1 week Ago By Tacoma News Tribune
A project near Spanaway Lake promising to house nearly 300 chronically unhoused individuals has cleared the latest legal challenge made by a group who has opposed the project at every turn. Despite having little-to-no success in their opposition to the development, the group says it is not giving up. On March 28, a Thurston County judge denied the appeal of a Pierce County land examiner’s decision to allow the Good Neighbor Village project to be constructed on land adjacent to multiple wetlands near Spanaway Lake.
Spanaway Concerned Citizens is a group representing neighbors to the project who oppose the development due to concerns regarding its potential impact on nearby wetlands and endangered species . Tacoma Rescue Mission, one of Pierce County’s largest homeless shelter operators, purchased the land at 176th Street and Spanaway Loop Road. With support from former Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier and the Pierce County Council , the organization planned to construct a micro-village community for those who have been living chronically unhoused.
Tacoma Rescue Mission’s Executive Director Duke Paulson has promised the Good Neighbor Village will provide nearly 300 units of permanent supportive housing for veterans and the elderly. In an interview with The News Tribune in May , Paulson said the village would serve people who don’t have many sustainable, long-term options to get off the streets and they would come to the village to work, pay rent and rehabilitate themselves. The cost of the project is estimated at more than $62 million and is projected to cost $3.
2 million annually to operate upon its expected completion in 2029, according to project materials . Spanaway Concerned Citizens and its attorneys presented their case last spring against the Good Neighbor Village during a Pierce County Land Examiner’s hearing that lasted weeks . Pierce County hearing examiner Alex Sidles decided to approve the project in June.
In September, Spanaway Concerned Citizens filed a petition in Thurston County Superior Court challenging the hearing examiner’s decision. The judges decision, filed on March 28, stated that Spanaway Concerned Citizens failed to meet the burden of proof and the land examiner’s original decision was “supported by substantial evidence” and was a “correct interpretation of the law and application of the law to the facts of this case.” In a newsletter sent April 7, Spanaway Concerned Citizens announced their lawyers had filed a motion in Thurston County Superior Court, asking the judge to reconsider her dismissal of their appeal.
According to the letter, the challenge will make two arguments — Tacoma Rescue Mission does not own the entire project site and the proposed development contradicts the Pierce County Comprehensive Plan’s requirements for housing density. Lawyers representing Spanaway Concerned Citizens have previously argued Tacoma Rescue Mission does not own the entirety of the land they purchased to build Good Neighbor Village. During the initial land use hearing last spring, their legal team cited a 1920 land easement in which a Pierce County drainage district acquired a strip of the property from a previous owner.
They argued this strip of property still is owned by the drainage district and therefore could not be sold to Tacoma Rescue Village. “We have made significant strides over the past two and a half years — and we are not stopping now,” Spanaway Concerned Citizens wrote in their April 7 newsletter. In November, the project broke ground as construction crews began to clear trees and level ground where homes would be built.
As Tacoma Rescue Mission and supporters of the Good Neighbor Village celebrated, they were met by picketed protesters representing Spanaway Concerned Citizens..
