For the past six or seven months I have been attending Maple Valley Planning and City Council meetings in the hopes of getting a rezone of this property, with the thought of erecting a hotel on said property (26038 Maple Valley Black Diamond Highway).

The Maple Valley Planning Committee and senior planner now claim the rezone cannot be done due to previous councils and the planning committees allowing housing to be developed between SE 260th and SE 264th. Using this a prime business acreage for housing units (thus creating a lifetime of services required) seems to have been very shortsighted decision on the council’s part. This was done counter to the advice that city of Maple Valley and City Council received from their own experts when planning the city’s original zoning areas. The expert’s opinions were ignored by previous councils in order to get a quick influx of money into the city’s coffers and has cost a loss of 25-30 acres of prime city business zoning and future taxes to the city of Maple Valley. To continue compounding this error and cause the city more tax dollars, makes no sense at all.

I continue to feel that the subject property should get the CB zoning I have been requesting in order for me to continue my project which ultimately will benefit the city of Maple Valley. If the city and council continue to deny the CB loaning, I am requesting a R 18 zoning for town houses. If the council continues to deny zoning for such structures as hotels, the city of Maple Valley will just become a bedroom community of Covington.

Paul Drllevich
Ravensdale