NPI ally wins huge victory in fight to save trees at Seattle's Ingraham High School
A nefarious plan by the Seattle School District to raze a grove of trees standing majestically on the northwest corner of Ingraham High School's campus was foiled again today by a grassroots coalition that has been fighting tenaciously for years to save the unique forest from being destroyed.
Steve Zemke and his neighbors have been battling for years to stop the school district from chopping down the trees, which are older than Ingraham High School itself. At every turn they've had to put up with obfuscation, arrogance, and threats from district officials, not to mention a hostile school board that has rubber stamped the district administration's every move.
The district has long claimed that the seventy plus Douglas fir, Pacific madrone, and Western red cedar trees that comprise the grove are in the way of an expansion of Ingraham that Seattle voters agreed to fund years ago. Neighbors have pointed out that there's room on the property to expand without disturbing the trees.
The district has cited various reasons why it can't build the expansion anywhere else, which appear to be contrived given that the schematics for the district's own "master plan" (not adopted) show the outline of a two story building labeled "classroom addition" where there is currently just grass.
The district has repeatedly refused to listen to reason and redesign the project, even after its scheme to withdraw the permits for the building permit and simply cut down the trees collapsed in King County Superior Court last year.
Instead, the district has tried to bully Steve and his neighbors, hoping they'll eventually run out of money and patience and just go away so the district can hire a bunch of guys to unleash chainsaws on the grove.
But today the district's scheme was thwarted (at least temporarily) when Deputy City Hearing Examiner Ann Watanabe ruled that the grove is an uncommon plant habitat and should be protected. The ruling overturned an earlier decision that would have allowed the school district to proceed with the project.
"In this case, DPD [the Department of Planning and Development] did not require and apparently did not evaluate whether the location or the structure footprint could be altered to avoid or minimize impacts on the northwest grove, and this was an error in light of SMC 25.05.675.N.2.," Watanabe wrote in her ruling.
"The proposal would reduce by half an uncommon habitat that the city's SEPA policy says must be protected. Given the difficulty or impossibility of replacing this amount of habitat on the site, avoidance or reduction of impacts on the grove is required if such measures are reasonable or capable of being accomplished."
The ruling remands the matter to the Department of Planning and Development, which must now require the district to mitigate the impact of the building expansion by relocating it entirely or reducing its intrusion into the grove. The latter may prove difficult, as we understand the district has already scaled back its plans once. (Originally, almost a hundred trees were to be destroyed).
Ingraham High's namesake would no doubt be cheering the improbable triumph of Save the Trees Seattle were he alive today. Edward Sturgis Ingraham was not only the first superintendent of the Seattle School District, he was an avid mountaineer who helped lead the campaign to create Mount Rainier National Park. (A glacier on Washington's mightiest mountain is named in his honor.)
He would also surely be appalled by the ignorance and arrogance exhibited by the district's current leadership, who have tried to dismiss public support for leaving the trees alone and building elsewhere on the campus.
We rejoice in their success, and we call on the Seattle School District to stop wasting taxpayer dollars trying to justify needless environmental destruction.
Steve Zemke and his neighbors have been battling for years to stop the school district from chopping down the trees, which are older than Ingraham High School itself. At every turn they've had to put up with obfuscation, arrogance, and threats from district officials, not to mention a hostile school board that has rubber stamped the district administration's every move.
The district has long claimed that the seventy plus Douglas fir, Pacific madrone, and Western red cedar trees that comprise the grove are in the way of an expansion of Ingraham that Seattle voters agreed to fund years ago. Neighbors have pointed out that there's room on the property to expand without disturbing the trees.
The district has cited various reasons why it can't build the expansion anywhere else, which appear to be contrived given that the schematics for the district's own "master plan" (not adopted) show the outline of a two story building labeled "classroom addition" where there is currently just grass.
The district has repeatedly refused to listen to reason and redesign the project, even after its scheme to withdraw the permits for the building permit and simply cut down the trees collapsed in King County Superior Court last year.
Instead, the district has tried to bully Steve and his neighbors, hoping they'll eventually run out of money and patience and just go away so the district can hire a bunch of guys to unleash chainsaws on the grove.
But today the district's scheme was thwarted (at least temporarily) when Deputy City Hearing Examiner Ann Watanabe ruled that the grove is an uncommon plant habitat and should be protected. The ruling overturned an earlier decision that would have allowed the school district to proceed with the project.
"In this case, DPD [the Department of Planning and Development] did not require and apparently did not evaluate whether the location or the structure footprint could be altered to avoid or minimize impacts on the northwest grove, and this was an error in light of SMC 25.05.675.N.2.," Watanabe wrote in her ruling.
"The proposal would reduce by half an uncommon habitat that the city's SEPA policy says must be protected. Given the difficulty or impossibility of replacing this amount of habitat on the site, avoidance or reduction of impacts on the grove is required if such measures are reasonable or capable of being accomplished."
The ruling remands the matter to the Department of Planning and Development, which must now require the district to mitigate the impact of the building expansion by relocating it entirely or reducing its intrusion into the grove. The latter may prove difficult, as we understand the district has already scaled back its plans once. (Originally, almost a hundred trees were to be destroyed).
Ingraham High's namesake would no doubt be cheering the improbable triumph of Save the Trees Seattle were he alive today. Edward Sturgis Ingraham was not only the first superintendent of the Seattle School District, he was an avid mountaineer who helped lead the campaign to create Mount Rainier National Park. (A glacier on Washington's mightiest mountain is named in his honor.)
He would also surely be appalled by the ignorance and arrogance exhibited by the district's current leadership, who have tried to dismiss public support for leaving the trees alone and building elsewhere on the campus.
Over 1000 Seattle citizens have signed petitions urging the Seattle School District to move the project and save the trees. Signers include Ron Sims, Senators Ed Murray and Ken Jacobsen; Representatives Mary Lou Dickerson, Phyllis Kenny and Scott White. Eight of the current Seattle City Council members signed a letter urging the Seattle School District to move the Project.We at NPI extend our heartiest congratulations to our good friend Steve Zemke and the many other Save the Trees activists who have fought so hard and so tirelessly to protect this valuable urban forest.
We rejoice in their success, and we call on the Seattle School District to stop wasting taxpayer dollars trying to justify needless environmental destruction.
# Posted by Andrew : 11:30 PM
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