By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
After a long holding pattern, a developer has been told it can go ahead with a new housng development near Eatonville's airfield.
The Town Council last week approved the final plat for Aviator Heights, which calls for 21 single-family homes adjacent to Swanson Field.
The developer is Pacific Northwest Development and Land Co.
A different developer filed the first plans for the project in 2006. Since then, it has been changed, gone through several reviews, and survived challenges. The latest one came last month, when Councilman Robert Thomas – with the backing of other community members – asked for the project to be sent back to the town’s Planning Commission for more public review. The request was rejected by the rest of the council members after the town attorney advised them that the council’s prior approval of a preliminary plant was done correctly and that the developer could sue the town – and win – if the council went back on its earlier action.
The project also cleared a hurdle in court two years ago. In June 2015, a Pierce County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against the town by Steve Van Cleve, an aviation activist who claimed the council improperly authorized new plans for Aviator Heights.
The project has been on the drawing board in one form or another for 10 years, starting with its original developer proposing a residential airpark for private pilots to keep their airplanes at homes that would be built at the small airport. Van Cleve, in claims similar to those made by Thomas, stated an airpark is more suitable than "regular" residential housing for the airstrip's long-term future. He also contended an Aviation Heights plat approval expired.
The judge rejected the lawsuit without a trial, siding with town officials who defended the council's process. They said Aviator Heights would be a compatible land-use in the airport area and would be an economic stimulus for the town by adding to the local tax base.
Twenty-three single-family homes were originally proposed. The number was reduced by two because of aviation safety-related concerns raised by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Construction of the homes hasn’t started. Some infrastructure for the project has been built, but the project site is mostly undeveloped.
Swanson Field has a single runway and is used by private pilots of single-engine aircraft for general-aviation.
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