WinCo Foods attorney calls for case dismissal

MOSES LAKE — The latest round between WinCo Foods and A Stronger Moses Lake is headed to court on Friday where WinCo’s attorney is asking a judge to dismiss the case challenging plans to build a store in Moses Lake.

A Stronger Moses Lake, Donna Anderson and Peggy Vines, filed a land use petition against Moses Lake, WinCo Foods and the property owners – Harlan and Maxine Douglas. The group maintains the store will create traffic problems at the Stratford Road and Valley Drive intersections or the Stratford Road and Broadway Avenue intersections. The group also challenged the city’s opinion that the store wasn’t going to cause a significant impact to the environment of the area.

WinCo attorney Jon Sitkin filed the motion in Donna Anderson, Peggy Vines and A Stronger Moses Lake’s challenge to the commission deciding the city did not make a mistake in the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) process. Sitkin stated in a 12-page motion that Anderson, Vines and A Stronger Moses Lake did not show they suffered “an injury-in-fact.”

“They’re claiming we didn’t meet the criteria for approval or the city error-ed in issuing a mitigated determination. To be able to challenge something under the state law, they have to be able to show some injury or adverse impact they are suffering from as resulting from the project,” Sitkin said. “They didn’t testify to any injury-in-fact. They didn’t do it by declaration. They didn’t do it by verbal testimony at the hearing and they had three days to do so.”

A Stronger Moses Lake attorney Michael Whipple stated Vines and Anderson will be adversely affected by the city’s actions in this matter, including the negative impacts to their health and safety due to increased traffic and the city’s failure to consider and mitigate the impacts resulting from the project. He is also challenging the procedure the city and planning commission used when it went through the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) process.

“We pay good money to have this process in place to hold our planners accountable,” Whipple said. “They did not follow the guidelines and that’s our No. 1 objection is that they did not comply with SEPA.”

Whipple also alleges the commission didn’t consider the potential impact to pedestrian or bicyclist safety.

Senior Planner Anne Henning said WinCo Foods has not applied for a building permit for the location along Stratford Road.

“I don’t have anything to base it on, but I’m thinking they’re waiting to see what happens with the hearing on Friday,” she said.

Henning stated once the permit is applied for, the city will not need to hold up approval because of the appeal to superior court. The permit can be issued under the normal process. The hope is that the appeal will be resolved in the next few months, she said.