The Fremont Neighborhood Council recently issued a statement saying its attorney received a letter from a lawyer for the Quadrant Corp. saying the developer may seek to hold each board member of the citizens group personally liable for costs and attorney fees incurred by its efforts to block further development of the Quadrant Lake Union Center in Fremont.

The FNC voted in late January to pursue an appeal of a Dec. 14 ruling by King County Superior Court Judge Dean Lum dismissing the group's lawsuit against Quadrant and the City of Seattle over one of Quadrant's permits for the Quadrant Lake Union Center. The FNC claimed the permit, which was issued in 1992, was only for five years and is no longer valid. Lum disagreed, ruling that the permit should be extended an additional four years due to Quadrant's lengthy court battle with Burlington Northern over who should pay for cleaning up the railroad grade on the site.

The FNC wants Quadrant to provide greater mitigation for the impacts to the neighborhood that would be created by the addition of three more buildings to the corporate campus, which already houses a major tenant, Adobe Systems.

"Quadrant's threat is an outrageous attempt to intimidate the FNC from exercising its right to an appeals court review of the ruling," said FNC attorney Anthony Reifers, in a statement issued by the citizens group.