While residents in the Lake Forest neighborhood and beyond have vociferously opposed a proposal that would connect a sewer line in West Waluga Park and adjust nearby lots, they may not get the chance to make their case in front of Lake Oswego City Council.
New Look Development filed a petition Jan. 24 seeking to have Clackamas County Circuit Court preemptively approve the application because Lake Oswego had purportedly failed to issue a final decision in time for a mandated review deadline of 120 days plus a 45-day extension.
Following hearings, the city’s Development Review Commission voted to uphold staff’s decision to approve the application during meetings in January and staff issued what it deemed a notice of decision Jan. 23. However, New Look Development said in its petition that the city needed to have completed its review process, including the appeal period, by Dec. 26 to meet the deadline. In turn, the petition asks the court to require the city to approve the application immediately without the chance for appeal or “demonstrate that the approval of the Application would violate a substantive provision of the City’s land use regulations or comprehensive plan.”
The developer had applied to adjust five lots, remove 43 trees and connect the sewer line (as mandated by the city) in its application.
Neighbors and advocates of a charter amendment passed in 2021, which barred development of things like telecommunications or athletics facilities and parking lots at local parks, had come out strongly against the proposal and said the sewer extension violated the amendment. However, city staff said that was not the case because the sewer pipe would be underground, and that the charter is not relevant to land use applications.
Kate Myers, with the Lake Forest Neighborhood Association, said the neighborhood had filed a notice of intent to appeal the Development Review Commission’s decision. However, the city process may be negligible if the court decides to issue a decision in the matter rather than remanding it back to the local government. Myers was not happy with a circumstance where the city may get its mandated sewer extension without a City Council hearing.
“People need to understand that the City could completely fail to show up to this new judicial hearing and both the developer and the City get exactly what they want, neatly cutting out citizen voices. Citizen voices which have more than exposed the total hash that has been made of this process. The only parties that will lose here are the voters and residents who have been disenfranchised,” Myers said.
Jessica Numanoglu, the city’s community development director, said that the current situation wasn’t borne out of a desire to limit citizen voices but was a result of a series of unexpected events and missteps.
Delays to the process resulted from the city failing to initially initiate a stormwater review of the application, subsequent issues with the applicant’s stormwater proposal, extensive public comment and requests by the Lake Forest Neighborhood Association for multiple hearing continuances, staff failing to receive a written notice of an agreement for a second extension (staff said the applicant verbally to the extension) and further delays related to the wind and ice storm.
“It’s not very common that this happens. It is something we want to avoid. We understand this is frustrating to the public when this happens. That is why we try to be very careful about the 120-day deadline. It’s unfortunate this happened,” Numanoglu said.
Numanuglu noted that local residents could file a motion to intervene in the court proceedings.
She also said she recognizes the importance of the charter issue but that this application isn’t the appropriate venue to address it.
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