CATHCART — With that, 286 townhomes gained approval for a development that neighbors fought at the southwest corner of State Route 9 and Cathcart Way.
Land clearing and construction began on the 28-acre spot in fall 2022. However, unless another appeal against the project appears this week, the final pieces were hanging in the air. That was, until Feb. 8 when County Hearing Examiner Peter Camp gave a final regulatory OK.
It’s been appealed before, but appeals were also overturned before, too. One victory came a little over a year ago when the project was remanded for further environmental work.
The developer is D.R. Horton. It’s already making a list of interested townhouse buyers.
The overall project is called Cathcart Crossing. A park-and-ride is scheduled to go next door.
Cathcart Crossing’s approval is conditioned on multiple items. One is a new traffic signal must be installed at the intersection of 87th Ave SE and Cathcart Way.
At a Jan. 18 hearing, nobody gave a public comment, from the Tribune’s review of the hearing recording.
The county put the land for sale as government surplus with a vision of seeing a mix of development plus a park-and-ride happen. In the summer of 2022, the county finalized selling the site for $8.4 million.
Early on, neighbors contended that a vision the county produced indicating it wanted the surplus acres to be built into an “urban village” with 129 townhouses and five commercial pads wasn’t followed through.
The county’s series of purchase-and-sale agreements with D.R. Horton do not specify how it should look or feel.
