A lawsuit to prevent the Port of Seattle from demolishing the Lora Lake Apartments was roundly criticized last week by Burien City Council members.

Calling the action "unfortunate," Mayor Joan McGilton said the King County Housing Authority "did not consider the facts and data that the city of Burien put in front of them" before filing the complaint.

"Burien is not a bad player here in the affordable housing issue," declared Deputy Mayor Rose Clark. "It is the lack of county policies that is creating the problem."

A King County Superior Court judge last month granted a preliminary injunction that bars the port, which owns the property, from demolishing the apartment complex until the case can be heard at a trial set for March 24.

The housing authority claims it has the right to seize the 162 apartments for public use.

Port of Seattle commissioners earlier voted 3-2 to raze the public housing complex in Burien to clear the way for commercial development.

The Lora Lake property is located within Burien's Northeast Redevelopment Area-146 acres directly impacted by flight operations at Sea-Tac International Airport. The city has rezoned that area for commercial development.

In 2000, the port, the city and the housing authority signed a cooperative agreement under which the housing authority would manage Lora Lake as affordable housing until 2005, when the third runway was expected to become operational.

When runway construction was delayed, the contract was extended until June 2007.

But in March, the housing authority balked, insisting that Lora Lake be maintained for low-income housing.

"We had a legal three-way binding contract and for one public agency to renege ... because that's actually what they did, and in the process hurt another public agency-the city-just calls into doubt the future credibility of that agency, which is the housing authority," Clark said.

"How can you trust somebody's signature on the bottom line when they do something like this?"

The Lora Lake controversy has been blown out of proportion, Clark continued. "It is not a homeless issue. This was market rate housing.

"This covers up the real issue, which is in the past seven years, while we kept those apartments open, King County and the cities within the county allowed 13,000 apartments to be converted to condos.

"Explain to me," she asked, "how very low income people and people with marginal incomes can turn around and buy those condos. That is the real issue here. That's what is impacting people's ability to find an affordable apartment."

The future of Lora Lake "is a municipal land use decision," said Councilman Gordon Shaw. But the lawsuit and preliminary injunction against the port mean that Burien has "nothing to say" at this time about land use within its city limits.

Shaw expects the port and, therefore, the city to prevail on the merits of the case. "I don't think King County's need for [affordable] housing trumps the port's need for development."

In the meantime, the court-ordered delay may hurt Burien, he noted.

"The port has nine proposals in hand for [development of] the Lora Lake property.... We're at the top of an economic cycle. If a downturn happens, I'm not sure developers will be interested until a rebound occurs. That does jeopardize the Northeast Redevelopment Area."

Burien City Manager said the council "continues to believe that we have taken the correct position and wants to stay with it. I don't see them altering from that position at this point."

Money spent on attorneys in the housing authority's case would have been better spent "on solutions to provide affordable housing," McGilton observed.