Four Creeks Unincorporated Area Council
Compiled by David Rockabrand with input from Bette Filley, Marshall Brenden and Matt Hebb.
Minutes: Four Creeks UAC special meeting May 7, 2003 7 p.m. 9 p.m.
Attending:
David Rockabrand, Bette Filley, Matt Hebb, Paul Zucati, Edie Jorgensen, Cynthia Green, Oscar Bandelin, Marshall Brendan, Michele Fisher and members of the public.
The meeting convened at 7:04 PM.
March minutes were approved with the proviso of changing the misspelled "daft" to "draft".
Correspondence: King County Code enforcement survey, discussion of which was postponed.
No Treasurerıs report
No Deputy report.
Connie L Blumen, (DNRP, Natural Resources Program Coordinator Office of Rural and Resource Programs) along with Mary Maier (basin steward for May Valley) presented the 164th Street, May Valley "Pioneer Park" site plan update.
Connie started by giving a brief history of the site and stated that they (DNRP) are trying to implement the Basin Plan #5.
The site is 2.03 acres zoned RA5 - address is 12205-164th Av SE Renton. Most of it is located within the 100 year flood zone. Contains a class 2 stream, was acquired in December of 2000 for $171,000.00. The parcel contained one home and a failing septic system both of which were removed.
The ideas behind acquiring the parcel are:
1) Remove Home and septic
2) Manage land in the Valley
3) Improve habitat for wildlife
4) Maintain open space
5) Improve conditions for coho spawning and rearing.
Plans/guidelines for implementation are published on the web.
Copies of the site plan were distributed
Letters were sent to all property owners within 1000 feet of this property to inform them of this meeting.
The county is taking comments on this plan until June 9th
The public has been invited to be park ambassadors or to join "adopt a park" if they wish to help maintain this site.
David Rockabrand questioned the non-removal of beaver dams. Given the idea is to improve salmon spawning and rearing, and the creek is filled with silt, and the grade of the land is near zero, doesnıt it make sense to remove the 2 dams? Connie replied that one of the dams is not on the property so is out of her jurisdiction but the other one is being ³monitored².
Marshall Brenden stated that the rush to buy the property by the County was not justified and that the goals stated for its purchase have not been met.
Further little has been done by the County to alleviate the damming of May Creek by Beaver Dams and the roadway at 148 Ave. S.E. Other than illegal
dredging of sediments by outsiders and the 250 feet dredged by the County recently the Sediment causing the flooding of May Valley continues to
accumulate unabated.
Matthew Hebb: The County has taken action to achieve 4 specific items. It is clear that they were successful on the first item which is the removal of
structures and septic from the Flood plain, however anecdotal evidence suggest other septic and structures pose a higher risk.
It is not clear that they will be successful on the other 3 items, Flood reduction, Salmon habitat restoration and vegetation restoration. What
is far more disturbing is the fact that failure in this effort will have no consequence on the people making the decisions. It appears that
county staff are rewarded, praised, and evaluated on enforcing or following rules whether they are beneficial or achieve the stated goals.
We are now informed that nothing more can be done because the money is all spent. Was this effort the most effective use of the available
funds? What science and rational is applied to make these decisions. It appears that the individual property owners in the valley are paying
the price of ineffective policy and a lack of accountability.
Other issues brought up for discussion were: the silt build up, the types of plantings, controversy surrounding the Pinkley sale in the year 2000, the salmon monitoring, and the budget expenditures.
Bette Filley noted Connie Blumen mentioned twice in her presentation that one county option was that the county could put the park back into community hands if
there was a group willing to take it over. Bette then proposed that the county could save considerable time, money and effort by doing just that NOW before spending any
further money on it. Connie asked if there was a group who would be willing to do that, and Bette answered that MVEC was such a group, and she was sure they would be both willing and able to take on such a project. Further she noted that among their membership there were contractors capable of doing any work that needed to be done. Bette proposed the county might donate the park to the group, or perhaps sell it to them for $1.00.
Oscar J. Bandelin, At Large, challenged Ms. Blumen on Plan Recommendation 5, focusing on the theme of flood control. Ms. Blumen was unable to articulate what the County had accomplished in fulfillment of that recommendation, and Oscar charged her with grandstanding for the sake of winning support for the county from those in the local community who were ignorant of the county's shortcomings with respect to the Basin Plan. He pointed out that the so-called environmental disaster resulting from Chuck Pillon's dredging was actually a step toward satisfaction of county obligations under the Plan, not only to May Valley residents but also to salmon survival. Oscar declared that Pillon accomplished more for the fish and for flood control in one afternoon than the county had in over a third of a century. He also reminded Blumen that such dredging is routine in waterways around the county that bear fish, including the Green River. Why not allow residents to maintain their drainage ditch?
Oscar further challenged Ms. Maier, the county basin steward, declaring that her work so far has been to make the Basin Plan more appealing politically, not to listen to the members of the community; this must change, he said, before she could expect anyone to work with her constructively.
Rodney McFarland presented a detailed written response to the May Valley Flood Reduction Site Management Guidelines. He suggested that the guidelines
as written should really be called the May Valley Flood Maximization Site Guidelines. It was his contention that keeping beaver dams in place, adding
new trees to provide better habitat for the beaver, and the addition of large woody debris to trap additional silt all contribute to further
upstream flooding in direct contravention of the basin plan's requirement to minimize flooding and maximize conveyance.
Connie wrote down all comments and concerns on a large sheet of paper and said she would alert the appropriate department official as to these concerns and then get back to us with answers.
Alan Corwin presented his edits to the Executive Summary to Ms Blumen.
Meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.
Originally posted to the website May 25, 2003 -gh
Underlined
text added per updates received via email from David Rockabrand.