Court Opinion

ID: 9605578
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:38:58.314061+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:28.991734
License: Public Domain

Hamilton, J.
(concurring in the result) — I concur in the result of the majority opinion. In so doing, I wish to emphasize that I see no irreconcilable conflict between the provisions of SEPA and of RCW 47.52.195, confining the right of judicial review of a limited access hearing to abutting property owners. Had the hearing of June 1971 and the findings and order following that hearing been confined to the narrow issue of limiting access, I would be willing to conclude that petitioners, who were not abutting owners, would lack standing under RCW 47.52.195 to obtain review of a decision to limit access.
The fact is, however, that the hearing of June 1971, and the findings and orders emanating therefrom were not so confined. The notice of hearing given to the public as well as to the petitioners was structured and timed to permit the hearing to “double” as an access and overall design hearing, this to meet federal requirements as well as the provisions of RCW 47.52.131 and .133. The preliminary environmental impact statement was made available to the public, and was presented and discussed at the hearing. Expert and lay testimony was presented concerning projected traffic volume, number and types of traffic lanes, overpasses and tunnels, buffer zones, bridges, air and noise pollution, relocation assistance programs, and the social and economic impact of the proposed highway. The final environmental impact statement was prepared subsequent to the hearing incorporating considerations other than access developed at the hearing.
The final findings and order of the Highway Commission considered overall design alterations and recommendations *288presented at. the hearing, adopting some and rejecting others. And, finally, respondents concede that SEPA is applicable to the final findings and order. The hearing as conducted, then, became but a step in the development and finalization of the overall construction and design plans for the proposed highway facility.
Thus, in my view, petitioners in the context here presented were entitled to challenge by certiorari the adequacy of the environmental impact statement as such bore upon the final findings and order of the Highway Commission.
Finley, J., concurs with Hamilton, J.