‘Difficult’ among words used to describe proposed development along Capitol Lake

The requirements for a proposed development near Capitol Lake piled up quickly during a meeting with city of Olympia officials last week.

The site plan review committee — a group that gathers to provide feedback on early-stage development proposals — met with property owner Sean Threatt, who owns land on Deschutes Parkway that was once occupied by a homeless encampment near the Fifth Avenue bridge.

Threatt said he was excited to talk with the committee and hear what they have to say about how the land can be used.

“Hopefully we come up with something great for the community,” he said.

The preliminary idea before the committee was two four-plexes for the site, but he doesn’t feel it is the highest and best use of the land.

“I think it could be something really great and I’m hoping we can work something out to get it done,” he said.

Threatt’s larger idea is a mixed-use development with housing and retail spaces on the site. That much was included in a narrative description for the site plan review committee, but one additional idea he did not include in his description: To have the mixed-use development, through a tax or fee, generate revenue for the homeless community.

It was an idea that came to Threatt after he visited the former encampment on the site, he said.

“I realized this specific demographic is in dire need of drug rehabilitation and mental health services,” he told The Olympian this month. “There’s no chance for them on their own.”

But Threatt quickly learned that even the preliminary idea of four-plexes on the site will require a lot of steps, and even a member of Threatt’s team, Bob Connolly of Lacey-based SCJ Alliance, acknowledged the challenge before them.

“I get involved in difficult projects and this is a difficult project,” he said.

City of Olympia associate planner Jackson Ewing said that shoreline jurisdiction and wetlands are likely to dictate development of the site.

“The city is going to expect extensive wetlands review, review of the steep slopes and habitat reports for all the protected species associated with Capitol Lake,” he said.

He said it appears wetlands associated with the project are associated with shoreline jurisdiction and any buffer reductions would be reviewed through a shoreline variance, which could require approval from the state Department of Ecology, Ewing said.

Ewing also mentioned stormwater drainage and said the city will want to see “robust analysis of how the stormwater pipes connect to those wetlands and to the lake and what that relationship is.”

Threatt countered that the only portion in the shoreline would be the driveway, the access points.

“It seems like there would be something in city code that wasn’t obstructive to development because of the driveway,” he said.

Tim Smith, deputy director of the Community Planning and Development Department, reminded Threatt that the site plan review committee “lays out the issues, but is not there to resolve them.”

City Principal Planner Nicole Floyd, after checking a map, said it appears the shoreline jurisdiction extends to a slope behind the proposed development. And if it does, a substantial portion of the project would be impacted, not just the driveway, she said.

But Steve Sperr, assistant city engineer, shot down the idea that water and sewer lines would be extended up to existing lines on Fifth Avenue.

The city is not going to maintain any water and sewer mains coming down a slope through a critical area, he said, adding that the existing 2-inch mains on Fifth Avenue are not big enough to handle larger water flows.