Soccer field case headed to Superior Court
October 8, 2008
By Laura Geggel
After a volley of appeals on both sides of a case involving a North Bend soccer field, an appeal hearing has been scheduled at the Superior Court for Jan. 6.
The soccer field at the center of the case was built on Southeast 150th Street in 2004. Peter Fewing, a former soccer coach at Seattle University, and his wife Patty hoped to use the field during the annual summer camps they host. Their neighbors challenged that the soccer camp was inappropriate for a residential neighborhood.
The neighbors, Pete Glover, Dan Wilbert and Chris Scoones, began their case by telling the county Department of Development and Environmental Services that the Fewings may have moved more dirt during construction than their permit allowed.
In a 2004 permit, the Fewings wrote that they would only move 490 cubic yards, 10 cubic yards less than the amount that would trigger a State Environmental Policy Act review.
The department conducted an independent evaluation of the dirt moved and estimated that about 2,100 cubic yards of excavation and fill volumes had been used in the field’s construction. Because the amount of dirt seemed to have exceeded 500 cubic yards, the department asked the Fewings to obtain a valid grading permit by July 10, which would cost about $1,045, plus hourly billings.
But when July 10 came, the Fewings chose to appeal the violation notice.
“We didn’t do what they said we did,” said Patty Fewing.
Fewing said they had engineers design the field, hired a company do the work and passed King County inspections 4.5 years ago.
“If something was horribly wrong, they would have picked up on it then,” Fewing said.
The soccer camp ran for 4.5 weeks this summer, and the Fewings have a conditional use permit to operate the camp 130 days per year. The Fewings, who have operated soccer camps for 29 years, also run camps in other areas, such as Everett and Federal Way.
They have already received a conditional-use permit to expand their soccer camp to include cabins for 96 campers and staff, a house for the Fewings, a dining lodge, a swimming pool and a 58-car gravel parking lot.
Fewing said she and her husband were flexible with removing some of the above structures from their list, if the neighbors objected.
“We’re going to make changes and work with them,” Fewing said.
The Fewings are not the only party appealing. The neighbors are appealing against the department’s decision to allow a soccer camp.
The neighbors contested that because the Fewing field is on a RA5 property, which only allows one house on a five-acre parcel, the camp should not be allowed. The department sent the Glovers a letter Aug. 12, stating they did not dispute the Fewings’ use of the field. If the Glovers disagreed, they could appeal the department’s decision, wrote Randy Sandin, division director for the land use services division.
After reading the letter, the neighbors decided to appeal.
“Everything is back on the table,” Scoones said.
Scoones said that the camp’s traffic is disrupting the neighborhood.
“Most of the issue is when the parents start drop off,” Scoones said. “There’s a sudden influx in traffic. It’s not just some kids using the soccer field.”
A pre-hearing conference for the two appeals was held Sept. 22.
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