The SSDP hearing for ELST Segment 2B begins on Friday, November 3 at City Hall. This hearing is a project permit hearing at which both the County and City will present their cases without cross examination. Public comment will commence at 1pm on the first day of the hearing with the hearing examiner estimating the number of comments to be made each day. The City is expecting a large turnout with additional off-site parking made available for the hearing.

The hearing examiner, John Galt, will make his decision based on the law and the testimony from the County, City, and public comment. Mr. Galt is a very thorough examiner who will read everything previously presented, including earlier public comment.

King County’s responses to individual public comment has been posted on the City’s website:

https://www.sammamish.us/attachments/pagecontent/47295/SSDP2016-00415_ELST_Segment_2B-10-10-17.pdf

The responses are in a spreadsheet that can be searched. With the font being very small and the search tool being difficult to use on the website, SHO recommends that you download the file to search it on your computer. If you want to comment on a King County response, whether positive or negative, you need to sign up to make your comment at the hearing.

The sign-up sheet for public comment will be available at 9am on the morning of November 3 at City Hall. Comments will be heard in the order of this sheet. As stated above, the hearing examiner will estimate who will be able to comment on the first day. Thus, if you are not among whose who will be able to comment on the first day, you do not have to listen to others comment while waiting for your turn. The same process will be used for the remaining days of the hearing. Remember that your comment will be limited to 3 minutes unless you represent a recognized community organization when 5 minutes will be allowed.

SHO recommends that everyone be courteous and respectful of the hearing process. You are trying to convince Mr. Galt to make decisions in your favor. Thus, talking against the County or even the City during your comment is unlikely to be persuasive; stick to the facts and offer options to achieve your objectives.

The complete procedures for the hearing are posted on the City website:

https://www.sammamish.us/attachments/resolutions/R2017-727%20-%20HE%20ROP.pdf

Note that only the project hearing procedures apply to this hearing. The summary of the process is on page 13 of Attachment A, page 17 overall.

SHO Board

Very Important…  The general election is only two weeks away and the ballots are already mailed.  It is critical that we elect City Council members who understand the complexity of completing the ELST while respecting the environment and property rights. We have reviewed the qualifications and positions of all candidates and are recommending for your consideration the following candidates.

Please vote!  Your vote is extremely important to ensure that we have City Council members who understand the trail issues and are supportive of the trailside community.

Position 1 – Mark Baughman
Position 3 – Karen Moran (note: there are two Karens on the ballot- Karen Moran is SHO’s choice
Position 5 – Chris Ross
Position 7 – No opinion

SHO Board

 

October 7, 2017

City Council Members and Mr. Howard;

This is to expand on an important issue that Reid Brockway addressed in brief in public comment to the October 3^rd City Council meeting. It is one of two issues concerning the handling of public comment on the 60% design of Segment 2B of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

To reiterate, those two issues are:

1. The conflict between a public hearing on the SSDP scheduled to start November 3^rd and King County’s published statement that its responses to citizen comments may not be available until “late fall”.

2. The apparent absence of a venue, and possible lack of city support to its citizens, for those issues concerning the 60% design deemed out of scope for a SSDP.

It is the second of these that SHO wishes to elaborate. The first has a simple solution: do not hold the public hearing until the county has finished responding to the citizen issues.

There will likely be many legitimate and serious issues deemed out of scope of a SSDP. It should be recognized that King County, in its responses to the city’s comments, and those of other commenting entities such as the fire district, asserts that many of the issues raised are outside the scope of a SSDP. That includes, for example, most of the surface water management issues. And it is likely, given that a SSDP is primarily concerned with the shoreline environment, that the hearing examiner will agree with them in many cases. Yet there are many issues that will remain that need a fair hearing, and the county has demonstrated with the other trail segments the practice of rejecting all but the most unarguable of the citizen issues.

In addition, not all of the right-of-way is within the Shoreline Jurisdiction. That portion that is not – roughly one mile in total – is not subject to the SSDP. Consequently any issues unique to that portion will probably not be considered in the hearing.

As just one example of an issue likely not to be resolved at the hearing, there is the matter of “dispersion areas”. The 60% plan designates these bands of vegetation the county intends to create on the west side of the trail to absorb runoff from the trail. The bands will be 25 feet wide and will take up more than half of the land within the right-of-way west of the trail. Parking, gardens, and other improvements west of the current trail will have to be removed. And they extend for long distances affecting dozens of properties whose ownership remains in question. Given the county’s poor maintenance practices, these will turn into thickets of dense vegetation. One merely needs to look at the thicket surrounding Zackuse Creek, which was re-vegetated a few years ago, to see this.

This conversion of useful land into unusable thicket, and the impact that has on adjacent property owners, is unnecessary. The depression between the Parkway and the former rail bed on the east side of the trail provides a retention area for runoff from the trail. It is already performing this function. The county merely needs to grade the trail so it slopes to the east instead of the west and the cost and consequences of these dispersion areas can be avoided.

But is this an issue that the hearing examiner will decide? Likely not. The need to deal with runoff is perhaps legitimately of concern to a SSDP, but the choice between two ways of accomplishing it is probably not. (Surely the county will argue that it is not.)

There are numerous other issues like this that will likely be deemed outside the scope of a SSDP. So the question becomes will the city play a role in resolving them on behalf of its citizens? Does the city intend to be an agent in dealing with them, or are we citizens to be left on our own in fighting a county that has shown itself to be largely unresponsive to citizen concerns?

Or to put it another way, will there be another mechanism – perhaps review of the Clearing and Grading Permit – for getting these other issues addressed in a constructive manner? And will the citizens have some forum, akin to the SSDP hearing, for arguing their “cases” where the county’s responses (assuming they do eventually come) are unreasonable?

Note that the county has committed to do a 90% design, and to provide the opportunity for public review of that design, and may argue that these issues can be dealt with then. But our experience is that by that time the county is very reluctant to make any further changes, arguing cost and schedule impact, and will likely dig in its heals on any accommodation. The time to deal with these 60% design issues is before things proceed that far.

SHO strongly urges the City Council and staff to devise a plan for dealing with these “out of scope” issues once the county has responded to citizen comments.

Sincerely,

Sammamish Homeowners (SHO)