By CLAYTON PARK

Northgate Mall's owner, Simon Property Group, whose TV commercials have been touting the slogan "Simply Simon," recently delivered a new message to both the City and several Northgate area community activists:

Simon says, "You're sued."

On July 22, attorneys for the Indianapolis-based shopping mall operator filed a lawsuit that lists as defendants the City, Haller Lake resident Sue Geving, and two citizens groups - Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund, the Maple Leaf Community Council. Geving and the two groups filed an appeal of the City's May 18 decision to approve Simon's proposal to expand Northgate Mall. That appeal resulted in a City Hearing Examiner's ruling on June 28 that overturned that approval.

Simon's lawsuit appears to be an attempt by the developer to convince the City to reinstate its approval of the expansion project.

But Geving and other community activists who have been involved in the appeal are scratching theirs to figure out why Simon has named several other individuals who were not actively involved in the appeal.

In addition to singling out Barbara Maxwell of the Maple Leaf Community Council and longtime Thornton Creek activists Bob Vreeland and Brian Bodenbach, Simon's lawsuit also targets the following individuals: Ruth Carpenter, Pat Jordan, Janet Way, Violet Paschke, Jeff Blair, Jane Lotter, Janet Wartinger, Richard Tingley, Gary Helterlie, Lisa Dekker and Christian Morrison.

Geving speculates that these latter individuals may have been included in Simon's suit because their names appear on a petition supporting the appeal.

Due to deadline pressures, the Jet City Maven was unable to contact Simon officals for comment regarding the suit nor was it able to confirm whether the defendants named in the suit were all people whose names appear on the petition.

That Simon would bother to sue anyone at all is a mystery given the fact that Hearing Examiner Meredith Getches' June 28 ruling, for the most part, appears to favor the developer.

Getches explained, when she issued her ruling, that she decided to overturn the approval of Simon's plans because the developer's proposal seemed "not completely consistent with the Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan."

While the Hearing Examiner asked the developer to resubmit its plans, she also shot down several of the major points the community activists were trying to make in presenting their reasons for rejecting Simon's current mall expansion plans.

Many community activists believed Simon would have had little problem getting its plans approved the second time around, as Getches only asked for minor changes.

Simon apparently doesn't want to have to make any changes at all.

According to the lawsuit filed by Simon's attorneys - Thomas Wolfendale, Eric Laschever and Cynthia Kennedy of the Seattle law firm Preston Gates & Ellis - the developer is asking the court to issue "an order declaring that the hearing examiner's decision does not result for adherence to prescribed procedure, is rendered outside of her authority, is based on erroneous interpretations of the law, is not supported by substantial evidence, and is a clearly erroneous application of the law to the facts."

Furthermore, Simon is asking for "an order reversing the hearing examiner's decision and reinstating the director's decision to conditionally approve the GDP (Simon's General Development Plan for expanding the mall)" and "an order awarding allowable costs and attorneys fees to Simon" as well as "such other relief as this court deems appropriate."