Tacoma council’s flip on rezone for psychiatric hospital results in court challenge
The unanimous vote by Tacoma’s City Council to reject a rezoning bid to build the city’s second psychiatric hospital now faces a court fight.
Tacoma Life Properties, LLC, which owns the property at South 19th Street at the intersection of South Proctor Street, on Dec. 27 filed a land-use petition in Pierce County Superior Court against the City of Tacoma over the failed rezoning ordinance.
The LLC is owned by Soon K. Kim, who also is president and CEO of Signature Healthcare Services. Signature plans to lease the property from Tacoma Life Properties for its 105-bed Tacoma Behavioral Health Hospital, a few blocks west of the 120-bed Wellfound Behavioral Health.
The council vote, on Dec. 17, unanimously rejected the rezone required as part of the conditional use permit for the project.
The rejection was led by Council member Keith Blocker and supported by Mayor Victoria Woodards, with both declaring not all such facilities needed to be located in District 3, which Blocker represents.
“I have huge concerns about placing and consolidating too many behavioral health centers in one location, and it comes off to me that when it comes to these kinds of services, the go-to is the City of Tacoma and with that the go-to is District 3,” Blocker said at the meeting. “... It’s not equitable.”
The first reading of the ordinance in September was approved unanimously, and that is being used by the developers in the court challenge against the city.
In August, hearing examiner Jeff Capell recommended approval of the rezone and offered conditional approval of the project’s permits.
The filing contends that because no party appealed the first council vote within 21 days under the Land Use Petition Act, for all intents and purposes, “it became final as matter of law.”
“Under the Tacoma Municipal Code, that was a ‘final decision,’ and it assure[d] the applicant that the reclassification will be approved,” the case contends.
“Despite that legal mandate, the Council voted 9-0 on Dec. 17 to deny the second reading. It offered no findings of its own, nor did it cite any legal basis or any code provision to support its reversal,” according to the petition filing. “It simply said there were already behavioral health facilities in the district and another one was ‘too much.’”
It called the council decision “an erroneous interpretation of law” and blamed “inappropriate lobbying contacts” with individuals or groups opposed to the project as a factor in September’s council approval turning into its December rejection of the project.
“In addition, the council’s contention that there are too many behavioral facilities in this district discriminates on the basis of mental condition, an action that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act,” according to the case filing.
The filing calls for the December decision to be reversed and also seeks to recoup damages and legal fees.
The city, in response to request for comment, told The News Tribune on Monday, “The City is in receipt of the petition filed by Tacoma Life Properties and is currently reviewing it. As per the usual protocol, we are unable to comment further on pending litigation.”
This isn’t the first time the developers have pursued legal recourse in bringing the project to Tacoma.
The hospital gained its Certificate of Need from the state Department of Health as part of a settlement with the state and the operators of Wellfound after losing out initially to Wellfound.
An initial Land Use Petition Act hearing of the case is tentatively scheduled for February.
This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
