Updated: Mar 1, 2011
by Diane Hettrick, Editor ShorelineAreaNews
Monday night, the Shoreline City Council held a hearing on the appeal of the Shoreline Landmarks Commission's decision to give the go-ahead to the design for the new Shorewood High School as an addition to Ronald School by awarding the school district architects a Certificate of Appropriateness for their design.
The Ronald School is a two-story brick schoolhouse on N 175th, next to the current Shorewood High School. It was formerly the home of the Shoreline Historical Museum, which is in the process of moving in to its new property on N 185th and Linden.
Former City councilmember Janet Way formed a new group called the Shoreline Preservation Society and it is that group which filed the appeal.
Representatives of the Landmark Commission, Shoreline Preservation Society, and the Shoreline School District made their cases to the city council, which chose to make the meeting public.
The point where the council got stuck was the issue of whether the Landmark Commission had a quorum at their November 17 meeting, so they could legally make a decision. (See previous story)
The Council ultimately decided to wait for the City Attorney, Ian Sievers to research this issue before proceeding.
The Shoreline Landmark Commission is actually a King County group. Shoreline and other jurisdictions contract with the county for the expertise of the Commission which is a volunteer board with professional staff support. The Commission Board has nine members. Two of the positions are vacant, waiting for the King County Executive to appoint new members. Of the seven current members, the Shoreline appointee is Vicki Stiles, Director of the Shoreline Historical Museum. She recused herself from the November meeting and did not attend. However, as Director of the Museum and a party to the transactions, she submitted a letter in support of awarding the Certificate of Appropriateness. Of the five remaining members, one who was unfamiliar with the area went to the wrong location and missed the meeting. That brought it to four.
The meeting was convened with four members. One of the four works for Bassetti Architects and recused himself from the discussion and decision on the Ronald School. He rejoined the board for the rest of the agenda.
The Landmark Commission say they acted in accordance with their bylaws, and 4/7 is a legal quorum. Preserving Shoreline says that 3/7 is not a legal quorum. Ian Sievers said he thought it wasn't a quorum but that he would need to study it more.
The attorney for the School District said that whether it was a legal quorum was not included in the appeal and was not what was on the table for decision by the city council. He said there was no objection to the quorum the night of the November meeting, no objection in the formal appeal, and that it was just now being brought up.
Councilmember Terry Scott stated that it was an important issue for him and he would be unable to make a decision without knowing whether it was a legal decision or not.
Other councilmembers expressed concern about leaving grounds for additional appeals. They also worried about delaying the process and leaving all parties in limbo waiting for a council decision. Ian Sievers said he was not available for the next five days. The decision had been scheduled to be made on March 7. If it were pushed out another week, the Council is on retreat. It could be three weeks before a decision is reached.
Another discussion which took some time was the Shoreline Preservation Society assertion that the Landmark Commission had no Shoreline member.
The City Council meetings are telecast three times a day on Channel 21 and Frontier Channel 37, and are available online.
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