The Greater Maple Valley Unincorporated Area Council regular monthly meeting was Sept. 13. The three topics discussed were King County Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) improvements, Black Diamond master planned developments applications approval and Ravensdale Ridge project comments.

• King County Department of Development and Environmental Services improvements Department John Starbard, director, described improvements made at DDES. Starbard described how DDES is changing the way they do business. Due to annexations and incorporations over many years, DDES is now primarily a rural area agency for building permits and other services such as code enforcement. 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. These inform DDES’s proposed 2011 cost reductions – a 14 percent budget reduction, 23 percent staff reduction 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.

DDES online customer services can be found at www.kingcounty.gov/permits. Customers can find information about the permit process, characteristics of individual parcels within unincorporated King County and many other topics associated with construction and land use. General information on DDES services can be found at: www.kingcounty.gov/property/permits.aspx.

• Black Diamond master planned developments applications approval

At the last deliberation session Aug. 24 of the closed-record hearing, the Black Diamond City Council approved the YarrowBay proposed 6,000+ home, 1.1 million sq ft commercial MPD Applications with conditions. That decision was embodied in an ordinance subject to a vote by the City Council.

The City Council rejected the hearing examiner’s primary recommendation, released in April, concerning transportation conditions and mitigations, that a new traffic model be: (1) developed, (2) validated with existing data, (3) used to analyze all key routes and intersections and (4) used to identify necessary mitigations before any homes are built.

Testimony from the area council, city of Maple Valley, King County Department of Transportation and the public supported the hearing examiner’s transportation recommendations. However, the City Council decided to wait until phase 1A is complete, a total of 850 new homes (nearly a 50 percent increase in the size of Black Diamond), before even looking at potential traffic impacts and needed mitigations using a new traffic model. The area council believes this will have both direct and long-lasting impacts to the greater Maple Valley area’s transportation infrastructure, especially along state Route 169 and SR 516.

Work will begin on a development agreement in which Yarrow Bay will prepare a more detailed plan to meet conditions placed on the MPD applications by the City Council. This plan will be negotiated with city staff.

The timing on the Development Agreement is not yet available. Members of the public can check the city of Black Diamond MPD web page for more information www.ci.blackdiamond.wa.us/Depts/CommDev/mpd_page.html.

• Ravensdale Ridge

Erickson Logging, owner of about 1,200 acre property on Ravensdale Ridge, between Ravensdale Park and Black Diamond, has applied to DDES to truck in clean fill from highway construction projects around Puget Sound to fill in five old mine trenches. They anticipate handling approximately 390,000 cubic yards of fill material. This project is anticipated to require between 20 and 100 truck-trailer trips per day (averaging 60 trips per day), but the application requests they be allowed to haul and fill 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This project is anticipated to require more than two years to complete.

The primary access route for truck-trailer traffic will be on Kent Kangley road to Ravensdale, then out the Black Diamond-Ravensdale Road (Ravensdale Way), past Gracie Hansen and Ravensdale Park, crossing the Burlington Northern tracks just west of old Ravensdale, then up onto Ravensdale Ridge on the new Erickson Logging access road just before the Reserve Silica Corp. (“sandworks”) operation.

The Reserve Silica “sandworks,” just west of Ravensdale, also has applied to DDES to extend their permitted hours of operation for hauling and filling on their property from the current to 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If both the Erickson and the Reserve Silica projects are approved by DDES, Ravensdale Way could be handling truck/trailer traffic from both projects simultaneously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The council is concerned about the adverse impacts to the rural neighborhoods of Ravensdale and the surrounding area. Specific concerns include traffic and its noise and environmental issues throughout the Ravensdale area.

The council objects to a 24-hour operation in this quiet rural neighborhood. This area has endured seven years of truck traffic along the Kent Kangley Road during the exporting of gravel from the pit just east of the town for the Sea-Tac Airport project. The council voted to submit a letter of comment to King County DDES that includes the following recommendations:

• The project must meet the Department of Ecology (DOE) standards for storm water protection. This includes hiring an accredited certified erosion and sediment control lead and implementing the DOE standards required for any construction site over one acre.

• A full Construction Storm Water Pollution Protection Plan (CSWPPP) must be developed as required by DOE on all clearing and grading and building permits.

• On-site monitoring must include the type of material being dumped, any sediment leaving the site, and any storm water leaving the site and infiltrating into the storm water system. Both Buck Lake and Ravensdale Lake are at risk here as well as several on site streams.

• The present storm water problems must be corrected before any work begins. It is a fact that major storm water run-off invades the Ravensdale Way during a major rain event each fall and winter. King County has the maintenance agreement with the present owners of the Reserve Silica San Pit to do this work.

There are several State Environmental Policy Act or SEPA shortfalls including traffic, noise, and timber growth.

• Traffic: The SEPA report is inconsistent about how many load trips per day are going to be implemented. Is it 25-30 or 100 trips per day? By a quick math check it is our estimation that it is closer to 100 trips per day over three years. Also, what is the route of travel? We strongly suggest a round trip through Black Diamond and not through the town of Ravensdale. The Ravensdale route will require a sharp turn onto Ravensdale Way or a turn-off through the Ravensdale Park both of which present major safety concerns.

• Noise: Only phase one is addressed in Erickson’s analysis. This phase is the least of total construction process. Also, there is no formal assessment of the use of compression braking that will take place on the steep slopes of the site or up-hill travel carrying truck and trailer loads. It is unacceptable for this kind of noise to occur at night. A 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. shift would be tolerable.

• Timber growth: More refined and scientific explanation of how this operation will support future timber growth is needed. This should be backed up with scientific research and data.

The Area Council voted to submit formal comments to King County DDES by the Sept. 27 deadline.

Next regular monthly meeting 7-9:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4. at the King County Sheriff’s Precinct No. 3 231st St and state Route169, across from Fire Station.

The topic will be recommended King County Code Changes.

Peter Rimbos

Corresponding Secretary