Excerpt Town Council Meeting October 28

         Agenda item #7,B: Agenda Item – 1, Subject: “PAT AND EDWINA (sic) VANEATON (sic) FORBEARANCE AGREEMENT WITH ROLAND (sic) LITZENBERGER”

          The following is a verbatim transcription:    

      Public Works Director Jamieson Van Eaton (JVE)…Mr. Mayor, this is an agreement entered into with three parties, Pat and Edwinna, the property owners [correction from audience], I’m sorry, Pat and Edwinna Van Eaton are the “Adjacent property owners” [to the Riverside Estates].
     

      JVE… “Mr. Roland Litzenberger is the developer and the property owner, and the town’s role in all this is to insure that satisfaction exists between the two parties, and we’re at a point where I addressed these matters. And I’ve identified to the council the chronology and the conditions required, and the activities of the developer, and my attempts to clarify the situation. And one of the items to note is that certainly the conditions and all other terms and provisions of this agreement must be completed to the town’s satisfaction.
      By resolution on Dec. 10 [2001] the town approved Riverside Estates final plat, and to me that satisfies any requirement for storm drainage. The storm drainage for the sub-division was designed and constructed according to those plans.
      That’s one of the two items of concern of Pat and Edwinna Van Eaton. The second item is that a sidewalk was not completed along the south side of Curtis Lane. And there was a reason for that. That portion of the sidewalk is not part of Riverside Estates, although the full width street was dedicated to the town, the sidewalk is not within Riverside Estates and therefore there’s no basis to believe that a sidewalk can be built there.
      The previous public works director so indicated and I have to conclude that there’s nothing the town can do about that.
      And I would further suggest to the council that I would craft a letter to our attorney providing him with the same packet that I’ve provided you, and I’ve provided a draft letter of what I would say, and I haven’t sent this yet because I would like to gather any further concerns by the council, perhaps to include in this letter to our attorney, to comment whether or not the town has satisfactorily executed its responsibilities in this agreement.

      Council member SCHAUB…Has the town met its obligation in answering everything about inspections to making sure that everything was completed? It should have because it came to the council for final approval.

      JVE…That’s my belief.

      SCHAUB…So how come we have a list coming from Mr. Van Eaton saying that these items have not been completed as agreed?

      JVE…Mr. Van Eaton isolates two items, two items on the condition of agreement, Item C, which requests that the developer allow for no storm runoff to go north from, I think it’s lots 6 through 16. There’s no evidence that there’s any runoff to the north. There is evidence that a professionally engineered storm drain system was required in the sub-division and that it was completed.  
      It seems that Pat and Edwinna Van Eaton are asking for something that has not occurred and may never occur, and I don’t know how to deal with something like that. We can’t ask of the developer more than required in the original conditions of construction.
      The second item of concern is Item I to Exhibit B of the agreement, which requests that sidewalks be placed on both sides of Curtis Lane. They were placed on both sides of Curtis Lane that were within the Riverside sub-division.

      Council member PAT HAMILTON…When you first started out you said the south side of Curtis Lane. That must be just where it turns into Berggren Rd., because all the rest of Curtis Lane runs north and south. So it has to be the east or west side.

      JVE…Well, it does a bit of a curve there and there is a rather south portion of Curtis Lane…

      P. HAMILTON…Ok, that’s what you’re talking about then? Just where it turns into Berggren Rd.

      JVE…Correct, correct. That’s on the west side of Curtis Lane and furthermore that road has been designated as Warner (sp?) Lane E. and will be developed at some future time. And it’s at that portion of time that the town can require that sidewalks be placed by the developer of Warner Lane E.

      SCHAUB…It just seems – I don’t want to say unusual, but it just seems kind of frustrating to have someone come before the council and present these documentations and saying that this hasn’t been completed, that hasn’t been completed, yet our building inspector has gone out there, checked everything off, it’s gone through your department, it’s gone through the council for final approval, and yet two weeks later, a month later you get another two-page dissertation coming in, and it’s going after a developer or taking your time, taking the council’s time and just rehashing everything again.

      JVE…I tried for clarity in a June and a July correspondence. The June correspondence was to the developer, the July correspondence was to Pat and Edwinna Van Eaton, trying to bring clarity to this situation and I – it’s my belief that total definition will not occur until we have an attorney to weigh in to say that the town has acted responsibly and, um, it’s now a civil matter between the two parties and the town is excluded.

     SCHAUB… There you go.

     ROWLAND LITZENBERGER takes the podium…”My name is Rowland Litzenberger, 43707 18^th Ave. E. in Eatonville. It sounds like it’s probably not necessary for me to address this body here, but I would like to. Mr. Van Eaton, Jamieson, and I have been going back and forth on this, as you heard, since June.
     This is getting to be rather old. I’m wasting my time coming up here defending myself against obvious lies.
     Just a little background. In May of 2001 and prior to that we applied for a rezone and development permit. As we went through the process undoubtedly there was some procedural errors that occurred. And in May, Mr. Van Eaton, Pat Van Eaton, filed a preliminary notice of a lawsuit against the Town of Eatonville.
     I had a really good working relationship, I still have a good working relationship, with the town and they came to me and asked me if I would agree to run some of these things and agree to this forbearance agreement. Which I did. I didn’t think there was anything that I wasn’t willing to do that was on this agreement. This forbearance agreement had six or eight items on it. Have you folks seen this forbearance agreement?

      JVE…It’s in their packets.

      LITZENBERGER…Okay, thank you very much. I would encourage you to read that if you would. Every house that’s sold in there gets one of these little yellow documents right here. This is called a title policy and this title policy is a policy which I pay a portion of and the homeowner pays a portion of, which guarantees a free and clear title or any encumbrances or anything of that nature that’s on the property.
      I grabbed (word unintelligible) files here and each one of them says right here “that the Forbearance Agreement shows up as being a document that runs with the land. So any homeowner from May 23, 2001 (unintelligible) will get a copy of that Forbearance Agreement locking them into abiding by any terms that may be there.  
     As Jamieson mentioned, in December we received approval from the council completing the requirements of the plat. There’s a paragraph in here on this forbearance I would like to read if you don’t mind.
      Paragraph Four. “Upon receipt of this fully executed agreement,” this was drawn up by Pat’s attorney by the way, and this agreement is the Forbearance Agreement, “the Van Eatons agree to file a notice of withdrawal of appeal with the town’s (unintelligible) public information center in accordance with the Eatonville (unintelligible).  
      Here’s the important part, “By it’s withdrawal the Van Eatons signify that all claims and issues raised in their appeal have been resolved pursuant to this agreement. And the Van Eatons affirmatively commit so long as the conditions and all other terms and provisions of this agreement are completed to the town’s satisfaction that will not raise, or cause to be raised, any issue pertaining to approvals, permits, authorizations or construction of the project, except otherwise provided in section four of this agreement. What we just read.”  
      These folks have obviously got nothing better to do with their time than to try to cause me problems.
      *As you all are well aware we are attempting to pull a permit for a mini-storage unit down the street from them. It’s one appeal after another, very much of a personal issue. I have documentation here that we had three outside inspectors inspect our project.
.    Like I said, I had a great working relationship with Mr. Blount and the previous council. We brought in nuclear fusion testing so we could pink through the roads so we could make sure they were to Mr. Van Eaton’s satisfaction. I wasn’t required to do that.
      We brought in, the town was doing a sewer project up here on Orchard I believe it was (unintelligible) high school, we paid three, four thousand dollars I can’t remember, to the town to bring that inspector over to do the inspection. We had Mr. Blount come in and do inspections. We also brought in a private inspector to inspect. We covered our bases on this.
      I want to make it very clear (unintelligible) but I don’t think I should defend myself against lies, frivolities and plain accusations which just aren’t true.
     And I would like to see, and I think Jamieson has started that finally with this letter to the attorney, a cessation or a complete stop to this garbage. It’s costing the town way too much money and its time, and to do something here that we’ve done nothing wrong (verbatim phrasing), and I resent the fact that we’re being blamed here. Not by you folks, but by somebody in the citizenry, that I’ve done something wrong and I haven’t.
      And the documentation’s here. For one year, nearly one year, not one comment was made by Pat, from Dec. 10 when this plat was recorded and approved by the council (unintelligible)…where were they in Jan., Feb, March, April, May, June? It only came about when we decided to pull a permit for our storage units.
      And I hope that the council will see this is nothing more than personal slander against me, my company, and my employees. I’m sick and tired of Mr. Van Eaton going, talking to neighbors there about what a crook I am, what a bad person I am, I’m going to be dealing with it tomorrow at 9 o’clock in the morning. We’re gonna deal with this issue head on and I’m alerting the council that I’m not gonna stand by and let this continue.
     And if the council…allows continuous slanderous talk against me or my company or my employees in a public forum, they’ll be held accountable, too.  This has gone way too far, way too long, and I thank you for your time.

      JVE…Mr. Mayor I have a matter of clarification. Pat and Edwinna Van Eaton came to see me prior to Mr. Litzenberger’s application for the mini-warehouse, around late June time frame.

      MAYOR HAROLD PARNELL…Anyone else want to talk on this?

      SCHAUB…I need to thank Mr. Van Eaton here, Jamieson, taking this approach, if that’s the only way to solve this, is to go through our town attorney and to get a statement to say, “Yes, the town has done everything. Mr. Litzenberger has met all of the requirements the town has asked of him,” then let it go to rest.

      MAYOR…Any other comments on this issue?

      COUNCIL MEMBER CHELAN VAN EATON JARRETT… I just want to comment that I’m not going to comment at all because I’m related to the Van Eatons and I don’t want anyone to think I have a biased opinion. That’s why I’m not saying anything.

      MAYOR…OK, in other words we’re getting the advice of an attorney. We figure the town has everything set up for – we have done everything right, we hope.

       JVE…We hope.

       MAYOR…I know when I hired Jamieson here I told him I wanted to go by the code, to be straight up and down. I think he’s been trying to.

      LITZENBERGER…He has been.

      MAYOR…He has been? That’s what I mean. I want him to be fair on every account. That’s the way I feel on it. 

    *In the opinion of several town planners around the area, talking to the town council about Appeal B "taints" the people who will hear the appeal at the November 25, 2002 council meeting.

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