By CLAYTON PARK

When City Hearing Examiner Meredith Getches rejected Northgate Mall's expansion plans last June, she did so because she said the shopping center owners' plans did not sufficiently conform to the City's Northgate Area Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan.

On Feb. 28, upon reviewing Simon Property Group's revisions, Getches issued a new ruling, this time passing the developers' plans with flying colors - much to the dismay of the several neighborhood groups who have opposed, and continue to oppose the mall expansion plans.

The opponents - Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund (TCLDF), Citizens for a Liveable Northgate (CFLN) and PONDERS (Protect Our Neighborhoods' Design, Environment, Rural feeling and Streams) of Victory Heights, along with Haller Lake community activist Sue Geving - must now decide whether to take their fight to the next level by appealing Getches' latest ruling before the state Supreme Court.

They are also waiting for their chance to try to convince a King County Superior Court Judge to overturn Getches' original June ruling in a separate appeal filed last summer.

Simon may have won this latest battle, but the courtroom war regarding the future of Northgate Mall's south parking lot is far from over.

The Indianapolis-based developer must still apply to the City to obtain its Master Use Permits for the project, which will likely result yet another round of public wrangling with community activists.

Simon, the nation's largest shopping center operator, wants to build a massive mixed-use complex on Northgate's south parking lot that would include a hotel, a multi-screen movie theater, restaurants and shops and multifamily housing units.

CFLN, PONDERS and Geving oppose Simon's plans, both the one originally submitted as well as the current revised version, arguing that they lack sufficient traffic and parking mitigations, and fail to adequately carry out the Comp Plan's directive to create more pedestrian-oriented projects.

TCLDF has been waging a different fight: the citizens group wants Simon to daylight the portion of Thornton Creek that it claims once flowed through the south parking lot site before it was culverted into underground pipes and paved over in the late '60s and early '70s by the mall's then-owners. While daylighting Thornton Creek is not required by the City's Comp Plan, TCLDF argues that there are several environmental laws - city, state and federal level, all enacted since the site was paved over - that support their position.

All four parties were considered appellants in the case heard by Getches because they were appealing the director of the Department of Design, Construction and Land Use's decision to approve Simon's Northgate plans.

In her Feb. 28 ruling, Getches systematically addressed and rejected each of the opponents' reasons for why Simon's revised plan should not be approved.

Noting that "the burden is on appellants" to show that the decision to approve Simon's plans is "clearly erroneous," Getches wrote in her Feb. 28 ruling: "The questions to be decided in these appeals are: 1) Was it clearly erroneous for the DCLU Director to approved (Simon's) proposed Northgate General Development Plan as revised? and, 2) Are the SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) conditions imposed by the Director in that decision clearly erroneous?"

After listing each of the appellants' claims and explaining why she was rejecting them, Getches concluded: "The deficiencies in (Simon's) original GDP proposal have been remedied in the revised GDP proposal.

"The GDP as revised is consistent with the Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan ... and no clear error has been shown in the (DCLU) Director's approval of it...

"No Code-basis was offered to support the assertion by the Director regarding the method to be used in addressing revisions to an approved GDP. However, as the Director's approval does not rely in any way on the asserted ability to revise an approved GDP, it is not subject to challenge at this time.

"This GDP, although consistent with the Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan policies, will result in large scale and intensive development. Indeed, implementation of the Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan is intended to maximize zoning potential; including retail and commercial developments such as those included in the GDP.

"The decision of the Director to approve the Northgate Mall General Development Plan, with SEPA conditions, is approved."

Eric Laschever, Simon's attorney in the case, applauded Getches' ruling, commenting: "We see it as a very positive step."

The reaction from the mall expansion plan's opponents was quite the opposite: "We lost every single issue," said Geving, the community activist from Haller Lake. "I'm just shell-shocked. I thought I had some really good issues that should have prevailed."

Dorothy Douglas of PONDERS said her group plans to join TCLDF in appealing the matter to the state Supreme Court. Next time, she said, hopefully she'll be better prepared in presenting her case. "I probably didn't communicate with her (Getches) in the way I should have due to my inexperience (in legal matters) ... The problem is, an ordinary citizen doesn't understand the process. At least I didn't."

Bob Vreeland of TCLDF said he was disappointed but not surprised by Getches' latest ruling. "It was not unexpected," he said. "What's done is done. You gotta move on. We'll move on to Superior Court."

Vreeland said one difficulty his group has faced is the fact that this case is unusual in that it's the first time one of the City's Comprehensive Area Neighborhood Plans has been put to the test.

The so-called Comp Plans were drafted through a lengthy citizen planning process and approved by the City Council for the purpose of creating "urban villages" through the city where people can live, work and play all within walking distance.

The question some doubters expressed during the planning process was how the City would be ensure that these plans would actually be carried out.

In the case of the Northgate Comp Plan, the results so far have been less than promising, according to the community activists involved in battling Simon's efforts.

"The City's jumped into bed with this one property owner (Simon) and they're so anxious to get married that they're not looking at the problems of the prenuptial agreement: the GDP," said Vreeland.

"If Simon does, in fact, go through with developing the (south parking lot) site, the City will find ... there won't be anything they can do to stop it because they signed off on the GDP," he added. In doing so, "They're going to find out that they've written off all their own environmental laws."

TCLDF is currently seeking donations. Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund, c/o Bob Vreeland, 3241 NE 105th St., Seattle, WA 98125. Info: 522-5919.

PONDERS: P.O. Box 27095, Seattle, WA 98125 or call 523-4251.

Citizens for a Liveable Northgate: P.O. Box 30108, Seattle, WA 98103, or call: 526-5342.