Editor,
In response to a Feb. 7 article in The Record, “Sunny View Village: No flooding or no occupancy permit, county says,” the drainage problem at Sunny View Village should be no surprise.
Permits should never have been issued for this project in the first place, and would not have been, had the owner not been a government agency.
Almost two years ago, a coalition of concerned citizens warned the Island County Housing Authority (and the Island County Board of Commissioners) that the plans for this facility were deficient — even fatal. Among other engineering problems, we noted sewerage, drainage, traffic danger, and a lack of local services and transportation for the proposed clientele.
When this project was begun, it assumed access to a sewer in Freeland, and a downtown twice its current size. When it became clear three years ago that Freeland couldn’t afford a $40 million sewer itself, and wasn’t going to find any one else to pay for it, the Sunny View Village project became unworkable, and should have been cancelled immediately.
In April 2013 we citizens asked both the Washington State Department of Commerce (Housing Trust Fund), and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to reconsider their grants — as they should have, by law. Their responses were cursory and inadequate, mere bureaucratic gestures. The HUD investigator spoke only with Teri Anania, executive director of the Housing Authority.
Ms. Anania has as much as admitted that the project must go forward because it has already gone over budget and spent money it didn’t have. If Sunny View isn’t completed, grant money will have to be returned — money the Housing Authority can’t repay unless it gets more grants to finish the project. Say what?
A private developer would have cut his losses long ago. Now the project faces new (un-budgeted, unfunded) engineering, building, and easement costs to stop flooding its neighbors. Even more problems loom on the horizon — pedestrian safety, just to mention one of many. Why can’t we stop this train wreck?
Yours truly,
LEW RANDALL
Freeland
