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HomeMy WebLinkAbout061323 FW_ Leigh Hearon Property ________________________________ From: ken@kenkaganlaw.com Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2023 12:50:56 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: Greg Brotherton; Kate Dean; keisenhour@co.jefferson.wa.us; Mark McCauley Cc: sfreeman991@gmail.com; 'Leigh Hearon' Subject: Leigh Hearon Property ________________________________ ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. ________________________________ Dear Ms. Dean, Ms. Eisenhour, Mr. Brotherton, and Mr. McCauley, I serve as counsel to Leigh Hearon and Concerts in the Barn. In that capacity, I have had numerous contact with DCD and others regarding her non-conforming use issue. I’m writing to respond to Mr. Brotherton’s note from earlier today. In my view, he is not seeing the situation in its proper light. If it was true that all Ms. Hearon would have to do is pay Centrum’s unpaid invoice from 2016, that would be a no-brainer, and she would do it right away to put this matter behind us. But to this point, DCD has not expressed any willingness to resolve the impasse on that basis. Please review the e-mail I sent to Josh Peters one week ago today, to which he had not yet responded. In that e-mail, I described for him (and quoted) the views of a former DCD Director, David Goldsmith, who had some pretty definite opinions about the continuing validity and vitality of the 2016 Code Interpretation Mr. Goldsmith undertook. As he makes clear, the fact that the bill was not paid by Centrum has no bearing on the quality and applicability of the analysis in the interpretation. What would be most helpful would be for one (or all) of you to find out if paying the unpaid code interpretation fee is all that’s required, and if not, what in the two-page list of items to obtain a non-conforming permit DCD gave to the potential buyers of Ms. Hearon’s property will be required, and the expected cost. If Ms. Hearon can’t afford the cost, the festival goes down and she will have to sell the farm as rural agricultural. She has no choice, financially—or morally. Ms. Hearon will not start from scratch to obtain a whole new code interpretation, which is not only costly, but time-consuming. She will not pay for a re-do of the permit/interpretation she already has. The most she will do is pay Centrum’s unpaid bill. Please review my 6/6 e-mail to Josh Peters, and thank you for your consideration. Ken Kagan Law Office of Kenneth S. Kagan, PLLC P.O. Box 52646 Bellevue, WA 98015 (206) 858-6994 – Office ken@kenkaganlaw.com <mailto:ken@kenkaganlaw.com> www.kenkaganlaw.com <http://www.kenkaganlaw.com/> From: ken@kenkaganlaw.com <ken@kenkaganlaw.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 6, 2023 12:42 PM To: 'Josh Peters' <JPeters@co.jefferson.wa.us> Cc: phunsucker@co.jefferson.wa.us Subject: Leigh Hearon Property Hello, Josh, Congratulations on your new position. You have inherited some unfinished business regarding Ms. Hearon’s property, and the issue regarding the “non-conforming use” of the property for the Concerts in the Barn. As I’m sure you know from the past correspondence involving Brent Butler and me, most of which you were copied on, we take the position that the June, 2016 Code Interpretation completed by David Goldsmith remains in effect, because Ms. Hearon and her spouse, Alan Iglitzin, fully complied with the caveats posed by Mr. Goldsmith. It is certainly true that the request for the Code Interpretation came from Rob Birman and Centrum, because at the time, Centrum was considering purchasing the property, and needed assurance that Centrum could continue the tradition of hosting music festivals. While Mr. Goldsmith’s interpretation gave Mr. Birman and Centrum that assurance, for unrelated business reasons, Centrum elected not to proceed with the purchase. Moreover, it appears that Centrum failed to pay the $595.00 fee requested by DCD. It is our position that notwithstanding Centrum’s decision not to purchase the property, as well as its failure to pay the administrative fee, nothing has changed to negate Mr. Goldsmith’s interpretation. Indeed, Mr. Goldsmith recently reiterated that point in the following two e-mails from the evening of May 29, 2023: From: David Goldsmith <davidgoldsmith13@gmail.com <mailto:davidgoldsmith13@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: Letter to Rob Birman Date: May 29, 2023 at 9:09:00 PM PDT To: Leigh Hearon <concertsinthebarn@gmail.com <mailto:concertsinthebarn@gmail.com> > Without the record of what was the cause of the cancelation, I have to assume that the reason this action was taken was because Centrum failed to make payment. Technically, the fee should have been paid prior to releasing the Code Interpretation to the applicant. The facts contained in the Code Interpretation do not change by lack of payment. With your attorneys letter and proof of continuous use of the property it is clear that the operation has not been abandoned under Jefferson County Code On May 29, 2023, at 9:49 PM, David Goldsmith <davidgoldsmith13@gmail.com <mailto:davidgoldsmith13@gmail.com> > wrote: To finish up my thoughts and after researching Jefferson County Development Code it appears that lack of payment is the only reason for canceling the action. The application for Code Interpretation was not denied, rather canceled or "The process has been terminated by staff". You or your attorney may wish to find out what event brought staff to the conclusion to cancel the process and what notice was provided to either Centrum or the property order of any pending action. I suspect that based on your attorneys letter that information is being gathered. I stand by my letter and find nothing in the documented facts or circumstances that would change my opinion. Perhaps this issue can be simply resolved by offering to pay the fee that Centrum failed to pay. Feel free to reach out to me should you have any additional questions. All the best. David Picking up on points raised by Mr. Goldsmith, to the effect that we might want to know what event caused the cancellation designation and what notice was given to Centrum or Mr. Iglitzin, I wish to point out that DCD has never given us the name of the person, the date, or the reason for the cancellation stamp. It appears your office may not even have that information. DCD does not/did not have a copy in its files; our introduction of it was the first that DCD became aware of it. Moreover, the recent correspondence from Mr. Butler has misinterpreted very clear, conclusive language. Finally, DCD never notified Mr. Iglitzin or Mr. Birman (who recently confirmed that he only has the original letter Mr. Goldsmith sent) of any subsequent action on Mr. Goldsmith’s code interpretation after he finished it. I am writing to you to request that you confirm for us that the 2016 Code Interpretation remains valid, as nothing has changed to negate the reasoning, other than Centrum’s failure to pay the fee. If that’s the only obstacle, Ms. Hearon would agree to pay that fee, though it seems entirely unnecessary to us. My hope is that we can resolve this issue quickly and easily, without resort to available legal remedies. Thank you for your consideration. Ken Kagan Law Office of Kenneth S. Kagan, PLLC P.O. Box 52646 Bellevue, WA 98015 (206) 858-6994 – Office ken@kenkaganlaw.com <mailto:ken@kenkaganlaw.com> www.kenkaganlaw.com <http://www.kenkaganlaw.com/>