Replacing what is now the Woodinville Riding Club at 17856 NE Woodinville-Duvall Road, the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish and private K-8 school is slated to break ground as early as 2008. If all goes as proposed, the church and school will serve 1,000 worshippers and 400 students respectively, and will include a 16,000-square-foot church and a three-story, 59,000-square-foot school building, complete with a paved 229-stall parking lot.

On January 17, the King County Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) awarded the church/school their Conditional Use Permit, essentially green-lighting the project as is.

The most overt and immediate impact we can all expect if this project moves forward as planned, is increased traffic congestion on Woodinville-Duvall Road.

Picture the current nightmare-caliber traffic problems facing Woodinville-bound drivers during a typical morning commute. Now add 400 students being dropped off by car each morning.

To remedy this problem, DDES and the church/school have settled on adding two short turn lanes to the road. This is an inadequate solution.

Less obvious to some, but of no less concern, are the environmental impacts this project will bring.

The site is located along Daniels Creek, the main source of water for Cottage Lake. Cottage Lake is already listed on Washington state’s 303(d) list for not meeting state water quality standards. After 10-plus years, efforts to improve this situation are at last gaining serious momentum. Friends of Cottage Lake recently applied for, and received, a $218k grant to begin vital lake improvements and restoration.

Meanwhile, the church/school’s site plan calls for the parking lot, driveway and retention ponds to cut the stream buffers along Daniels Creek to a minimum of 80 feet from the required 150 feet. More than 1,000 square feet of wetland and 14,000 square feet of wetland buffer will also be impacted by the proposed road widening.

In addition, the site plan claims that the school (with its 400 students) will not feature even a small kitchen, thus relieving them of their obligation to install a more robust septic system.

On top of this, the site’s proposed sprinkler system is oversized to allow for “future expansion.” Those are their words.

In spite of these issues, DDES has decided not to require a full SEPA environmental impact review of the project, which seems to stand in stark contrast to King County’s CAO environmental guidelines for rural property owners.

How is it that a site with more than 75,000 sq. feet of building and a 229-stall parking lot, with plans for further expansion, is allowed to sidestep the rules placed upon Joe Homeowner?

We do not want the parishioners and students of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta to feel unwelcome in their new home. But there is simply too much at stake for this area not to make these concerns public. This project must be scaled back considerably.

Please visit http://cottagelake.wordpress.com for details and discussion about this project, or contact Jonathan Morrison at jonathanmorrison@hotmail.com.