Upper Bear Creek UAC Meeting Notes
Date: Sept 28, 2010 Time: 7:30 – 9:00 PM Location: Woodinville Water District Offices
Board Attendees: Mary Filkins, Rich Lund, Jerry Hicks, Nancy Stafford
County Attendees: Marissa Algeria, Lauren Smith of UAC Relations, John Starbard and Warren Cheney of DDES
Community Attendees: Esperanza and Hans Lang, Frances Waters, Lori Claudon, Kevin Coughlin, Diane DelaCruz, Louise Miler, Maxine Keesling (and two other men)
For openers, Nancy gave updates on “A Better Avondale” efforts, noting the amazing reduction of
6 dB of road noise on the Avondale ”test patch”, due hugely to the efforts of Joanna Hamed and Megan DeSantis working with Dept of Transportation.
Bear Creek Highland's objection to a cell tower installation at the entry to their residential development at Mink Road and NE 163rd where DDES has extended the comment period for citizen input.
The determination of Non Significance from DDES for the construction of a Walgreen’s Drug Store on the NE corner of the intersection of Woodinville Duval Rd & NE Avondale Rd. paperwork was laid out for attendees to see.
A synopsis of the DelaCruz problem of NO FIOS from Frontier (formerly Verizon) services to Unincorporated King County residents due to a lack of contract agreement with King Co.
Lori Claudon reported on her concern with the prospect of a 20” natural gas line being installed by Puget Sound Energy on 5.5 miles of the Tolt River Pipeline that provides Seattle with their drinking water. Negotiations with the city of Seattle have been ongoing since 2002 for a 25 ft “right of way” for this construction; there has yet to be a request for public comment of the persons who live along the Tolt Pipeline corridor or the community surrounding it. This sounds like a proposal that King County will need to represent our UAC in talks with the city of Seattle. Lori‘s mission is to inform the community of this proposal and it’s possible side affects. She gave copies of correspondence between Greg Nickles and the Seattle City Council, including the $4,700,000.00 check from PSE in payment.
King County Department of Development & Environmental Services (DDES) Department Director, John Starbard, described improvements being made at DDES. Director Starbard described how DDES is changing the way they do business, from hourly charges to fixed rates (eventually for) 90% of building/land use permits. Due to annexations and incorporations over many years DDES is now primarily a Rural Area agency for permits and other services such as code enforcement. As such, DDES is looking at relocating from its current Renton location and also providing more online services.
Chief Financial Officer, Warren Cheney, detailed DDES’s proposed fee reforms. DDES Cost Drivers include: actual cost of permitting, demand for service, and focus on customer service. DDES’s proposed 2011 cost reduction plan contains: 14% budget reduction, 23% staff reduction (~115 Full-Time Equivalents down from ~400 in 2005), and office space reductions. In addition, DDES is looking at changing their current mixed fee system for residential land use and site reviews to one that is based on fixed fees to provide certainty to its customers and will impose a 5% surcsharge over 4 years to implement the cost of reforms and relocation.. He provided copies of DDES Draft Fee Proposal for 2011.
Lauren Smith told us that there will be a Comp Plan update in 2012 and asked for suggestions on how this and other county information can be packaged to reach a larger number of King County residents.
Meeting adjourned at 9PM. Next Public Forum October 26th, same time and location.
Public urged to attend!