Port official proposes saving affordable apartments by airport

The Lora Lake apartments in Burien may not get torn down after all, and the city of Burien isn't happy about it.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Bob Edwards said this morning he will propose delaying complete demolition of the affordably priced apartments. The Port, he said at a morning news conference, needs to re-evaluate.

Edwards' announcement follows last week's decision by the Port to reject King County's $18 million offer to buy the Lora Lake property, an offer that would have saved 162 affordable apartments in the 234-unit complex. The Port cited the city of Burien's wish to raze the vacant complex as a reason to reject the offer.

The decision to tear down the apartments "has not been a step forward, it's been a great step backward," Edwards said at today's news conference at Lora Lake, which County Executive Ron Sims also attended.

Part of the complex falls into the buffer zone of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's third runway, but the 162 apartments do not. Edwards said the Port should consider trying to save those units, and he will introduce a motion at a Port meeting this afternoon.

But Burien City Manager Mike Martin said putting this issue back on the table is "simply off-base."

People should not be living so close to the third runway, he said. "I'd rather see dirt there than apartments." The call for re-evaluating the future of Lora Lake comes as a surprise to the city, Martin said. "We are not in the loop here, we're like a peripheral player."

Last month several officials, including Sims, called on Burien and the Port to back down from their plans to demolish the apartments.

A protest against the plans last week ended with Burien police arresting nine people for trespassing at Lora Lake.

Sims said today that tearing down the apartments, which have become a symbol for ending homelessness, "fails on every public policy issue." He said those who were not able to find housing at apartments like these could wind up homeless.

"Everyone has to bear the responsibility, including the Port and Burien," he said.

The Rev. Sandy Brown, executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, has been vocal against tearing down the apartments.

"It's scandalous that there are 8,000 that are homeless every night in the King County area," he said at the news conference. "It doesn't make sense for government entities to destroy affordable housing."

Some demolition was expected to start Aug. 15, and preliminary work would have started the first week of August, Edwards said.

Information from The Seattle Times archives was included in this report.

Christina Siderius: csiderius@seattletimes.com