Candidates focus on how city should grow

By Lisa Heyamoto
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

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Bothell's most contentious election in recent memory is shaking up the city.

Four of the City Council's seven seats are up for grabs in Tuesday's general election.

The candidates include Cindy Honcoop and Tim Tobin for Position 2, Diana Dollar and Mike Johnson for Position 3, and Tim Olsen and Andrea Perry for Position 4 . Honcoop, Dollar and Olsen are incumbents.

For Position 6, Ernie Bellecy and Mark Lamb are vying for a seat being vacated by Councilman Dick Paylor, who moved to Kirkland.

It's an election that's so far proved costly and controversial. The candidates have raised an average of $6,215 each, almost three times the $2,100 average in 1999, the last time these four seats were open.

Though opposing candidates for each position have raised roughly the same amount, the challengers say incumbents are getting too much money from businesses outside Bothell. That amounts to special-interest funding, they say, and could influence upcoming development issues in the city.

Contributions to incumbents Honcoop, Dollar and Olsen include $500 to $1,000 each from Kirkland-based CamWest Development and Bellevue-based Schnitzer Northwest. Schnitzer also contributed $500 to Lamb.

The incumbents say the challengers have been spreading misinformation that's expensive to counter and are running negative campaigns that have no place in Bothell.

A key issue is the proposed clustering ordinance, which would allow lot sizes to be smaller if the developer made up the difference in open space.

Opponents say that it would increase density and compromise the environment, and that the city is pushing the change on unwilling residents. Supporters say that it would encourage responsible development and that naysayers are exaggerating the potential impact.

Other issues include a budget shortfall expected to hit the city in 2005 and a traffic option that could divert cars along the city's historic park, Bothell Landing.

Position 2

Growth in Bothell needs to be well-managed, and the clustering ordinance contains some positive elements to do that, Honcoop said. Though it needs some work, she said, the ordinance's intent to save open space should be explored.

"I don't want to see the natural setting of Bothell bulldozed down for development, and if we can provide an ordinance that saves (some) of that space, then we need to look at that," she said.

If re-elected, she said, she'd make sure transportation projects don't disrupt parks or neighborhoods; support retail growth to cushion the projected budget shortfall and ensure the city maintains its public-safety services.

Honcoop, 45, works as a training manager in the security industry.

Tobin said residents have already decided how Bothell should grow, and that vision is laid out in the comprehensive plan. Deviations such as the clustering ordinance reflect the influence of developers, he said.

The comprehensive plan "was developed with a tremendous amount of community involvement," he said. "It's a good plan and we need to let it unfold."

Keeping growth on track will also prevent the budget shortfall from getting worse, Tobin said, because additional development leads to more residents, straining the city's services.

Tobin, a 46-year-old civil engineer, said his other main goal is to change the way the council listens to residents. The current top-down approach gives rise to controversies such as the Highway 522 reroute and the clustering ordinance, and could be avoided by listening to the city's neighborhoods early on, he said.

Position 3

Dollar, 39, said that growth in Bothell is inevitable and that managing it has to be done responsibly. Some areas should remain bastions of single-family housing, and some could handle multifamily arrangements, she said. The balance lies in sensitivity to everyone's needs, Dollar said.

"How do we balance that the city has to take growth and yet maintain the character of our single-family neighborhoods and account for all different types of people who want to live in our city?" she asked. "We need to think of the full spectrum."

Dollar, who is the policy director for the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, said she wants to foster business growth in the city, is not in favor of diverting traffic through neighborhoods and thinks the clustering ordinance would help preserve trees.

Mike Johnson opposes the clustering ordinance but said that doesn't make him anti-development. He wants Bothell to grow responsibly and not allow development to outstrip city services.

The opposition's characterization of Johnson as a one-issue candidate is unfair, he said, citing his 12 years of working for the city on various topics as evidence of his diverse interests.

His main concern is reshaping a council that he said has strayed from the people it serves. Bothell residents don't trust the council, Johnson said, and he'd like to focus on bringing it back in line with residents' interests.

"I don't believe that the public believes that our City Council respects the will of the community," he said. "This whole thing is about trust."

Johnson, 43, is a road-design supervisor for the city of Seattle.

Position 4

Olsen said he supports the clustering ordinance's intent to preserve open space but wants to make sure the end product will pass legal muster and be something everyone can agree on.

"I don't want controversy," he said. "I want to come up with a product that's going to work."

He said he doesn't support rerouting Highway 522 through Bothell Landing and wants to work on getting funding for a new road to the joint campus of the University of Washington-Bothell and Cascadia Community College.

Most of all, he said, he'd like to improve the little things that residents notice in their day-to-day lives: installing traffic signals, improving pedestrian routes and repaving streets.

Olsen, 38, is in the heating business..

Andrea Perry, 49, said one of the biggest flaws in the clustering ordinance is that it proposes to count wetland buffer areas as additional open space, something she called a nod to developers. The council should stick with the building regulations on the books, she said.

Perry said that the council doesn't seem to listen to residents when forming policies and that she would work with the city's many neighborhoods to find out what worked best.

"We'd better make sure that (decisions) are going to be supported by the public, or we shouldn't be doing them in the first place," said Perry, a former Microsoft manager and small-business owner. "It all boils down to a trust issue."

Position 6

Bellecy sees unbridled growth in parts of Bothell and views the clustering ordinance as a blank check for development. The way to approach a future in which growth is inevitable is to slightly modify current laws, the 56-year-old pension consultant said.

"Growth will occur," he said. "To sit back and say it's not going to happen is like being an ostrich and putting your head in the sand. We need some kind of restraint."

Bellecy said he'd work toward maintaining city services but wouldn't increase taxes. Generating more business in Bothell is the best way to bolster the city's coffers, he said.

Lamb, 30, said any development needs to be in keeping with the character of Bothell and its neighborhoods. He said that it's unclear how the clustering ordinance would fit into that goal but that preserving open space is important.

Single-family housing needs to be supported, and a healthy debate about the best way to do it is good for the city, said Lamb, a business-law attorney.

"We need someone that is willing to listen to all sides," he said. "Right now, we have a lot of terrific things in our city, and I'm concerned with making sure it's family-friendly."

He said he'd oppose running Highway 522 along Bothell Landing and would work to improve the retail-sales tax base and public safety.

Lisa Heyamoto: 206-464-2149 or lheyamoto@seattletimes.com

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