Burien has been a community for more than 100 years and has been an incorporated city for close to 14 years. Ever since we became a city, the people have envisioned having a vibrant, alive "town square" in the middle of our downtown.

Through the years the community has worked to create a Town Square that will feature a wonderful park, shops, housing and a new joint library/city hall building.

From the beginning, the Burien community has been clear about the goals regarding this project. To achieve those goals, the City has offered a number of creative solutions to landowners whose property was situated on the site of the future Town Square.

Fortunately, Burien has been able to come to agreement with all of these landowners-except the Strobel family company. The company's property, the site of Meal Makers restaurant, is the only parcel we have not yet been able to agree on.

The City recently came to an agreement with the owner of Meal Makers restaurant in which the City has agreed to assume the lease that the restaurant has with its landlord, the Strobel company.

The agreement gave restaurant owner Kevin Fitz the opportunity to explore other options, and he announced that he will close the restaurant Dec. 15. The agreement enables the Strobel company to receive rent revenue from the City until the state Supreme Court makes a final decision about the future of the property.

Over the past few years, the City has made a number of offers to the Strobel company. The City has offered to buy the land and provide compensation for other expenses associated with the deal.

We have offered another parcel of land in the Town Square in exchange for the existing parcel. We have even offered to make the Strobels equity investors in the Town Square project.

To give us more time to try to reach an agreement, we extended the timeline for the project.

The Strobel company, however, rejected all of the City's past offers. That is certainly their right, and we understand that they are trying to get the best deal possible.

The Strobel company, which owns land in Tacoma and other places outside of Burien, did not become a large and successful business without learning how to get the best deal.

But the City must act in the best interests of the people and taxpayers of Burien, and unfortunately we have not been able to come to a mutual agreement; we therefore find ourselves in a legal dispute with the Strobel company.

The courts have consistently and without reservation upheld the City in this case.

A King County Superior Court judge in the case stated that the Town Square project was "well thought out after exploring ... various options over many years."

The state Court of Appeals later stated, "Given the entire record, we cannot find any showing that the City acted arbitrarily or capriciously."

The appellate court also found that "no improper considerations have been shown ... and circumstances surrounding the development of Burien's Town Square demonstrates legitimate public purpose."

We understand that this type of issue is often highly contentious, but the politics of this situation have led to unsubstantiated claims about the City's efforts.

Again, the panel of three appellate court judges upheld the Superior Court judge's findings, saying, "a review of the record indicates that Strobel's allegations are mere conjecture."

The state Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision in the next month or so on whether or not to hear this case

Once all the legal issues are resolved, we hope that we can sit down with the Strobel company, as we have with the other landowners, to reach an agreement that meets our goals in a way that is in the best interests of the people of Burien as well as those of the Strobel and Meal Makers businesses.

David Cline is Assistant City Manager for the City of Burien.