On January 24th, the city of Leavenworth released a Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) for the proposed Alpenglow project. This project proposal is for a 70-lot subdivision on 28 acres in the area north of Pine Street. The State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requires the city to evaluate the probable adverse impacts of a project on the environment including roads and other infrastructure. An MDNS is a document which concludes that with the specified mitigation measures, none of the project impacts is significant.
RC3 analyzed the MDNS and has come to a very different conclusion. We have submitted a 6-page comment letter which describes the many areas in which both the analysis and the proposed mitigations measures are deficient. Several important studies which are needed to evaluate environmental impacts have not yet been done.
Our concerns include the following: a traffic impact study conducted during the summer weekends is not yet done; the stormwater management plan is not yet done; the mitigation for increased demand for recreation generated by the future new residents is not adequate; the project lacks housing that is affordable to the local workforce; there is a significant question as to whether the city has the sewage treatment infrastructure needed to support this project; and protection of the wetlands on the site is inadequate.
We have asked the city of Leavenworth to withdraw the MDNS and to address these deficiencies.