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Appeal dropped for Sequim shopping center proposal June 15th, 2004 - 5:35am (Port Angeles, WA ) -- Organizers for Sequim First and Sequim Investors, LLC have dropped their state Environmental Protection Act appeal for a proposed shopping center near Highway 101 and Sequim Avenue. The two pro-Sequim groups appealed a mitigated determination of non-significance on the Bell Farm Center project, filed by Sequim City Planner Dennis LeFevere. The group's SEPA appeal was scheduled to be to heard tonight by the Sequim City Council -- but officials announced this afternoon it had been withdrawn. Sequim First Vice President Andrew Shogren says the Bell Farm Center SEPA appeal was dropped so that the group can concentrate their efforts on their appeals against the Sequim Village Marketplace and Wal Mart projects on the west side of Sequim. Sequim First is a community based group consisting of more than 530 families in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley. Meantime, LeFevere says the next step for the Bell Farm Center is a public hearing Wednesday night for the C-4 zoning overlay for the property. The public hearing Wednesday begins at 7 PM at the Guy Cole Center at Carrie Blake Park. RELATED STORY: Sequim: Land-use appeal on shopping center abruptly withdrawn 2004-06-15 SEQUIM -- A land-use appeal challenging a regional shopping center, possibly including a Fred Meyer store, was withdrawn Monday, just hours before the City Council was to hear arguments for and against the project. Preliminary permitting for the complex, tentatively called Bell Farm Center, was appealed in March by the owner and property manager of a Sequim retail complex and by citizens group Sequim First. The 16-acre Bell Farm site makes up one of two phases geared toward a village-themed community center and retail shopping center near East Hammond Road and the U.S. Highway 101 interchange. Sequim First has also challenged two large retail projects at the city's west side, taking both to the state Court of Appeals. But Rob Rothe of Sequim Investments LLC, which owns much of the real estate making up Safeway Plaza and manages the Washington Street complex, decided jointly with Sequim First principals to abandon legal pursuit for an independent environmental-impact statement on the Fred Meyer project. ``We feel that to adequately address the project's impacts, an (environmental-impact statement) needs to be done,'' Sequim First Vice President Andrew Shogren said Monday. Nonetheless, Bell Farm developers appear to have addressed groundwater issues, he said. Rothe could not be reached Monday for comment.
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