A judge will reconsider whether or not the city of Kirkland should allow developer Lobsang Dargey to build the controversial Potala Village project under the original zoning that was in place when he applied for a permit.

King County Superior Court judge Monica J. Benton on Wednesday granted the city’s motion for the court to reconsider a May 9 decision that the city must process the developer’s building permit, per February 2011 zoning laws.

When Dargey filed his shoreline substantial development permit in 2011, the zoning laws in effect at that time in the neighborhood business district on Lake Street South did not contain any limit on residential density.

His project called for 143 residential units per acre, with 6,000 square feet of retail and parking space on a 1.2 acre lot on 10th Avenue South and Lake Street South.

Following opposition from hundreds of residents concerned about the project’s high density, the city imposed a total of four moratoria and later established a new density limit of 48 units per acre in December of 2012. The new zoning restricted Dargey’s project to a total of 60 units.

City attorneys argued that the project was subject to the new zoning because Dargey hadn’t applied for a building permit.

However, when Dargey attempted to file a building permit application with the city in October 2012, the city refused to accept the application due to the moratorium in place.

Dargey’s attorney Duana Kolouskova filed an injunction against the city last May with claims that the moratorium was imposed on the property illegally.

In the city’s motion for reconsideration that was filed in King County Superior Court on May 20, the city argues that when Dargey filed his shoreline permit in 2011, he was only vested in existing shoreline regulations – not the entire zoning laws in existence before the moratorium was imposed.

Under state law, Dargey “failed to take advantage of a known opportunity to file an application for a building permit before the moratorium took effect,” city attorneys said in court documents.

Teresa Swan, a senior planner for the city, said in her declaration that the developer could have filed a building permit application at the same time he submitted his shoreline permit application. If he had done so, his project would have vested to the city’s zoning code and land-use laws in effect at that time, Swan said.

Kolouskova did not immediately return requests for comment.