Upper Bear Creek Unincorporated Area Council
Serving 22,000 people in north-central King County
between the Sammamish and Snoqualmie Rivers and
north of Redmond and east of Woodinville.
Date: Jan 23, 2007
Time: 7:30 – 9:10 PM
Location: Woodinville Water District Offices
Board Attendees: Geoff Clayton, Mary Filkins, Jerry Hicks and Nancy Stafford.
CountyAttendees: Marissa Algeria, Paul Reitenbach Senior Policy Analyst for DDES,
Stephanie Warden King Co. Development & Environment Review,
Mary Impson, KC Code Enforcement Officer
Community Attendees: Maxine Keesling, Kristen Bush, Pati An, Norm Maddex,
Rosalie Paulgen, Pat and Connie Haglin
Geoff Clayton opened the meeting by reviewing a recent all UAC meeting with King Co. Executive Ron Sims where the following topics were mentioned: Sheriff response time and manner rural vs. urban, Parks-Marymoor vs. revenue, Health of salmon redds in Cedar and Bear Creek Watersheds with effects of flooding a concern, Improvement of emergency communications systems in times of disaster, Future of Burlington Northern railway vs. possibility of light rail between Woodinville and Monroe in 20-years.
Paul Reitenbach explained his involvement with the King Co. Comprehensive Plan 2008 Update. This Comp Plan has a 4 year cycle to guide planning policy for unincorporated areas and can be used voluntarily by urban cities. Non technical changes can be submitted to KC Council each year with major review/changes made every fourth year. Next major review due 2008. So far he sees only limited changes to land use policies and emphasis on maintaining zoning differences between rural and urban communities re: transportation and public health/parks as the headliners.
Maxine Keesling read her public forum testimony paper. She had 4 suggested substantive amendments to suggest, dealing with the placement of “large woody debris” in the Sammamish River, revision of the county’s adopted transportation concurrence requirements on rural roads, clarification of RA 2.5 zoning shown on county maps needs to be replaced with RA-5 designation, and splitting the recently adopted 2006 Flood Hazard Management Plan into two separate ordinances, one of flood management, one of environmental restoration of habitat.
A lively discussion followed questioning why the rules and regs for building schools and churches in unincorporated are so different than those rules and regs for citizens wanting to build in rural areas. Harvest of storm damaged trees for profit was discussed with a request for easement of documentation regulations.
Mary Impson answered questions about rural DDES enforcement.
Stephanie Worden fielded many DDES questions. She gave a “TREE Hotline” phone number of 206 296 6751 where questions about emergency and hazardous tree removal will be answered during business hours on week days. County personnel took notes of local concerns for followup.
Meeting closed about 9:15, tonight’s subjects were interesting! Next meeting February 27, same time, same place.