About PETER

Eglick Law PLLC's roots are in the practice first established by Peter Eglick in 1979. It is a "boutique" practice focused on land use and environmental law, growth management, homeowners' associations, real property and administrative and constitutional law. Clients have ranged from individual property owners through corporations and community associations to municipalities. The emphasis is on pragmatic advice and tenacious, effective representation.

Peter Eglick has represented clients before numerous local hearing examiners and agencies, the Washington Shorelines Hearings Board, the Growth Management Hearings Board, as well as trial and appellate courts, including the Washington Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has been designated annually by his peers as a Washington Law and Politics "Super Lawyer," and has annually received Martindale Hubbell's peer review rating of "AV Preeminent."

Mr. Eglick regularly advises homeowner association clients and has represented HOAs in litigation concerning HOA covenants and regulations as well as in interactions with municipal governments.

Mr. Eglick also serves as counsel in representing HUSH (Helicopters Unsafe Here) concerning a private helistop situated among high rises in a densely populated area of downtown Bellevue.

Mr. Eglick has litigated matters under the Growth Management Act (GMA) since its inception, starting with Robison v. Bainbridge Island in which he represented the Bainbridge Island School District as well as the South Bainbridge Island Community Association, and the West Seattle Defense Fund series of cases.

Mr. Eglick was a lead counsel in King County v. Cent. Puget Sound Growth Mgmt. Hr'gs Bd., 142 Wn.2d 543, 14 P.3d 133 (2000), known as "the soccer fields case," in which the Washington Supreme Court rejected a King County ordinance allowing conversion of farmlands to soccer fields and firmly established the GMA's paramount imperative for preservation of agricultural lands.

Two decades later, in a soccer fields case "descendant," Mr. Eglick represented Friends of Sammamish Valley and a coalition of local farming and co-op organizations before the Growth Management Hearings Board. He twice obtained Board decisions invalidating a King County ordinance that weakened protections against urban sprawl in the King County Rural Area and Agricultural zones. After an adverse Court of Appeals decision reversing the Growth Board, Mr. Eglick successfully petitioned the Washington Supreme Court to review the matter. Mr. Eglick argued the case before the Supreme Court in May 2024, and in September 2024 the Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated the Growth Board decision. King County v. Friends of Sammamish Valley, et al., 2024 Wash. LEXIS 467, 2024 WL 4231188 (2024).

In City of Puyallup v. Pierce County, 8 Wn. App. 2d 323 (2019), a precedent setting case under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), Mr. Eglick was lead counsel for the City of Puyallup. He successfully argued that the City was entitled to assume SEPA lead agency status and order preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) when Pierce County refused to require an EIS for a very large warehouse complex adjacent to the Puyallup River.

Mr. Eglick was lead counsel and successfully argued for Puyallup in Homeward Bound in Puyallup v. Cent. Puget Sound Growth Mgmt. Hr'gs Bd., 517 P.3d 1098 (2022) which upheld reasonable discretion and deference for the City's Code concerning Homeless Drop-In Centers and Overnight Shelters.

Mr. Eglick was counsel for the Committee for the Preservation of the Seattle Federal Reserve Bank Building in its efforts, under the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, to prevent the demolition of a landmark structure, the former Seattle Federal Reserve Bank Building in downtown Seattle. As a result of successful litigation in Comm. for the Pres. of the Seattle FRB Bldg. v. FRB of San Francisco, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26084, 2010 WL 1138407 (2010), the structure was placed on the National Register and its significant features have now been restored and preserved within a larger development.

In SSHI LLC v. City of Olympia, 2013 Wash.App. LEXIS 2296, 2013 WL 5436406 (2013), Mr. Eglick successfully defended the City of Olympia's denial of a major national developer's proposed village master plan due to its failure to comply with transit requirements.

Mr. Eglick has been a lecturer/author on land use matters at Continuing Legal Education seminars for lawyers and other professionals in the field. His presentations have addressed topical questions in land use and environmental law as well as ethical issues which confront practitioners.

Education

• Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C.: Juris Doctor (Member, Georgetown Law Journal)
• University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Bachelor of Arts

Judicial Clerkship

• Judicial law clerk for the Honorable Murray Schwartz, United States District Court for the District of Delaware

Bar Memberships

• Washington
• District of Columbia (inactive)
• Pennsylvania (inactive)
• United States District Courts for Western District of Washington, Eastern District of Washington, and District of Columbia
• United States Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit and Ninth Circuit
• United States Supreme Court