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Is planned resort near Mount Rainier back from the dead? A judge raises new questions

By Debbie Cockrell, The News Tribune
Published: March 22, 2022, 7:17am

TACOMA — A recent Pierce County Superior Court decision in a case involving a long-planned $200 million resort near Mount Rainier National Park is keeping the project in limbo for now, with no clear-cut victory for either side.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Ashcraft, in a decision issued March 14, sent back a Pierce County hearing examiner’s decision to revoke Park Junction’s conditional-use permit.

The case was remanded to the hearing examiner to review specific questions. The decision also rejected portions of Park Junction’s argument.

In the portion of his ruling dealing with the hearing examiner’s decision, Ashcraft wrote: “To be clear, nothing in this decision (as to the remanded issues) should be interpreted as this Court implying or directing any result.”

The Mount Rainier Resort at Park Junction received its conditional-use permit in 2000 subject to 100 conditions and periodic status review hearings.

In recent years, the county and opponents with Tahoma Audobon Society have questioned whether substantive progress was being made on the project, leading to the eventual establishment of milestones in late October 2020 for the project to proceed.

A milestone to create two test wetlands was deemed unmet by the Nov. 30, 2020, deadline by Pierce County Planning and Public Works, leading to a recommendation to revoke the conditional-use permit.

In May 2021 hearing examiner Stephen Causseaux sided with the county, and in July of that year issued a decision denying a request for reconsideration. The revocation decision was later appealed to Superior Court by the developers.

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The project, proposed by Park Junction LLC, would develop a 400-acre destination resort between Elbe and Ashford that would include a golf course, a conference center and a 270-room hotel, retail and other amenities.

The court rejected Park Junction’s arguments that the only relevant time frame to consider whether reasonable progress had been made was from Nov. 14, 2019, to now.

The judge added: “Likewise, the Court rejects Park Junction’s argument that only intentional, egregious acts can support a petition for revocation. While this may be the ‘norm’ for such petitions historically, nothing in the law precludes Pierce County from bringing such an action in this case.”

In sending the hearing examiner’s decision back, Ashcraft said five questions needed to be considered in “future evidentiary proceedings.”

Those questions, essentially, call for more evidence, asking what were the milestones agreed to and were those understood; how did a wording change involving the wetlands affect that understanding; did a change in requirements “affect the ability to complete the originally agreed upon or changed milestones;” and did COVID-19 impact “the ability to complete either the original or changed milestones such that completion was impossible or impracticable?”

The judge then wrote that after those questions are answered, the final question was whether Park Junction had “a reasonable time to complete the milestones?”

“After answering these questions, the hearing examiner should then determine whether the conditional use permit should be revoked,” Ashcraft wrote.

Another complication is that Causseaux retired in December. It is unclear whether he would be called back or if the case would go to his successor.

The decision also could be appealed.

Tara Long, media representative for Planning & Public Works, told The News Tribune on Friday, “The County is reviewing the decision and having internal discussions to determine next steps.”

She added: “No future proceedings have been scheduled at this time.”

Robert Mack, an attorney who has represented Tahoma Audobon in the case, declined comment.

Sylvia Cleaver Shepherd, one of the developers involved in Park Junction, told The News Tribune via email, “It’s too early to have a comment” about the decision.

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