By CLAYTON PARK

Opponents of Simon Property Group's current plans to expand Northgate Mall will get another day in court - and a new judge - on Wednesday, April 5.

That's when a citizens group called the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund will present their oral arguments before King County Superior Court Judge Steven Scott in an legal appeal to overturn portions of City Hearing Examiner Meredith Getches' June 28 ruling.

One of Getches' findings that TCLDF would like to have stricken in particular is her statement that "Thornton Creek does not exist" on site of the mall's south parking lot where Simon, Northgate Mall's owner, wants to build a large mixed-use complex, and that the record showed "that over 60 years ago, a drainage ditch, not a creek, conveyed water across the site."

TCLDF has been waging a legal battle to persuade City officials to require Simon to daylight a portion of Thornton Creek that many local residents say was paved over in the 1960s and early 1970s by the mall's then-owners.

TCLDF also recently teamed up with two other citizens groups - Citizens for a Liveable Northgate (CFLN) and the Victory Heights Chapter of PONDERS (Protect Our Neighborhoods' Design, Environment, Rural feeling & Streams) - to file a separate legal appeal that asks King County Superior Court to overturn Getches' Feb. 28 decision to approve Simon's revised General Development Plan for the mall's south parking lot. A court deal for that appeal has not yet been set.

TCLDF also recently issued a statement reiterating that it "does not oppose mall expansion in and of itself. TCLDF opposes the current Simon Properties' development plan for the Northgate's South Parking Lot. TCLDF argues that there is a substantial amount of zoning capacity for most if not all the Northgate Mall Expansion Project on the north side of the mall and that perhaps some of the proposed expansion could co-exist with a daylighted creek and other community-oriented buildings in the South Parking Lot."

TCLDF is currently seeking donations to support its legal efforts. For more information, call Bob Vreeland at 522-5919.