Dear Mayor Buxbaum and the new City Council

A Harrison and Division 7-Eleven update

by Bethany Weidner

Westside residents and businesses are calling on the newly elected Mayor Stephen Buxbaum and the new City Council to stand up for the Comprehensive Plan and reject the staff-approved 7-Eleven at Harrison and Division.

How can the Mayor and City Council do this? After the City planning staff and the City's Administrative Law Judge approved the 7-Eleven over the objections of a 1000 plus citizens and the SW Neighborhood Association, Dan Leahy, a longtime resident of the Westside, sued the City of Olympia in Superior Court to stop the 7-Eleven. Leahy's suit is financed by 50 individuals and several Westside businesses. Leahy now as a principal in the lawsuit can talk with and negotiate directly with the other principals, i.e., the Mayor and City Council.

Now Leahy and 100 plus leaders of the near Westside neighborhood want the Mayor and City Council to settle the lawsuit by overturning the staff's approval of the 7-Eleven. Leahy is formally asking the Mayor and City Council to settle.

The Mayor and City Council as the legislative body of the City of Olympia is the policy making body of the City and, as such, is responsible to ensure the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan. As Olympia City Attorney Tom Morrill has written in a recent Superior Court filing dated December 20th, 2011, the City Council "is entrusted with ensuring compliance with the City Code and Comprehensive Plan."

In addition, the Mayor and Council have the statutory authority "to adopt and enforce ordinances of all kinds relating to and regulating its local or municipal affairs and appropriate to good government..." The City also "may sue and be sued in all courts and proceedings" and therefore settle suits.

Why should the Mayor and City Council settle this lawsuit by overturning the staff's approval of the 7-Eleven? The staff's approval of an auto-dependent 7-Eleven convenience store surrounded by a sea of asphalt with access from Fourth Avenue, Harrison Avenue and Division Street and the requirement that the bus stop be moved closer to the already dangerous intersection of Harrison and Division completely contradicts all ten "Goals and Policies" of the Comprehensive Plan's Land Use and Urban Design Chapter.

Specifically on page three of this chapter, it talks about "The Corridors" and Harrison and Division is designated as a High Density Corridor. Here is the intention of the Plan: "Over time, the major arterial street corridors will change from areas dominated by strip commercial development and other low intensity uses into mixed use, high density areas where people enjoy walking, shopping, working and living." (http://olympiawa.gov/documents/2009CompPlan)

What did the planning staff approve? A strip commercial development with a low intensity use and the most auto-dependent use according to the City's own impact fee schedule, i.e., a one story convenience store. In other words, the staff approved a project in complete contradiction of the Mayor and City Council's stated policy.

So, why should the Mayor and City Council overturn the staff approval of the 7-Eleven? If they do not, the Comprehensive plan, the visioning process participated in by hundreds of citizens and the Council itself can only be seen as a giant farce with a legislative body refusing to carry out its statutory duty to enforce its own policies and ordinances and achieve its stated and important goals.

Please join us in asking the Mayor and City Council to settle the lawsuit and overturn the staff approved 7-Eleven. A seventh council member will be appointed soon.