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Microsoft Suggests Redmond Change a Few Laws
Microsoft is well underway in constructing a second major corporate campus just down the street from the original Microsoft Place in Redmond, Wash. Presumably in an effort to avoid any future land use litigation, the corporation has sent a set of suggestions to the Redmond Planning Commission on how the City of Redmond should word its latest Draft Comprehensive Plan (DCP). The DCP is the master plan regulating all zoning and land categorization within Redmond city proper.
Microsoft's seven page document, dated August 24 and signed by the company's Real Estate and Construction Director, Nick MacPhee, encourages city planners to alter, create or delete as many as 38 city land policies. Of the 38 laws, several pertain to the lawsuit McIntyre v. Microsoft (detailed in the June/July '94 issue of the Free Press), including an adjustment which would directly affect the mill pond which is the last remaining source of water feeding the McIntyre's trout farm down stream. Lil' Bit O' Heaven could be forced out of business if the Redmond Planning Commission takes the advice of Microsoft and "deletes (the) designation of (the) mill pond as a park." The current designation of the pond as a park is what has kept the corporation from developing this portion of their main campus.
Among the other Redmond policy changes the company would like to see:
- A deletion of the policy to maximize the city's retention of open space.
- A "balance" between environmental laws and commercial development allowances that would favor developers.
- The elimination of a period of time in which the "phasing" in of regulation changes can occur.
- A suggestion stating "No additional public review should be required".
One peculiar revision Microsoft would like to see happen in the document contradicts the company's environmental history as it pertains to natural drainage courses: "Natural drainage courses shall be retained and not altered" suggests MacPhee. "The capacity of natural drainage courses should not be reduced. Where relocation or alteration is necessary, the flood control and habitat values of the drainage course should be adequately replaced." Arguably, had Microsoft followed their own advice on how to treat natural drainage basins, the McIntyre's trout farm wouldn't be in the mess it is today.
-Matt Robesch
This story was updated in the July/August 1996 issue of Washington Free Press. Please see:
"Microsoft Buys Trout Farm's Water Rights"
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Contents on this page were published in the October/November, 1994 edition of the Washington Free
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