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· A motion has been filed in Superior Court requesting judicial review of the State’s failure to timely disclose information requested by SCAT chair, Elizabeth Campbell; noted for hearing on 4/16/10. · A motion for the court to issue subpoenas for the Governor, the head of WSDOT and other WSDOT and City of Seattle officials has been filed in Superior Court; noted for hearing on 4/7/10.
Private emails of WSDOT officials and consultants working on the tunnel plan. Read how they manipulated numbers, the public, and how they are still working to make this a “done deal”!
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Announcements Updated August 13, 2010:
Next SCAT meeting: Tuesday, July 27th, Ballard Neighborhood Service Center 5604 22nd Ave NW, at 1:30 PM.
Topics: Update on legal and administrative activity by SCAT, planning for a fundraiser
SCAT Goes to Court to Seek State’s Compliance with Environmental Laws
It has been a busy last month in the court cases that we are pursuing against the City of Seattle and the Washington State Department of Transportation. In April we had a hearing in Superior Court that gave us the first opportunity to present our case - that neither the State nor the City have followed the environmental protection laws in their aggressive pursuit to start the bored tunnel project at all costs. The judge sided with the State for the moment, however he encouraged us to follow up with a Motion for Reconsideration, an almost unprecedented request as far as hearings go. May 10th, we filed with the court our motion for reconsideration. Now we will have to see what the outcome from that is. In the federal court case, where we have a motion for a restraining order to stop the Holgate to King Street project from proceeding without a full environmental review, the State Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney General’s offices unleashed a torrent of objections to both our lawsuit and our request for an injunction. Mainly their papers oriented around trying to get our case thrown out on technicalities and procedural errors that they claim we have made—like we don’t have standing to sue, that we didn’t state clearly enough the harm that would come to us, and that we didn’t send the U.S. Attorney General a certified mail copy of the lawsuit; this despite our spending over two hundred dollars serving the head of the Federal Highway Administration. Where we will end in the pending motion is anybody’s guess, but we are hopeful that Judge Coughenour will really see through the State’s shell game about proceeding with the bored tunnel project while it does its pretend “environmental review” of the multiple projects that comprise the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Program, and claims tongue-in-cheek that it isn’t proceeding with the bored tunnel project. For a sense of what has gone on in the federal case, we have posted our May 7th federal court filings here. An appeal of the Seattle Department of Transportation amended street use permit issued to WSDOT was filed with the City of Seattle on May 1st, as well as an appeal of the Letter of Plan Approval that SDOT gave to WSDOT. That document is here.
Superior Court Case SCAT is the plaintiff in the case, and a response has also been filed to the State’s motion to dismiss. A hearing will be held April 30th for that motion at the King County Courthouse.* The filings for the Superior Court motion, including our response and exhibits can be found at the following links:
Plaintiff Campbell’s Motion to Show Cause re: Public Disclosure Requests http://www.scatnow.com/AdditionalAprilFilings/
http://www.scatnow.com/Superior%20Court%20Case/
Federal Court Case On March 26th we filed a motion for an injunction, to stop the State from proceeding to construct one portion of the project that it has pulled out of the original and true scope of the project, the S. Holgate St. to S. King St. portion of the Alaskan Way Project. The motion will be heard on April 23rd at the U.S. Courthouse.* The filings for our Federal court motion and our exhibits can be found at the following link:
http://www.scatnow.com/Federal%20Court%20Case/
Counsel for SCAT in the above cases is Jill Smith, Natural Resource Law Group
*Hearing Times/Dates/Places:
Federal Case:
U.S. Courthouse, 700 Stewart Street, 16th Floor Hearing Time: To be announced
Superior Court Case:
King County Courthouse Third and James, Courtroom W 728 (Seventh floor, west side of court building) Hearing Time: To be announced
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AND FOR AN ELEVATED SOLUTION |