A Langley-based environmental group recently filed a lawsuit against the city of Oak Harbor, claiming that a new ordinance which loosens the city’s restrictions on trading parkland violates the state’s code of ethics for municipal officers and the State Environmental Policy Act.
Bainbridge Island attorney Bryan Telegin, who represents Whidbey Environmental Action Network, known as WEAN, filed the complaint for declaratory judgment and constitutional writ of certiorari in Island County Superior Court Aug. 30
The complaint asks the court to vacate and reverse Ordinance 1999.
In a 6-1 vote last month, the Oak Harbor City Council passed the ordinance, which allows the city to bypass a vote of the people if swapping land with a 1:1 space ratio or greater with requirements added to ensure a good deal. An overwhelming majority of community feedback opposed this ordinance.
The ability to swap 2,600 square feet of Hal Ramaley Memorial Park for a private developer to build a hotel spurred the creation of this ordinance. According to a press release, WEAN’s membership includes households active in the Oak Harbor Garden Club, which stewards this park.
“The process by which this ordinance was adopted shows a disregard for state law and for the voice of the people of Oak Harbor whom the council has sworn to serve,” Marnie Jackson, WEAN’s executive director, said in the release. “City leadership was quite transparent about its reasons for adopting Ordinance 1999 — to advance one developer’s project adjacent to and overrunning Hal Ramaley Memorial Park, against public objection.”
WEAN’s complaint notes that the original code requiring a vote to dispose of parkland, 1.30.010, was passed in 1997 to stop a private developer from building a hotel on city-owned parks. When this section of the code was last amended in 2015, the city council explained that the intent behind the code was to ensure park property would not be sold or transferred to private parties for economic gain.
Ray Lindenburg, Oak Harbor’s senior planner, said the proposed change to the city code came directly by suggestion from the attorneys of the private hotel developer.
In allowing the hotel to acquire a portion of Hal Ramaley Memorial Park without submitting it to a vote, WEAN argues the council violated the Revised Code of Washington by using its position to secure special privileges for themselves or others.
The State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, requires state and local agencies to assess the impacts of its decisions, which may follow up with an environmental impact statement. By not doing this, WEAN argues the city violated Washington Administrative Code.
At the July city council meeting, Lindenburg said a SEPA review was not required.
“The code is a little bit vague on that, and it’s something that we’re going to review and make sure we’re doing correctly,” he said. “It doesn’t require a SEPA checklist per se that goes off to the SEPA clearing house and gets reviewed by the state and everything. What it does say is it requires environmental review.”
WEAN is requesting an order declaring that passing Ordinance 1999 violated the Revised Code of Washington, State Environmental Policy Act and the Washington Constitution. The complaint asks the judge to vacate the ordinance and order the city to pay attorney’s fees and costs.
Magi Aguilar, Oak Harbor’s communications officer, did not respond to a request for comment.
