FINANCIAL ISSUES

People are talking about the Cle Elem bankruptcy.  

The bankruptcy is related to the development agreement between the city and the developer.  

There is a development agreement between Statesman and Jefferson County for the Pleasant Harbor Master Planned Resort (MPR).  The development agreement was written by the developer.  When it was presented to the  county Planning Commission, some of the Commissioners tried to accept it without any discussion,  The vote to evaluate the development agreement passed with a narrow majority.

The Planning Commission wrote this letter to the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners with their concerns. 

Mark Rose wrote this 2018 letter to the planning commission, which clearly lays out financial concerns and some of this history of the MPR.

The Brinnon Group successfully challenged the development agreement the county signed in 2018.  The Superior Court order required the county to make changes to the agreement that locked the developer into specific actions to comply with state law.

  • The Superior Court decision was in early 2019.  Jefferson County did not post the correct agreement on the county website until 2024.

  • Brinnon Group attorney Rick Aramburu has written several letters to the county pointing out ways that current development plans do not comply with state law and the revised development agreement.

Jefferson County rarely responds to citizen concerns about the MPR.

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UPDATE ON DUCKABUSH BRIDGE PROJECT

EXERPT: The state and the federal government are planning to replace the Duckabush Bridges and to restore the river estuary at the same time .  The plan calls for about 1600 feet of Highway 101 to be elevated above the estuary on support piers.  Historic channels of the river would be restored.

Jefferson County has approved a master planned resort with almost 900 units and recreational facilities on the same estuary.  Extensive review of the resort did not include the planned salmon recovery project or the impacts of an urban density project on it.

The changes to the highway, bridges, and river are expected to cost more than $100 million. Planning started in the mid 1990’s, involving the state Fish and Wildlife and Transportation departments, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group.

See more information

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1.     The Statesman Company has proposed a Master Planned Resort (MPR) at Brinnon on Hood Canal in Jefferson County.

MPRs are an exception to the prohibition of urban development in rural areas. However, the Growth Management Act requires that MPRs are not a typical residential development but must meet requirements such as being “a self-contained and fully integrated planned unit development…with a range of developed on-site indoor or outdoor recreational facilities.”

2. Before land sales can take place, infrastructure and recreational amenities must be complete.  Four years ago, the developer attempted to move forward with its plans without committing to completing facilities that would qualify it for an MPR, but the Brinnon Group successfully sued in Superior Court to require that infrastructure must be complete before land sales can occur.

3.  Now the developer is once again promoting sales of property in the MPR without completing any of the work required by its terms of approval. Sales brochures have been sent through the US mail to local residents in Western Washington, including referencing advertising on various internet sites.

4.The Brinnon Group has filed complaints with the Washington State Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seeking orders to cease deceptive sales activity until site work and amenities are complete. The full complaint is on the Brinnon Group website.

5.     Though the sale material conveys the impression the MPR is move-in ready, in fact there are not even permit applications, much less completed facilities for any of the elements required for the MPR, including:

a.     Community recreation center with 208 short term hotel rooms, pool, waterslides, hockey rink, and sports courts

b.     Road network and road improvement on Highway 101

c.      A nine-hole golf course

d.     52 residential units for MPR staff

Indeed, the essential of development, sewer and water facilities, are not even in the planning stage, though Stateman promises ”indoor pools, hockey and skating, indoor soccer and other training facilities” to prospective owners.  It also fancifully promises a “health center” offering “an approved surgical operatory” for various procedures including “plastic surgery, urology and gynecology.”

6.  The developer appears to lack basic financing for this substantial venture; indeed, it asked local and state governments for some $37million in grants and loans for the project a few years ago.

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