Developer Under Attack Again -- But Cause Of Dash Point Flood Damage Still Unknown

TACOMA - Was it nature's fault or the developer's?

Two months after a storm-swollen creek buried low-lying parts of Dash Point State Park beneath tons of silt, state park officials are still trying to determine where to lay the blame.

State parks maintenance chief Paul George says the damage, which could top $1 million, ``relates to upstream construction,'' but he won't attribute it to any particular development.

Some Dash Point residents, whose driveways were washed away, point to Harbor Ridge Estates, a residential development where bulldozers have turned a 30-acre hillside into a muddy, treeless plain.

For the developer, Lowe Enterprises Northwest, the furor on the northeast edge of Tacoma is one more piece of unwelcome publicity. Lowe and the state Parks and Recreation Commission have been at the center of a separate controversy over the commission's approval last month of an Olympic Peninsula land swap.

Two environmental groups went to court earlier this month in an attempt to block the sale of 650 acres of state park land beside Discovery Bay for a resort proposed by Lowe Enterprises and Japan's Mitsubishi International. The case is pending.

At Harbor Ridge Estates, says Tacoma building director Bill Larkin, Lowe failed to install all the required flood controls - a failure he says contributed significantly to the damage downstream.

The Building Division has ordered the developer to do more to stabilize the hillside before more damage occurs. The division also has tightened its erosion-control requirements for new developments and has asked the City Council to impose new restrictions on developers.

Harbor Ridge Estates, the largest subdivision under construction in Tacoma, will include 600 homes and a shopping center on 190 acres.

Lowe also developed the planned community of Klahanie near Lake Sammamish.

Lowe Enterprises President Rick Lennon says his company exceeded city erosion-control requirements and did all it could to prevent flood damage at Harbor Ridge Estates.

He acknowledged land-clearing added to flooding and siltation in the creek Nov. 24, but said the real culprits were heavy rains and an improperly sized culvert on a neighbor's property. The creek does not have a name.

Neighbors began to grumble last summer when 30 acres of trees were clear-cut and sand washed into one resident's back yard.

``It looks like Saudi Arabia,'' said Al Williams, assistant ranger at Dash Point State Park.

``I don't like to do it,'' Lowe's Lennon said of the clear-cutting. ``I don't do it that often.''

In the case of Harbor Ridge, he said, clearing was necessary because most of the trees were madronas, which homeowners often remove because of the tendency to topple and shed.

Lori Lockert, whose custom-built home lies between Harbor Ridge Estates and Dash Point Park, didn't think much about the clear-cutting at first.

``It wasn't that significant to us,'' she said. ``Then the creek began to change.''

As the creek ran muddier and grew in the fall rains, Lockert contacted the Tacoma Building Division. Officials told the developer to install erosion-control dams and a large storm-water detention pond called for in city-approved plans.

But the developer ran into problems when the Tacoma Water Division warned the pond might deplete ground water that supplies three municipal wells.

The state Department of Ecology told Lowe it needed a water-rights permit for the detention pond.

``This one's beat me, frankly,'' Lennon said of his company's efforts to prevent flooding. ``We tried - we tried like crazy.''

For properties along the small stream that often dries up during the summer, the damage was unprecedented.

``I was astounded. I was at a loss for words,'' said park ranger Williams, describing his reaction to what he saw when he returned from a vacation after the flood.

The creek changed course in places and dumped silt up to 5 feet deep in Dash Point State Park.

A popular picnic area was buried by sand, and a trail rebuilt last year was covered over in some places and washed away in others.

Of the 49 state parks damaged by flooding and high winds in November and December, Dash Point was ``one of the worst, and it's going to be one of the most complicated to repair,'' said George, the parks maintenance chief.

Replacing the two private driveways washed away will cost at least $50,000, according to Lowe's estimate. He offered to pay 20 percent to 25 percent, which was turned down by homeowners, who want the entire cost covered.

City and state officials, meanwhile, continue to look uneasily at the unprotected hillside.

Lowe remains stymied in the company's plans to build a detention pond.

The state Department of Ecology won't issue a permit for the pond until scientists determine whether it will affect city wells.