Help Save the Masonic Home of Des Moines with a King County Appeal!

We, the Citizens for the Protection of Des Moines' Historic Resources, are appealing our case to King County Superior Court in Kent. Our Hearing Examination at the City of Des Moines was decided, on 12/11/25, in favor of the City by the Hearing Examiner. We feel there were many errors with this decision and have filed an appeal with King County Superior Court. We feel the Judge will be more impartial and independent at this level, as the Hearing Examiner , with all due respect to their professionalism, was someone who regularly works with the City of Des Moines.

Our case is scheduled for June 2026, with many preliminary hearings and filings before then.

We are representing ourselves, Pro Se, this time around. For the City Hearing Examination, we hired Bricklin and Newman. Their representation was excellent and gave us a good basis on which to appeal, but it went over our budget. We raised around $8700 with a Go Fund me and an additional $33,000 offline, so about $41,000 total. The final legal bill was about $73,000. We're going to go ahead and shoulder this extra amount.

However, this is why we need to fund raise again for the King County Superior Court Appeal. Since we are representing ourselves, the legal bill will be significantly less. We need to pay filing fees, mail serving fees, printing copies of legal papers, etc. and also pay to transfer the record of the City Hearing Examination to the King County Courthouse. In addition, we will still talk with Bricklin and Newman to get information and advice on technical and procedural matters, although they won't be representing us.

We estimate the King County Superior Court Appeal will be around $5000. So any amount you can donate will go a long way and help out a lot. Thank you for all your support along the way and for standing up for the amazing Masonic Home of Des Moines!