TNT: Camp Murray a step closer to new gate
The News Tribune reporter Christian Hill reports, “Construction of the new gate at Camp Murray cleared a major hurdle Tuesday when a hearing examiner tossed out a challenge filed by residents in neighboring Tillicum who are opposed to the project.” Read more here.
Category: Camp Murray, Government, Lakewood, Tillicum
In rendering his decision Lakewood’s Hearing Examiner James O’Conner ruled March 1st – in the first go-round – that the validity of the Washington Military Department (WMD) gate-relocate were outside his purview (p.8).
Had the WMD’s underlying motive been revealed, I wager the general public would’ve been repulsed.
Since we are under no such restrictions as to what was unexamined by the Examiner, it should be of great interest to the skeptical tax-paying public – in this current economic downtrend especially – that the WMD wants to spend near $5 million to move its gate because they want a walk-able campus.
“The SDP (Site Development Plan) moves Camp Murray towards a pedestrian-friendly campus with most vehicular traffic relocated to the perimeter of the campus.”
That’s page one of the 2011 WMD’s Environmental Assessment.
The community of Tillicum is “the perimeter”.
One year ago David Bugher, Lakewood’s Assistant City Manager of Community Development, complained that Camp Murray’s existing gate could be set back further to accommodate vehicle stacking. To which Camp Murray responded this year: “The existing location was determined to not meet project objectives, including plans for making Camp Murray an exclusively administrative and pedestrian friendly campus” (p.216).
From the very first page of the 2011 EA, to near the very last of the 268 pages, Camp Murray makes unmistakably clear – no option is acceptable that does not meet its overriding, self-serving purpose.
It is repulsing! Especially as building of the new gate continued during this hearing process – why wasn’t an injunction issued to put the project on hold until the hearing/review was complete? The hearing must have been all eyewash for the citizens of Tillicum because the more the project continued, the more you had to realize defeat and there was no turning back. What’s even more amazing is the current main gate is not going away, no only millions more were poured into it for upgrade to handle truck/delivery traffic. So much for smoke and mirrors of safety issue on Berkley Rd intersection.