Notable Projects

Brownfield Development
Development of the Seattle Seahawks headquarters and practice facility on a brownfield site (Renton). Chuck served as environmental counsel to Lakefront Joint Venture LLC and advised the Seattle Seahawks, Vulcan Inc. and related entities regarding the cleanup and redevelopment of this brownfield site. He assisted the clients in obtaining environmental and land use permitting and resolving liability issues so that development could go forward.

Land Use Policy and Park Development
Purchase and redevelopment of the Pritchard Park/Wyckoff-Eagle Harbor Superfund site (Bainbridge Island). Since 2003, Chuck has served as Special Counsel to the City of Bainbridge Island on risk management issues, counseling the client through intergovernmental negotiations, obtaining protective agreements and acquiring insurance.

Land Use and Zoning Issues
Comprehensive update of zoning and subdivision regulations for City of Bainbridge Island, 2008-2012. Chuck was part of the national project team addressing a comprehensive rewrite of the city’s land use regulations.

Multiple permitting and regulatory issues, 2007-Present. Chuck has counseled several clients in Seattle, Sammamish and Snoqualmie with regard to land use, infill development, SEPA and shoreline issues.

Complex and Integrated Land Use, Environmental and Cost Recovery Issues

  • Successful and ongoing development of several noted mixed use and residential redevelopments including the North Lot of CenturyLink Field in Seattle, the Ballard Blocks redevelopments, The Hearthstone Retirement Living expansion, the West Seattle Associates redevelopment, the former Dearborn Street/Goodwill redevelopment; and Site 5 (Esplanade) on the Thea Foss Waterway in Tacoma. Chuck has helped facilitate these redevelopment projects by providing a variety of environmental and land use counsel and assisting with negotiations of prospective purchaser consent decrees with the Washington Department of Ecology and in other negotiations with various government entities.
  • Seattle City Council’s rezoning of industrial lands in 2007. Chuck advised clients in responding to the major rezoning and served on the Coalition for Wise Industrial Growth Steering Committee.
  • Counseled large and small businesses on significant environmental cost recovery matters for noted commercial establishments such as Lincoln Square in Bellevue and Kitsap Tire Center in Poulsbo.
  • Provided land use counsel and due diligence to residential and “big box” retail developers, including a Bonney Lake home improvement center, which opened in 2008.
  • Provided legal counsel in U.S. District Court to assure the rights of a religious institution hosting the homeless in the City of Bellevue.
  • Provided land use counsel to a 60-member neighborhood group on Mercer Island monitoring a large, controversial development within a residential neighborhood.