Port Angeles: Another bid filed to block conference center

PORT ANGELES — Another bid to stop the proposed Oak Street hotel and conference center was filed Wednesday on behalf of a rival hotel owner and others.

The appeal to the state Shoreline Management Hearings Board challenges the city’s approval of permits for the project.

It claims the project’s height will block residents’ views, has inadequate parking and that the facility’s site was changed with no notice to potential opponents.

Port Angeles attorney Craig Ritchie said he filed the action on behalf of Best Western Olympic Lodge owner Tod McClaskey and “a number of bluff dwellers” who overlook the harbor and the waterfront site where the hotel and conference center would be built.

Two Port Angeles residents, Carl Alexander and Ed Tuttle, also filed appeals challenging the project’s impact on views and parking, respectively, Ritchie said.

The four-story, 93,469-square-foot hotel and conference center would have a maximum height of 66 feet, including parking and other facilities. Most of the building would be 55 feet high.

State regulations limit structures within 200 feet of the shoreline to no more than 35 feet without a variance.

So portions of the building higher than 35 feet were moved at least 200 feet from the shoreline.

“My clients are concerned about view obstruction,” said Richie. “They are only concerned about getting the building height down to 35 feet, but I still have a problem with the parking issues.”

He added, “Where is the Coho (ferry) parking (that would be displaced by the hotel and conference center)? No one has dealt with those issues.”

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The rest of the story appears in the Thursday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.

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