By Dennis Box-The Courier-Herald

A contentious dispute between the Brookwater Homeowners Association and the Bonney Lake Marketplace Developers, the firm building a shopping center where a Lowe's home improvement store will be located, appears to have finally come to an end.

Jeff Oliphant, owner of the Bellingham-based development firm, informed the City Council March 11 the parties had reached an agreement over three homes located in a cul-de-sac on 200th Avenue East next to the Lowe's construction site.

The site is located across from Albertsons on South Prairie Road East.

“This settles all of the issues.” Oliphant said. “A huge majority of voters (from the homeowners association) agreed.”

There are four homes in the cul-de-sac. One was torn down March 12 and the other three will be moved.

Oliphant said the Lowe's home improvement store will open at the end of June. The names of other businesses that will be located in the shopping center have not been released.

The association filed a lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court in August 2006. The suit stated a monument sign and a commercial driveway from 200th Court East that would cross a residential lot would violate the group's Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CCRs).

The agreement was not reached until homeowner Ian Davidson and board member Steve Elliot took a petition around to the Brookwater homes and collected 63 signatures from people who agreed to settle.

The petition needed at least 58 people to vote yes. There are about 86 residents in the association.

“Some of the people were fed up with this,” Davidson said. “They thought this was over and they wanted this over.”

According to Oliphant the terms of the settlement include releasing the homes on the cul-de-sac from the association's CCRs. The developer will also pay the association $87,500 for the right to bring an underground waterline for firefighting across 100th Avenue Court East and a strip of land owned by the association.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@courierherald.com.