Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles from The Beachcomber exploring the Seattle Indian Health Board’s proposed Thunderbird Treatment Center, which has been the focus of much conversation on Vashon Island.
This week, we will focus on the present state of zoning at the facility, which has became a central topic in conversations around the facility.
Two island organizations focused on the upcoming Thunderbird Treatment Center — one opposed, one in favor — have sprung up in recent months, as the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB) draws closer to developing the proposed facility on Vashon.
The matter came to a head at the island’s August Community Council meeting, usually hosted at the Vashon Land Trust but moved to Vashon Center for The Arts to accommodate crowd of roughly 150 people in person and more than 260 online.
On the docket for discussion: The county’s comprehensive plan, which includes proposals to change zoning around healthcare facilities. But that topic brought in a wide-ranging discussion including debate over the treatment center.
The ongoing island conversation touches several major issues on Vashon, including the county’s difficult-to-navigate comprehensive plan process, and drug addiction and recovery. The discussion also involves complicated questions about county zoning.
The basics are clear: The Health Board aims to open the Thunderbird Treatment Center in 2025, at 15333 Vashon Highway SW, the site of the former Vashon Community Care (VCC) building. It would offer a 45-day intensive inpatient treatment program for those who are addicted to alcohol or other drugs.
Transforming Age, the owner of VCC, sold the property in March 2023 for $11 million to an LLC overseen by the SIHB.
Critics of the proposed treatment center, “Good Neighbor Vashon,” a mostly anonymous group led by islander Katy Ballard, have started a website, goodneighborvashon.org, to make their arguments. Meanwhile, supporters — including a group of islanders who have formed the Friends of Thunderbird — have started their own website (friendsofthunderbird.org) and helped the Health Board present to islanders during this year’s Strawberry Festival. The Health Board has also created a website, https://thunderbird.center, to share project details.
What’s allowed on the property?
To understand Thunderbird’s zoning, you first must understand two health care terms:
“Community residential facilities” (CRFs) are, as defined by King County code 21A.06.220: “living quarters … that function as a single housekeeping unit and provide supportive services, including but not limited to counseling, rehabilitation and medical supervision, excluding drug and alcohol detoxification.”
“Residential treatment facilities” (RTFs), as defined by the Washington State Department of Health, are “licensed, community-based facilities that provide 24-hour inpatient care for people with mental health and/or chemical dependency disorders in a residential treatment setting.”
RTFs and CRFs are similar, but at least in King County, RTFs allow for more intense services and interventions, such as drug detoxification. RTFs are defined by the state, not the county.
SIHB’s current plans for rehabilitation were described in October, when the county received a pre-application request from the Health Board to convert the existing VCC building into a CRF, which is an allowed use on the property.
That was followed by an email in December 2023, from legal firm Hillis, Clark, Martin & Peterson P.S. — representing a “behavioral health client” — which sought clarification from the county for a project in unincorporated King County.
The firm asked the county to find that a state-regulated RTF is an allowed use in R-24 zoning (which is how the former VCC property is zoned) — or to find that RTFs are allowed in CRFs, which are allowed in R-24 properties. (The county code doesn’t squarely address how state-regulated RTFs fall under county-level uses.)
“The state … allows licensed RTFs to provide chemical dependency detoxification services, but our client does not intend to offer such services,” reads a footnote from a letter from the law firm.
In February 2024, King County Department of Permitting and Environmental Review (DPER) Permitting Director Jim Chan wrote back, in a code interpretation, that a state-regulated RTF — as it would be defined in the county’s code — could not be placed in an R-24 property except as a conditional use; but they could possibly qualify as CRFs, which are allowed, if used as CRFs under the county code.
He said in an email in March that an RTF “is NOT allowed in the zone for the specific property (on Vashon), since the uses imply medical services including the use of drugs for treatment like detox.”
In an interview with The Beachcomber on August 14, Chan further clarified this complicated part of the county code.
“King County code does not reference RTFs anywhere in the code, so we go to what the intended use is, based off of what the applicant wants to do with that property,” Chan said.
According to Chan’s legal interpretation, state-regulated RTFs would fall under either specialty hospitals or psychiatric hospitals — both of which could be allowed on the proposed Thunderbird Property as a conditional use, but only if doing so involved the reuse of a surplus nonresidential facility.
That rules out the VCC building, which has always been a residential facility. The Health Board could not receive a conditional use permit to use the facility as an RTF, Chan said, “because that’s only available if you’re converting a non-residential facility to an RTF.”
Chan suggested to the law firm that the services their client wants to offer, as a state-regulated RTF, could be tweaked enough to qualify as a CRF, which would be allowed on the property.
That’s the direction the Health Board has gone in seeking permitting for Thunderbird.
In an interview, Chan clarified this point.
“What I was trying to say is, if you remove elements of an RTF, you would fall under CRF,” Chan said. “So you can have treatment, you can have services similar to an RTF — but there is a threshold where you cannot have it. If it involves medication … detox … (and/or) other hospital services that would have to be done in a hospital, if you (pass) those thresholds, you wouldn’t qualify as a (CRF) and you would, then, not be permitted.”
So, Chan told the law firm and its client: “ ‘Consider reducing your uses or services below those thresholds, and you may qualify under a CRF.’ That’s what we’re trying to say. Because they were close, but there is a threshold.”
On Feb. 14, the law firm asked the county to reconsider its decision, but Chan declined to change his finding.
Since then, the Health Board has pursued the property as a CRF.
What this all means is this: Thunderbird, the Health Board says, will operate as a state-regulated RTF. Under the code interpretation of King County, an RTF can’t be used on the property in question. So instead, the Health Board is pursuing operating their state-regulated RTF as a CRF on the property — all while staying under the threshold (such as by not providing detox) which would make them an RTF under county code.
Moving forward as a CRF
In March, the Health Board’s formal permitting application for the 92-bed CRF was filed by BCRA, a Tacoma architecture and design firm.
James Wolsch, a principal at BCRA, wrote in a letter on March 8 to the county explaining the project.
“It will not include detoxification, nor is it a secure community transition facility,” the letter states. “… Finally, state regulations designate the project as a ‘residential treatment facility,’ which is distinct as a matter of law from a ‘psychiatric hospital.’ “
Wolsch’s letter explains that Thunderbird Treatment Center will be for patients who have completed detox elsewhere and that it is not a “hospital” under the code because it provides no diagnostic services. It will provide supportive services including counseling, rehabilitation and medical supervision.
“In the description of their application, they reference that they want to apply for a community residential facility, and that’s what we are reviewing this permit application under — a community residential facility,” Chan said. “Now they could state in there, ‘we have future plans to do something else,’ but that’s not what we’re permitting. We’re only permitting this use as a community residential facility, nothing more.”
Confusing the matter is an “application acknowledgement” document from March, in which BCRA is described as applying for “Conversion of vacant assisted living facility to a residential treatment facility.”
But hold on — the Health Board was just told that an RTF wouldn’t be allowed. So what gives?
The answer: The reference to an RTF in that letter and related documents, Chan said, was an error. The Health Board’s request was for a CRF, Chan said, even if it was colloquially referred to as a “residential treatment facility.” (Similarly, the March 8 letter from BCRA to the county says that “state regulations designate the project as an RTF” — but again, what matters in this case is King County code, not the state’s definition.)
The description “was in error and should have stated ‘community residential facility,’ ” Chan said in an email. “It is not uncommon for permit applicants to describe a project proposal using terms not defined in King County Code.”
The notice has since been corrected, Chan said.
Thus far, the Health Board has filed for permits including improvements of the building’s sprinkler system; a non-mandatory pre-application conference to share information with the county; and a change-of-use building application to operate the facility as a CRF.
The latter is the most important. Once the county finishes reviewing, approving and issuing a permit under the change-of-use application, the Health Board will have one year to make any needed structural improvements to convert the facility to a CRF, Chan said.
“And then, once they’ve finished all their construction, we would then give it a final inspection approval, and then an occupancy certificate,” Chan said. “At that point, they can then go in and operate as a CRF. … The zoning code allows this. … It’s an allowed use if they meet all the requirements.”
Are there any remaining permits the Health Board needs to apply for before they could open?
“Not from King County,” Chan said. “This permit would allow them to operate as a CRF when they get to that point.”
According to King County, that permit request (ADDC24-0147) is currently under review.
What’s allowed at a CRF?
To begin with: Not detox.
Esther Lucero (Diné), president and CEO of the Health Board, has repeatedly explained — publicly and in emails to county officials — that the facility will not offer detox.
At a Vashon-Maury Island Community Council meeting on March 21, Lucero stressed this point — further explaining that the presence of children in the facility, in a special wing serving pregnant and parenting people, necessitated a higher bar for admission.
All patients will be referred by their physicians and screened for safety issues prior to their enrollment in the program, she said.
“It requires us to allow folks to come in who are way lower risk, meaning no violent crimes [and] sexual assaults — [who] will be assessed and vetted before they are allowed to enter into Thunderbird Treatment Center,” she said, at the meeting. “Additionally, if there are mental health challenges, it has to be managed. These cannot be folks who refuse to take their meds.”
King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda asked the Health Board for that clarification in a March 26 email, reviewed by The Beachcomber through a public records request: “Confirming – there is no plan for DETOX in this location? Treatment is obviously a large umbrella for various types of healing and health services on the road to recovery – but DETOX is not part of this.”
Lucero responded affirmatively: “There is no Detox at this location! And because we are serving pregnant and parenting people who can have 2 children with them up to the age of 5, we are obligated to serve the lowest risk residents in our program.”
So what is allowed under a CRF?
“They can have supportive services, they can have counseling, they can have rehab, they can have medical supervision,” Chan said. “As long as they are below the (RTF) threshold … then they’re fine.”
