Dear friends,
This is a quick email to let you know that the hearing is winding to a
close but it?s not over yet. Day 4 is Monday, May 10, start time 9am.
Same place: Renton City Hall, 1055 South Grady Way in Renton, 7th floor,
Hearing Chambers.

Since April 20 (Day 1 of the hearing), Herons Forever has shown that the
developer?s application is inaccurate and incomplete. The developer has
scrambled to produce subsequent studies and reports. After evaluating
these new documents, Herons Forever has found them to be equally lacking.


To bring you up to date, the hearing addresses two aspects of the
proposed development:


a. Plat: The plat portion evaluates whether the project is in the
public interest. It does not take into account conditions that might be
imposed (the project is conditioned in the SEPA appeal, addressed in ?b?
below). This portion of the hearing took place Tuesday, 3/27, and
involved you as members of the public. It was your opportunity to speak
out about why the Black River Riparian Forest and great blue heron colony
are important to you, and why you were concerned about this project. This
part of the hearing was completed by the end of the day. Ten days after
the conclusion of the hearing, the hearing examiner will issue a
recommendation to the Renton City Council as to whether the plat should
be approved, and the Council will vote to accept or reject his
recommendation.


b. SEPA appeal: This part of the hearing involves only those
representing the two sides of this appeal, Herons Forever and the
developer. The SEPA appeal was addressed on opening day, 4/20, and last
Thursday, 4/29. And it will be addressed again on Monday, 5/10. The basis
of Herons Forever?s appeal is posted on the Status page of our webpage in
the reports from our experts.* The hearing examiner?s role is to decide
whether the City acted properly in approving the application, and if it
did not, what additional measures should be required. His decision can be
appealed by either side to the Renton City Council.

*To read our experts? reports, go to Herons Forever Status page at
http://heronsforever.org/status.htm: ?If you would like to read our
expert's reports from their initial review, click here.? Selecting ?click
here? takes you to our webpage to access the reports.


Once the hearing is completed, the hearing examiner has ten workdays to
write his decision. We've been told by City staff that the hearing is
expected to be completed by the end of Monday, 5/10.

Please see our webpage http://heronsforever.org for more information. It
is expected to be updated by the end of this week. We've had network
problems so this part of our process is slightly delayed. We will
continue to keep you posted.


Thank you for your support of the Black River heron colony,
Suzanne Krom, president
Herons Forever
http://heronsforever.org


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