June 18, 2026 Update

On June 18, 2026, Protect Mud Bay Cliffs filed an Appeal to the City Council of the Woods at Viewcrest Preliminary Plat Decision by the Hearing Examiner. PMBC’s 7-page appeal can be viewed at bit.ly/PMBC-Council-Appeal. For those on Nextdoor, you can add your comments to PMBC’s post at bit.ly/PMBC-Nextdoor-20260618.

Previously, on June 5, 2026, Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice issued her 208-page decision, which can be viewed at bit.ly/PMBC-HE-Decision. Examiner Rice approved the Woods at Viewcrest consolidated permit with conditions and denied PMBC’s SEPA MDNS appeal.

Excerpt from PMBC’s Appeal to the City Council:

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The proposed subdivision will be constructed upon property comprised of steep coastal bluffs containing mapped landslide hazard areas (LHA), erosion hazard areas, shallow soils, historical landslide activity, and significant stormwater challenges. The site is immediately above -- and has direct hydrologic connection to -- Mud Bay, a highly sensitive pocket estuary and Habitat Conservation Area containing multiple shoreline critical areas, including mudflats, estuarine wetlands, and salt marsh habitat.

The City’s obligation to protect public health, safety, welfare, and shoreline ecological functions is especially important where intensive development is proposed on geologically hazardous coastal bluffs directly above public shoreline areas and ecologically sensitive estuarine resources.

PMBC contends that the Hearing Examiner approved the project despite unresolved uncertainty concerning:

• actual allowable density;

• stormwater discharge impacts;

• hydrologic and hydraulic stormwater modeling;

• slope saturation and slope stability;

• applicability of the WA Department of Ecology (Ecology) flow-control requirements;

• blanket reductions of landslide hazard area buffers; and

• the lawful developability of numerous proposed lots.

The Hearing Examiner’s decision gave excessive weight to feasibility-level consultant and staff opinions and deferred future review while overly discounting concerns raised by PMBC’s highly-regarded and experienced experts regarding unresolved uncertainty, cumulative risk, and public safety implications. Even the Applicant’s own geotechnical consultant acknowledged that its conclusions assumed “a typical level of risk is acceptable.” Acceptable to whom? The applicant? The City? The public?

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PMBC’s appeal to City Council will be scheduled “no sooner than the first regularly scheduled meeting falling after 21 days from the delivery by the Hearing Examiner of record of the proceedings to City Council.” The next City Council regular meeting is Monday, July 13, 2026.

As always, thank you for your support,

Protect Mud Bay Cliffs