Judge hears appeal on resort plan

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Saturday, March 23, 2002

OLYMPIA -- The fate of a proposed $90 million resort near Mount Rainier National Park will be decided next week.

Lawyers for developers and opponents argued their cases Friday before Thurston County Superior Court Judge Paula Casey.

Casey expects to issue a ruling on the long-running controversy at 11 a.m. Friday.

At issue is a Pierce County conditional use permit for the resort, which would be built 11 miles west of Mount Rainier National Park's Nisqually entrance.

Casey has a number of options, including upholding or overturning the permit, sending it back to Pierce County for further hearings or requiring additional environmental reviews.

Plans for Mount Rainier Resort at Park Junction include: a 270-room lodge; 18-hole golf course; 500-seat conference center; 20,000 square feet of retail space; a spa; tennis courts; and more than 300 vacation homes and condominiums on 440 acres abutting state Route 706.

The project has been in planning stages since 1992.

The Tahoma Audubon Society challenged a permit and environmental study issued by Pierce County in 1996. When a Pierce County hearing examiner upheld the permit and study in October 2000, the society appealed.

Attorneys on Friday argued:

-Whether Pierce County's environmental impact statement was adequate.

-Whether the effects on the park were adequately considered.

-Whether volcanic hazards were properly assessed.

-Whether the project meets state law.

Park impact

The impact of a proposed resort on the National Park was not adequately considered when the permit was approved, opponents said.

"It should have been," said Robert Mack, lawyer for Tahoma Audubon Society.

Impacts were considered, countered William Lynn, the lawyer representing the resort's developers. The Audubon Society failed to show any errors in the hearing examiner's findings that would give the judge reason to overturn the ruling, he said.

The Audubon Society's appeal depends on what is not in the project's environmental impact statement, Mack said.

The environmental document lacks thorough discussion of the impacts brought on by additional park visitors who come to the resort -- and any way to offset those impacts, Mack said.

Developers had included ways to lessen the impacts in their plans, Lynn said, and the Pierce County examiner had no authority to impose mitigation requirements.

Mack disagreed. But the Pierce County hearing examiner should have denied the permit if Lynn's argument is valid, he said.

The law requires that all impacts of such a development be "fully considered and mitigated," Mack said. The project doesn't meet state law governing such resorts, he argued.

Although it's required to be self-contained, the resort relies on Mount Rainier to draw visitors.

"The whole purpose of having a resort is to take advantage of the natural amenities," Lynn said.

He criticized opponents for trying to argue both that the project is too attractive and that it is not attractive enough.

The resort will attract people to the Nisqually Valley, but those visitors would want to visit Mount Rainier National Park, Lynn said.

The opponents haven't shown that the project would increase the number of park visitors, he said.

Concerns

Mount Rainier National Park officials are concerned about an increase in visitors, especially during the fall and spring "shoulder seasons," when some facilities are closed and the full summer staff has not arrived.

The resort's proposal includes plans for a shuttle service that would ferry guests to the park as often as every 15 minutes.

The environmental study covered only the effects of increased traffic at the Nisqually entrance to the park, Mack argued.

"The discussion of traffic at the entrance doesn't cover the rest of the park," he said.

The project developers agreed to build a park information center at the resort, Lynn said.

If the resort permit is upheld, it would be the first master-planned resort in Pierce County, a concept loosely defined under the state's 12-year-old Growth Management Act to create acceptable and healthy growth in rural areas.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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