City of Medical Lake and school district at impasse over Hallett plan

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

Discussions continued this week surrounding a Medical Lake School District plan to build six classrooms onto Hallett Elementary's south wing, bringing the school further into a wetlands buffer zone.

The city created its original wetlands policy in a critical areas ordinance (CAO) a year after Hallett was built in 1995. The CAO was amended two months ago to reflect updated state rules, increasing the preservation importance of the wetlands near Hallett from a low-level category 4 into a category 2. The ordinance now requires 200 feet between any high-intensity l...