By CLAYTON PARK

Hopes for daylighting a portion of Thornton Creek that many local residents say was paved over in the 1960s and early '70s by the then-developers of Northgate Mall were dealt a blow last June when City Hearing Examiner Meredith Getches issued the following statement:

"Thornton Creek does not exist on this site (the mall's south parking lot), and has not for over 60 years." The record shows, she added, "that over 60 years ago, a drainage ditch, not a creek, conveyed water across the site."

Despite Getches' June ruling, members of a citizens group called the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund have continued to press on in their quest to convince the City to require Northgate's current owner, Simon Property Group, to include daylighting of Thornton Creek in its plans to build a mixed-use complex on the mall's south parking lot site.

The efforts of TCLDF as well as other community groups involved in battling Simon's plans for the south parking lot site were dealt another setback this past month when the hearing examiner, on Feb. 28, approved the developers' slightly revised plans, much to the dismay of TCLDF and the others involved in the legal fight: Haller Lake activist Sue Geving and two groups Citizens for a Liveable Northgate (CFLN) and PONDERS of Victory Heights.

The community activists, who argue that Simon's plans do not adequately conform to the City-adopted neighborhood plan for the area, must now decide whether to take the costly step of filing appeals to the state Superior Court.

Meanwhile, TCLDF awaits its opportunity to plead its case before King County Superior Court in a separate appeal it filed last summer to overturn hearing examiner Getches' original June ruling. A date for that trial is expected to be announced sometime this month.

One of the things that TCLDF will seek to do in Superior Court is persuade the judge that Getches was wrong in declaring that Thornton Creek hasn't flowed through the mall's south parking lot site in at least 60 years.

TCLDF members Harold Schmidt and Janet Way recently uncovered a set of old newspaper clippings and public documents that clearly show that the creek, in fact, did run through the south parking lot site as recently as 1971. The site at that time also included a pond called Square Lake that was also filled in later that year by the then-developers of Northgate Mall.

Included in Schmidt and Way's findings is a Seattle Times photo and brief article published on Jan. 30, 1971 with the headline: "Pond overflows with problems."

The article states: "This small pond just south of the Northgate Shopping Center will be the subject and site of a meeting ... Keith Pitts, a University of Washington landscape architecture student, said he called the meeting because he grew up nearby and does not want to see the pond destroyed.

"Last week the city Building Department told Allied Stores Corp., Western Division, developers of the shopping center, to stop filling the pond because no permit had been issued. Dan Horn, Seattle Community College geology teacher, said filling the pond, which catches runoff from Northgate, the Freeway and other paved areas nearby, may dry up a tributary of Thornton Creek and increase flood danger in heavy rains.

"Norman Seethoff, construction coordinator for Allied Stores, said filling the pond will have no effect on flooding or Thornton Creek. Apparently, it will be up to the city to decide who is right, if the shopping center seeks a permit to fill the pond."

A letter, dated May 19, 1971, to then-Mayor Wes Uhlman from Wesley Hunter, deputy director of the Department of Ecology, noted that his department "has also received numerous letters and telephone calls protesting the filling of Square Lake."

A June 11, 1971 letter to the Mayor from Calhoun Dickinson, chairman of the Board of Park Commissioners, states: "the Department has for some time been concerned about the sources of water for Thornton Creek upon which the continued existence of the creek and hence the success of this projected park system must depend.

"Among major sources of flow are those originating in and around the Square Lake site. As you know, freeway construction, construction of the (North Seattle) Community College, as well as work by Northgate, have greatly altered the character of this area and Square Lake, or bog, itself.

"The Park Board is gravely concerned over the effect of developments in the Square Lake area on the character of Thornton Creek and hence the projected park system...

"Past and present construction activity in the Square Lake area, principally that of Northgate in paving over the adjacent land, has resulted in creating conditions under which there is a large and disproportionate discharge of contaminated runoff water into the creek at times of heavy rain. Continuation of the present project under Northgate's present permit, without attention to this and related water flow problems, may result in seriously altering or perhaps ultimately destroying the creek and in seriously damaging the character of streamside park development..."

On Aug. 17, 1971, the Seattle Times ran a story headlined: "State reluctantly approved Square Lake fill," which reported that the City issued a building permit allowing the developers to fill in Square Lake at Northgate after the Departments of Fisheries and Game "reluctantly" granted approval of the project, "subject to seven conditions designed to protect the quality of subsurface waters running from the area into the south branch of Thornton Creek."

The "key condition set down by the state agencies," according to the Times article, was that "water quality in Thornton Creek is not to be degraded to the detriment of fish life as a result of this project."

Schmidt lives in the Licton Springs neighborhood, near the headwaters of Thornton Creek's South Fork, while Way lives in Shoreline, near Littles' Creek, a tributary of Thornton Creek's North Fork.