Heller Bldg., LLC v. City of Bellevue

194 P.3d 264
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedOctober 27, 2008
Docket60656-5-I
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 194 P.3d 264 (Heller Bldg., LLC v. City of Bellevue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heller Bldg., LLC v. City of Bellevue, 194 P.3d 264 (Wash. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

194 P.3d 264 (2008)

HELLER BUILDING, LLC, a Washington Limited Liability Company, Respondent,
v.
CITY OF BELLEVUE, a municipal organization under the laws of the State of Washington, Appellant.

No. 60656-5-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

September 2, 2008.
Publication Ordered October 27, 2008.

*266 Cheryl Ann Zakrzewski, Mary Kate Berens, City of Bellevue, Bellevue, WA, Michael R. Kenyon, Bob C. Sterbank, Kenyon Disend PLLC, Issaquah, WA, for Appellant.

H. Troy Romero, Romero Park & Wiggins PS, Bellevue, WA, for Respondent.

Julie M. Nichols, Building Industry Association of WA, Olympia, WA, for Other Parties.

LEACH, J.

¶ 1 Heller Building, LLC (HBL), obtained a building permit to remodel a downtown Bellevue property for use as an office for the Seattle Street of Dreams. HBL brings a petition under the Land Use Petition Act (LUPA), chapter 36.70.C RCW, challenging the city of Bellevue's decision ordering work stopped on its project. We hold that HBL's petition was timely, but that HBL fails to show that it is entitled to relief under LUPA.

Background

¶ 2 John Heller is the owner of Heller Building, LLC (HBL). On December 22, *267 2005, Heller submitted to the city of Bellevue (City) an application for predevelopment services for property located at 35 100th Avenue NE, Bellevue. At the time, Heller was under contract to purchase the property, and the Meydenbauer Dental Clinic building was situated there. He attached a letter to the predevelopment services application, asking the City to respond to several questions regarding the feasibility of potential uses and development options for the property.

¶ 3 The City sent a detailed response to Heller's request on January 17, 2006. The City explained that any remodel of the existing nonconforming structure that would exceed 100 percent of its replacement value would trigger compliance with current building code and land use regulations. Heller inquired as to whether he could build a two-story office building with 3,000 square feet of space, to which the City responded that the maximum floor area that could be achieved on the existing footprint was 2,350 square feet. The City informed Heller that if the existing building were completely torn down, current setback requirements would leave only 32 square feet on which to build a new structure.

¶ 4 Heller subsequently e-mailed the City on January 26, 2006, asking it to clarify its response to some of his questions. In the City's e-mail response of February 7, 2006, the City clarified that any remodel of a nonconforming structure may not exceed 100 percent of the replacement value without triggering full compliance with current regulations, but that because his project also involved a nonconforming site, a remodel exceeding 30 percent of the existing building's replacement value would trigger proportional compliance requirements under Bellevue City Code (BCC) 20.20.560(C). In the weeks following, Heller and his architect remained in close contact with the City as they developed a plan to remodel the existing building up to 30 percent of its replacement value.

¶ 5 In June 2006, HBL filed a building permit application. The description of the proposed work stated, "face lift and remodel of existing building no footprint change— change from flat to pitch [sic] roof." The proposed construction was valued at $153,480.17, which was 29.84 percent of $514,305.26, the stated replacement value of the existing building. The remodel and replacement cost analyses were furnished by HBL's architect, Clynn Wilkinson of 4D Architects.

¶ 6 The City requested additional information from HBL's architect on August 16, 2006, including a request for "engineering or an engineers [sic] statement indicating that the existing foundation is capable of supporting the additional loads that are proposed with the additional floor and the revised roof layout." Wilkinson responded,

I performed the gravity calculations. I have a copy of the plans that were used to build large portions of the original building. The detail and specifications on these plans appear to comply with the requirements as set forth IBC. The foundation appears to be sound and does not have any significant cracks.

Although Wilkinson provided calculations and analysis by Dwayne Barnes of Stoney Point Engineering in response to other requests by the City, there is no evidence that HBL had an engineer analyze the building's foundation in response to its request regarding the foundation.

¶ 7 A building permit was issued on November 3, 2006, and HBL began construction. In December, HBL's contractor demolished all of the exterior walls, although the approved plans detailed removal of only some exterior walls. After taking down the walls, HBL contacted city officials to inform them that it had discovered that the existing foundation was unsafe. City inspectors agreed that additional work was needed to make the foundation safe and suggested HBL submit revised plans showing the proposed foundation repairs. The City approved HBL's revised plans and HBL proceeded to complete the repairs, including pouring a new slab.

¶ 8 On January 22, 2007, the city council passed a moratorium immediately preventing future development on 13 properties in downtown Bellevue, including the property at issue here. The purpose of the moratorium was to give the City time to conduct a study to support the City's goal to "increase the *268 connections to the Meydenbauer waterfront and improve the livability of the Meydenbauer Bay neighborhood."

¶ 9 On February 8, 2007, Patti Wilma, land use planning manager, sent an internal e-mail to Gregg Schrader, building official, requesting a stop work order for the property. Wilma stated that she believed the permit was based on inaccurate information from the applicant and that work should be stopped while the value of improvements and replacement value were assessed and the level of compliance required under the land use code was determined. Schrader responded that stop work orders were posted according to the following procedure: first, the land use department would notify the owner and contractor by phone; then Schrader's department (building) would post the stop work order; and finally, land use would send a letter clearly identifying why work was stopped and what needed to be done to have the order lifted.

¶ 10 Carol Helland, land use director, then attempted to contact Heller and his architect. She agreed to meet with Heller and his contractor in person on Monday, February 12, 2007, at 9:00 a.m., before posting the stop work order. However, the meeting did not take place, and the stop work order was posted at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February 13, 2007. For "Reason Posted," the stop work order stated: "EXCEEDING PERMITTED SCOPE OF WORK!" The "Correction Required" was to "PROVIDE REVISIONS TO COMPLY WITH CURRENT CITY OF BELLEVUE CONSTRUCTION AND LAND USE CODES AND ORDINANCES." In the space provided for a completion date it said, "CONTACT CITY."

¶ 11 Heller submitted a lengthy memo to the City on February 14, 2007, explaining his view of the project's history and why he thought the City should not have issued the stop work order. He asked that the City either immediately lift the stop work order or immediately meet with him to discuss "finding some common ground" on which the City could agree to lift the order.

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Bluebook (online)
194 P.3d 264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heller-bldg-llc-v-city-of-bellevue-washctapp-2008.