Written by North Renton residents issue press release about their Logan Six appeal. This appeal was announced on Monday night after North Renton neighbors tried one final time to get assistance from Renton City Council. This is the statement in its entirety:
PRESS RELEASE
NO Logan 6!
Contact: Sheryl Friesz, Matt Hanbey
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RENTON ‘AHEAD OF THE CURVE’!? MORE LIKE ‘BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE!!’
Renton Neighbors Raise Funds, Hire Lawyer to Appeal Proposed Logan 6 Development.
Renton, WA (March 25, 2025) – Renton Neighbors, fed up with city, the mayor, and the city council are taking their issues to court:
“We’re fed up. We’ve tried to work with the city and our elected officials for more than eighteen months, including our city council members and mayor, but they played ostrich and dug their heads in the sand. So, we’re taking our issues to Superior Court.”
“The message we’re sending— and have been sending– to the City, the Mayor, and the City Council is: we will not tolerate the inaction, lack of engagement, and disregard for process on developments, like Logan 6, that impacts all of Renton.”
“The fact we have to go straight to court is infuriating. The council removed itself from their role to hear our appeal and they did it the night before the hearing examiner’s scheduled hearing on this project. They denied us the chance to appeal; moreover, they haven’t done a single thing to address our concerns. They initially hid behind the appeal process and now they’re hiding behind what we see as incompetence on their part.”
Despite the cost, in 12 hours Renton neighbors raised enough funds to retain legal representation. Bryan Telegin, a lawyer specializing in land use and environmental law, will file the appeal:
Bryan Telegin has represented non-profit corporations, environmental organizations, homeowner’s associations and neighborhood groups, and individuals in complex environmental and land use matters. His land use practice focuses on opposing large-scale development projects in state court, state agency forums (including Washington’s Growth Management Hearings Board, Shorelines Hearings Board, and Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council), and local administrative forums in cities and counties across the
State of Washington. For more info on Bryan, see https://teleginlaw.com/
BACKGROUND
The Logan 6 project is a proposed six-story, 100-unit apartment building that would sit on the edge of the North Renton Neighborhood, on N Logan Avenue, between North 3rd and North 4th streets. This property is currently a vacant lot across from Renton Municipal Football Stadium.
Renton received an application to develop the property in August, 2022. The project was approved by the city in early 2025. During the past two-and-a half years the project was put on-hold by the city several times, which underscores the many issues with the proposed use of the site:
“The developer proposes a square peg in a round hole. The site is arguably too narrow. The access points are wrong and will drive traffic into and through our neighborhood. There isn’t enough parking on-site and no on-street parking is available. This proposed 100-unit building will create what is a 100-foot wall along an entire block on the edge of our neighborhood. The development is completely out of character with our neighborhood, and should never have been an allowed use.”
Local residents began to express concerns about the project in the Fall of 2022, and continued to question the city about the project for:
■ Size/Bulk/Mass: The proposed development is nearly one-hundred feet high, and would run the entire length of the block between North 3rd Street and North 4th Street along Logan Avenue. The size of this building is out of character for the areas, which consists mostly of small commercial buildings and small residences nearby.
■ Parking: There would be only 1 parking space per unit, whether the unit is a studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, etc. 100 parking spaces for 100 units is not enough parking and will require on-street parking. Moreover, there is no on-street parking on the block where this would be built. So, any on-street parking is forced into the North Renton Neighborhood.
■ Entry and Access: the property is a square peg for a round hole. Because the property is so narrow, the 3rd street entrance will only be accessible to some cars. Vehicles who can not access the 3rd street entrance will have to use residential streets nearby.
Residents argued to the city, council, mayor, and to the city hearing examiner that the proposed development conflicts with:
■ Renton Municipal Code (Community City Center Plan) which requires a ‘protection of city center neighborhoods, edges of the neighborhood and transition areas between zones’,
■ City Administrative Code on Design Standards to ‘preserve the character of long-established neighborhoods’ and ‘siting requirements to consider effects on natural light for nearby buildings’, and
■ City Comprehensive Plan goals to ‘Protect public scenic views and public view corridors,
including Renton’s physical, visual and perceptual linkages to Lake Washington and the Cedar River.” (italics added) and “Consider scale and context for infill projects to preserve privacy and quality of life for residents.”
Many residents contacted the city about the proposed development. Residents wrote the City Council and Mayor with their concerns, turned in a petition with ninety signatures expressing their concerns, spoke at multiple city council meetings, and testified before the hearing examiner. They are still contacting the council on the chance council will do something to address their concerns.
Boeing opposes the development. Boeing has an easement on the property for two large high pressure water lines that are connected to the Boeing plant nearby on Lake Washington. A Boeing representative testified before the hearing examiner about concerns over operation and maintenance of the water lines. According to Boeing, if the water lines aren’t working properly the company would lose millions of dollars in lost productivity for every hour the water lines aren’t working.
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The council has to make decisions that reflect the greater good – it’s not surprising that some NIMBYs are upset that traffic might get a little worse. But just because the council doesn’t agree with them doesn’t mean their interests weren’t considered, only that the councilmembers decided that the interests of the city as a whole outweigh their individual concerns.
Lawsuits like the one described have for decades led to delays and increased costs for housing construction, to the detriment of all of us, and have led to the housing shortage our country now faces. Selfish, short term thinking, IMO.
The council abdicated their own review process for the benefit of the developer. While I agree that high density is what we as a “left-of-center” city advocate for, we need to at least pretend that current residents are worth listening to.
We’re happy to have housing in ‘our backyard’ and we have clearly articulated this over the last few years, including to all of City Council, the Mayor, and the Developer and Architect.
What we’ve asked for is the thoughtful placement of developments; everywhere in Renton. Not just regarding Logan 6. We’ve asked the City/Council to clearly define all ambiguous codes/resolutions/ordinances that adversely impact neighborhoods (and to be fair, developers too).
As we said to the developer when we met with him face to face, we want to welcome all newcomers to our neighborhood. We want approved developments to meet the comprehensive, city, and administrative plans/codes…and variances not be made on a one off basis. In this case, it was not well thought out…not only due to traffic. It includes lack of parking, the impact to the single family homes on Burnett that will now have a 100 foot ‘wall’ in front of them, and Boeing’s concerns over their 15 foot easements on the property which would create a loss of 9M per hour if those water lines are damaged. I’d recommend that you listen to the Hearing Examiner’s meeting, which we spoke at, as did Boeing.