouring of community comments the council received regarding Meridian Market and Hicks Lake.
“We have to listen to them,” he said.
Mayor Andy Ryder and council member Lenny Greenstein did not attend Thursday’s meeting, so Deputy Mayor Malcolm Miller suggested it would be better if the full council considered the possibility of a moratorium.
Steadman scoffed at that, too, pointing out they had a quorum to take action now.
“We are the council,” he said.
Miller finally asked city staff to provide the council with information about a possible moratorium, and then the council voted to move forward with a review of neighborhood commercial zoning.
All voted in favor, except for Steadman, who favored direct action.
“Nay,” he said.
This story was originally published August 27, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
