The twenty year saga of the Pleasant Harbor Marina and Golf Resort may have finally been dealted a death blow in court this last week. The County Hearings Examiner has ruled against the developer and county. See attached.
The developer must build infrastructure and recreational features before he can sell lots to raise money. This was always an underlying requirement that for years the developer attempted to modify with legal challenges to the county.
Building roads, sewer and water systems, reworking the intersection with Highway 101 and building out the golf course are expensive enough, but the conference center + 208 hotel rooms would seem to make the whole venture financially infeasible. Hard to think of a bank or traditional lending source that would touch this proposal.
The project has cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in time, labor costs and legal challenges by the developer to not pay what they considered costs that they said they shouldn’t pay. The county finally settled out of court to avoid even more costs.
This county’s commissioners made a massive costly mistake in approving this project in the late 2000s. There was a significant vocal opposition to it, posing the very issues that have brought us to this sad end. Other than outright killing the proposal, the county expected that the developer would build out the infrastructure before he sold lots. That didn’t happen. There has been logging on the site, but little else that would qualify in the mind of the hearing examiner.
The Olympic Peninsula Environmental News has covered this sad situation since the beginning. You can search the site for background stories if you wish.
We are very grateful for the continued work of the Brinnon Group, who has spent thousands of hours and funds fighting this. You can help offset their costs by donating what you can.
https://www.brinnongroup.org/take-action
