Tag Archives: Sammamish

County to destroy 36% of trees in 1.3 mi on Lake Trail, put at risk 26% more–and they ain’t done yet

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King County will destroy 36% of the trees and put at risk 26% more–a total of 120 out of 194 trees–in just 1.3 miles of the East Lake Sammamish Trail between SE 43rd Way (the round-about) and 33rd (roughly the 7-11) as it plans to widen the trail to 18 ft (equal to 1.5 lanes of two lane highway).

The Sammamish Review reported the pending destruction November 5.

And this doesn’t include the long section from 33rd to Inglewood Hill Road.

In a post on October 16, I raised the alarm.

The County’s destruction of trees on the Northern section of ELST, north of Inglewood to the Redmond city limits, is a blight on the landscape.

The County claims that it must adhere to federal and local standards for the trail’s paving and “improvements,” and the trees must go as a result and to protect wetlands that are in reality drainage ditches.

I filed a four page Public Comment with the County and City in advance of the Oct. 29 comment deadline. This document is here: ELST Comments 10202014_2

The County claims it cannot deviate from the trail standards. Poppycock. On the section through Issaquah, there are a couple of deviations from standards, narrowing the trail and changing the alignment slightly for environmental reasons.

Photos below the page break.

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Heads up on ELSP Lake Trail: your trees are at risk

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While many letters to The Sammamish Review and comments to the Sammamish City Council have recently focused on the Lake Sammamish Trail from Inglewood Hill north to the Redmond city limits, residents south of Inglewood Hill to the Issaquah city limits are next on the trail “improvement” list.

Residents have until Oct. 29 to comment to the City and the County on plans to extend the 18 ft wide extreme makeover this distance. Trees will be destroyed in the name of building this “improvement” to city, county and federal standards. (Eighteen feet is the width of a land-and-a half of East Lake Sammamish Parkway.)

The City and the County have it within discretion to make small adjustments to standards. In most cases, aligning the trail slightly toward ELSP will save trees adjacent the west side of the trail. I spoke with a county official who said this would encroach on the wetlands. In walking the trail end-to-end, most “wetlands” are nothing more than drainage ditches, and in any event in most cases these ditches may be moved slightly toward ELSP.

Finally, the trade off between wetland and trees ignores the environmental benefits of trees: capturing stormwater runoff, stabilizing slopes and protecting the lake. They also help cool temperatures. My car’s thermometer shows as much as a 5 degree difference on hot days from the Safeway complex to my neighborhood, which is surrounded by cedar trees.

Residents need to flood the City and County with comments. Unfortunately, too many members of our city council appear uninterested in public opinion (as letter writers and the Oct. 8 editorial suggest). It took Councilmember Ramiro Valderrama months to get the city to put the north end on the agenda and to do something about the rape-and-scrape destruction of a thousand trees (by one count) on the north end of the trail. The County ran rough-shod over objections and pleas to be selective and careful.

The emergency tree ordinance just passed by the Council this week isn’t sufficient to prevent a similar slaughter on the south end of the project, Valderrama told me last night.

Public comments to the application by October 29 and public comment to the City Council is necessary. But in the end, appeals of the city permit and the shoreline management permit may be the only alternatives.

Klahanie PAA dodges Issaquah bullet; and the gift that keeps on giving

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The Klahanie Potential Annexation Area dodged the bullet from Issaquah, it turns out, as the city reveals its budget proposal.

One of the points the city promoted when seeking an affirmative vote from the PAA to annex to Issaquah was lower taxes.

The 2015 budget, just released, proposes raising property taxes 1% and nearly doubling most Business & Occupation taxes immediately and marginally in the following year.

Sammamish, which is now pursuing annexation of the PAA, hasn’t raised property taxes since incorporation in 1999 and it doesn’t have a B&O tax.

Issaquah needs to raise taxes because it’s essentially broke. The new budget projects an $8m surplus, which is really “nothing” for a government and city the size of Issaquah. There are little or no reserves for replacing aging water and sewer infrastructure, for example, or for doing many of the things the Klahanie PAA needs in terms of road improvements, maintenance and park upgrades. Sammamish, on the other hand, has a large cash balance and untapped bonding power of more than $400m, should it choose to use it.

Klahanie PAA voters were wise to reject annexation to Issaquah.

The gift that keeps on giving

Remember the City of Issaquah’s cybersquatting on the website domains of the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District? I wrote several columns about this in September and October last year, beginning with this one. The Issaquah Press and Issaquah Reporter then named this event as the Top Story of 2013 in their January 2014 year-end recaps (just before the Klahanie PAA vote to annex to Issaquah, as it turned out).

On Oct. 6 this year, the Issaquah Press won first place in a national contest judged by the Arizona Newspaper Assn., which reviewed more than 2,300 entries for editorials.

The winner was The Press’ editorial condemning the city for the cybersquatting. Here’s the link to the story. Here’s the link to the editorial, which also ran in the sister paper, The Sammamish Review.

This bonehead move by Issaquah continues to haunt the government. Nobody was held accountable, and no elected official condemned the action until the mayoral campaign was well underway. This speaks volumes.

This is another reason the Klahanie PAA dodged a bullet.

 

Sammamish Town Center gets a kick-start with major grocery anchor tenant

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The Sammamish Town Center has finally got a good kick-start for development of 100,000 sq ft, with a mixture of commercial/retail/office and residential, and the anchor tenant of Metropolitan Market, the locally owned grocery chain.

The Sammamish Reporter first broke the news today. Details were brief, so I called City Councilman Tom Odell, who filled in some of the information.

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Sammamish official asks how Issaquah-Pine Lake Road project can be funded while city plans spending spree

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It’s a very odd statement, reported by The Sammamish Review this week: the City doesn’t have the funds to complete improvements for Issaquah-Pine Lake Road.

The Review wrote, in part:

Councilwoman Nancy Whitten wanted the city to reprioritize a plan to improve Issaquah-Pine Lake Road between Klahanie Boulevard and Southeast 32nd Street. The project is on the improvement plan with an estimated cost of $16.5 million. However, it has no start date assigned, and Whitten hoped it would begin sooner.

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Whitten noted that the road needs to be fixed, even if the city does not end up annexing Klahanie.

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City Manager Ben Yazici agreed the road needs work, but said the city does not have funds to complete the project.

This strikes us as a very odd statement, since the City has a nine-figure spending spree that seems to be rising at every opportunity.

It’s also odd since the City boasts of no debt, more than $400m in bonding power and a cash balance in the tens of millions of dollars.

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