Hedlin’s Ballfield future batted about by Council, residents

 

February 3, 2021



Mayor Ramon Hayes takes pride in not steering the direction of La Conner Town Council discussions.

But circumstances dictated he do so – if not quite literally – during Council’s Zoom meeting Jan. 26.

Hayes, who had spent the day snowmobiling at Stevens Pass, opened the Council session by speaker phone while in traffic in the Everett area.

“My hands were free,” Hayes was quick to point out. “My daughter held up my phone for me.”

The meeting was fast-paced, and not just in a metaphorical sense, as Hayes and Council members sped through a light agenda in just over a half-hour.

The main topic, frequently discussed the past 11 months, was the status of Hedlin’s Ballfield. The Town had for decades leased the nearly two-acre site as a youth sports venue and now holds an option for its purchase.

The Hedlins offered the ballfield for sale to the Town in 2020 at a reduced price to recoup costs related to their purchase of adjoining farmland.

Located along Maple Avenue, the ballfield has been designated for residential use as part of the Town’s Comprehensive Plan amendment process.

Minus a lease agreement with the Town, the Hedlin property no longer conformed to the Comp Plan as a public use because it was essentially an island within a residential zone.

Town officials last spring proposed buying the property and preserving one-fourth of it as a public park and children’s play area. The remaining 60,000 square feet will become a residential development, allowing the Town to recover costs and address housing crunch.

A citizen’s advisory group advocated retaining the ballfield as open public space at the January public hearings.

The group seeks time to explore funding options other than selling three-quarters of the ballfield to a developer after its purchase.

Hayes said Town officials met on Zoom for 90 minutes last month with members of the citizen’s group.

“We made it transparent,” he said. “But we didn’t know if we satisfied all their needs.”

“With so many moving parts on this,” said Council member Mary Wohleb, “it was important to connect dots with everyone.”

Hayes provided “a more detailed history of how we got to where we are today.”

They reviewed the various grant funding sources the Town considered earlier but discarded because of issues related to timing, hefty local matching requirements and a relatively low application success rate, said Hayes.

Other options might yet be available, though, said Maple Avenue resident Mike Ritchie, of the citizen’s advisory group.

“I commend the mayor for all the work he has put in to bring this together,” Ritchie told the Weekly News, “and it (a 25 per cent-75 per cent public use/housing ratio) might be the best option, but maybe there are other alternatives out there.”

Since the group’s meeting with Town officials, its members have suggested a municipal levy to finance purchase of the ballfield. and an increase in the percentage of square footage reserved for public space.

They asked if the Town would secure a second $37,000 option on the property to gain more time.

That appears unlikely, since if the Town ultimately passes on a $662,000 purchase of the Hedlin property it would be letting go of $74,000 in option payments.

Town Planning Commissioner Rick Dole expressed support last week for the original mixed-use plan for the ballfield.

“As a regular attendee of these meetings,” Dole told Council, “this has been discussed over and over. It’s been six months or more. This is nothing new. I thought we had voted to go forward.”

The Town Parks Commission, in fact, reviewed plans from designer Curt Miller after the one-year option was secured.

But Ritchie said COVID-19 restrictions had limited a more robust public conversation.

“People haven’t been able to get together,” he said. “They haven’t been able to meet at the Pub or La Conner Brewing, at the cafes and restaurants.

That’s where these things get discussed.”

Councilmembers also accepted a 1.65 percent increase sewer rate for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community over 2019, an increase of $0.48 per 100 gallons. Administrator Scott Thomas termed the calculation of the annual adjustment “a somewhat complex formula.”

Swinomish is owed a $6,636.56 refund since overall sewer costs fell about $96,000 below the budget forecast, Town Engineer Evan Henke stated in a report.

 

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