To: Whatcom County Executive Jack Louws and County Council Members

Please settle the court case against the Carney-Reid permit application for the much-needed senior living facility known as Lincoln Park Retirement Home Center, 4610 Lincoln Road, Blaine.

The Preliminary Long Subdivision Conditional Use Permit references are:

CUP2009-0021 and LSS2010-0002

The case is now before Snohomish County Superior Court, Case Number15-2-04222-8.

After Whatcom County Planning and Development staff and the Hearing Examiner both agreed that the Lincoln Park Retirement Home Project met ALL applicable criteria, with no public opposition to the Project (all who spoke at the hearing or submitted written testimony favored it), the permit was denied solely on the grounds that a short extension of an existing sewer line was “disharmonious” with the Comp Plan and development regulations in force at the time the application was vested.

To justify that position, county attorney Royce Buckingham has invented a novel – and erroneous – notion that Comp Plan policies and development regulations are mutually referential. In effect he’s claiming the Comp Plan is a regulatory document – a position contrary to settled state law. Most important, the development regulations in force when the permit was vested allowed the sewer extension the project needs.

Why force the property owners to spend thousands on this case, not to mention the county wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars? Especially since a senior living facility that will provide specially designed suites for Alzheimer’s sufferers is a severe need in our community. Alzheimer’s rates are now at epidemic proportions and the rate is expected to triple soon.

Please, settle this case and direct the PDS staff to grant the Lincoln Park permit application forthwith.

Respectfully yours,