Warner Ridge Townhomes Near Approval

A City Council panel endorsed a proposal Tuesday to build 454 townhomes on the northern 14.7 acres of the Warner Ridge property, saying the project is preferable to a commercial development previously slated for the site.

Council members Cindy Miscikowski and Mike Hernandez, sitting as the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, agreed with many neighbors of the project who thought there would be fewer negative effects from a residential project than a commercial one.

“I think this is a superior alternative to the [commercial] one that was before us,” Hernandez said.

Developer Jerry Katell said that if the City Council approves the residential project today as scheduled, he will abandon plans to build 690,000 square feet of office and commercial space and will break ground on the residential project early next year.

Katell said the townhome project would cut “the traffic by 68% from a commercial project.”

Instead of 123-foot-tall commercial buildings, the residential development would be limited to 75 feet in height, Katell added.

Although some neighbors supported the new residential project, Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said there are still some concerns about its height and density.

“We still think 454 [units] is extremely dense for that area,” Murley told the committee. “We would like to see it down to 350 to 375.”

But the council panel recommended that the project be approved at 454 units after the Planning Commission scaled it back from 471 units.

The original agreement for commercial development was approved several years ago after the council had attempted to block a commercial project on the site next to Pierce College and the court ordered the city to allow it.

The council panel approved the residential project Tuesday after hearing testimony from lobbyist Steven Afriat on behalf of Katell. In addition to representing Katell, Afriat has worked as a paid political consultant for both Hernandez and Miscikowski.

Murley charged that the council members are working out a development agreement with Katell that benefits council members, not the community.

In addition to recommending approval of the residential project, the council panel agreed to give the developers $3 million in credits toward city development fees.

The court order had required the city to waive $4 million in city fees for the commercial project, to cover attorneys’ costs in the litigation. Although the court order applied only to a commercial development, council members said Tuesday that they would support a negotiated settlement in which the developer would get $3 million in fees waived.

The council panel also recommended that the development include a 10-foot-wide, landscaped buffer area between the residential units and Pierce College.

Miscikowski said the proposal is an acceptable end to a years-long controversy.

“This is a case that has had an incredible history,” she said. “But my understanding of the community’s participation in this for many, many years is that the residential project would clearly be preferable.”