Peter J. Eglick, Partner. VCard

Our Team

Peter Eglick has practiced in Washington since 1979. He has represented clients before numerous local hearing examiners and agencies, the Washington Shorelines Hearings Board, the Growth Management Hearings Board, 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 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 as well as in later cases such as one successfully defending a City of Bothell revised GMA Comprehensive Plan.

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 firmly established the GMA's paramount imperative for preservation of agricultural lands.

In a successor to the soccer fields case, Mr. Eglick and his partner, Josh Whited, recently represented Friends of Sammamish Valley and a coalition of local farming and co-op organizations before the Growth Management Hearings Board, twice obtaining 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 that reversed the Growth Board, Eglick & Whited petitioned the Washington Supreme Court to review the matter. The Supreme Court granted review and set the case for oral argument. Mr. Eglick argued the case before the Court in May 2024, and in September 2024 the Supreme 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).

Both Mr. Eglick and his partner Josh Whited regularly advise homeowner association clients, and both have represented HOAs in litigation concerning HOA covenants and regulations as well as in interactions with municipal governments.

Mr. Eglick, along with partner Josh Whited, was lead counsel for the City of Puyallup in City of Puyallup v. Pierce County, 8 Wn. App. 2d 323 (2019). This published first-of-its-kind decision under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) upheld Puyallup's assumption of SEPA lead agency status from the original lead agency (Pierce County) as well as Puyallup's order for preparation of an environmental impact statement on a very large warehouse complex adjacent to the Puyallup River for which the County had issued a Determination of Nonsignificance.

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 also serves as lead counsel with his partner Josh Whited in representing HUSH (Helicopters Unsafe Here) concerning a private helistop situated among high rises in a densely populated area of downtown Bellevue.

Eglick & Whited were 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.

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 in SSHI LLC v. City of Olympia, 2013 Wash.App. LEXIS 2296, 2013 WL 5436406 (2013).

Mr. Eglick has also been a lecturer/author on land use matters at Continuing Legal Education seminars for lawyers and other professionals in the field. These lectures and publications 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