HISTORY
 * Reviewing-understanding the maps is needed prerequisite. *

In 1997 Mike Phillips, owner of the neighboring property to the north of ours,
Berrys, suggested that we apply for a rezone hearing to discuss the possibility
of receiving R4 zoning. I did the paperwork necessary and after submitting was
given approval of our application by the city of Bothell.

This text will display links that post scans of the documents/correspondence
that ensued in our 19 year effort to find resolve, closure in what would appear
to be missteps according to many factors. This concentrates on the first 10
years.

1997: 
October 6th
We submit application for a rezone hearing and have it accepted by the city.
Follows -- is a two year period of no response from the city.
1999:
November 22
We correspond asking why our rezone application has not been processed/heard.
A Response -- that includes the answer from the community planning manager.
Jim.Thompson_1999.pdf
"...and reassures you that your proposals will be considered -- as one of
the key issues in the major plan update -- next year." That would be year 2000.
What follows is a long period of silence until 2003.
2003:
We are notified via email that our application for rezone hearing has been lost. We
are asked by postal mail if we want to resubmit our request. 
July.21_2003_Request.Lost
Aug.28_2003_RezoneRequest_Lost
Our response follows
Sept.5_Req_Lost_Response.Letter
2004:
In 2004 the Critical Species Habitat agenda moved forward and after waiting over
6 years to have our rezone hearing request - heard Zone 1 was included in an
LID that proposed to take 65% of owner's land basically off the market, of no
use to us as our life long investment having owned the property since 1972.
During 2004 there were private studies done, Shapiro, Arboriculture, B-twelve
Associates, to determine that our property, referred to as "the dry land", had 
no critical areas. 
Reasons for another delay from staff
Nov_22_2004_C.S.Hab_Created
Nov.22_2004
It is at this point that we determine that the information you have seen so far
needs to be introduced to the public record, submitted to the council and to
staff. In doing so we believe that the council voted to allow our rezone hearing
to go forward while many others were not. We also requested some investigation.
The long delays had forced us into a zoning with low impact development
restrictions that were entirely experimental, never before tried. We were to
lose a great deal of our land's value with no compensation of any kind. And
shortly we would be burdened with the Bothell Connector arterial project which
would bisect our land, also without any compensation whatsoever. The burden was
becoming unbelievably heavy and we Fitzgerald subarea property owners were
expected to take on this burden unlike any other property owners in the city. We in
Zone 1 were not being heard for the reality of the situation.
C.Morris Letter (Note: "John Wallace" - Bothell City Attorney)
2005:
I'm noting what was said by the then chair of the Planning Commission regarding
the zoning of Zone 1 highlighted (yellow prompt) in this .pdf file.
Samberg.Notes
2006 - 2007:
We spend 17 months worth of deliberations in front of the city council to determine
zoning which becomes R5400A with the experimental restrictions of LID attached. As
one member of staff puts it we have been "appeased". 
What follows, beginning in late Summer, is the Financial Crash, the end of another
real estate market, a very deep and serious one.
2008 - 2016:
In the years following a group of us, owners of Zone 1 properties, request a
meeting with staff to explain that although the real estate market is suffering
we are being approached by developers who wish to tie up property with
contracts. What the developers are eventually telling us is that, after contact
with the city they are realizing that the experimental code restrictions are far
too stringent for development and we are left with no prospects to sell. The
meeting with staff is to explain this situation and that we property owners are
getting desperate, getting old, that we need to move on with our lives, the
lives of our families, our family's investment hopelessly tied up. We find out
that essentially the building code for the experimental LID has not been
completed.

What follows is staff's commitment to make things right. A group of engineers,
staff from a noted developer, joins the city's staff to meet and discuss what
needs to be done in order to make the properties marketable. Solutions are
reached, staff writes the necessary code and things move forward. The property
owners sign with a developer who spends resources in going through the steps to
make application but during the interim the non profit organization responsible
for the experimental LID appeals to the state Growth Management Board and wins a
decision to force to city to return to the unworkable level of restrictions that
previously stopped all sales of Zone 1 properties. The problem again lies in the
fact that Zone 1 is left encumbered the same as Zones 2 and 3, Zone 3 being the
properties closest along North Creek and Zone 2 - just east of 35th Ave S.E.
There is no differentiation between Zone 1 and the other zones although Zone 1
is physically set apart. 

To date the property owners of Zone 1 have no sales contracts signed just as 
before. We are caught in a "Limbo". We are appealing to the city to treat us as
a separate entity, a separation from the Fitzgerald subarea if necessary. We are
sppealing to be heard for what we are, a disconnection from the rest of the LID,
not a fit with the vision of the three creek fishery that lies off to the north
and west. 

Tom Berry