Editors note: This letter was written following the June 21 Maple Valley City Council meeting. The letter was e-mailed to all members of the council.

Please consider adjusting your meeting rules to offer the citizens a second opportunity to comment in all meetings. There is too much valuable input that can be given on the spot prudent to the current topic that is never received because the next opportunity to comment to the council is in another week. The council is asking questions during presentations and could get immediate responses if they were open to hearing from the citizens an additional time. The council’s time and the citizens’ time is too valuable to not change this meeting rule.

Please make a decision on weather or not you can move forward with the entire plan for summit park. It’s not a perfect plan in my estimation, but it’s a plan in the right direction. As Councilwoman Linda Johnson said, if we are not OK with the power lines then we should close the book and go home. We should not move forward if we have any reservations with building a park under the power lines. I, as a citizen, have absolutely no hesitation moving forward with the master plan as it’s presented. I will say this, if we can’t put a park on this land, I’d really like to explore if we can build a four baseball/fast-pitch park big enough to host tournaments in the golf course site that the city currently owns. If we are not OK with the power lines, then lets build where we don’t have these issues. We could probably fit a few soccer/football fields on the golf course as well. Another thought would be to develop the Legacy site with ballfields?

The staff and citizens have worked very hard on all the details for the Summit Park and diligently brought it forward. Let’s get this ball rolling.

I’d like the council to continue to consider the piece of property behind Goodwill as the ingress/egress. I am still very concerned about the traffic implications on the existing and future developments served by 276th, which will be a primary road leading in and out of the donut hole. Add to that the 250 plus homes that use this road as the only way in and out to state Route 169. The Goodwill entrance would provide a safer entrance and exit as well as prime marketing for Maple Valley parks. Give the people who consider buying houses, starting businesses and shopping a reason to take a second look and fall in love with Maple Valley. This entrance could also provide additional parking options. It will cost more, but might be the right decision.

If the parking issues are not addressed, we will have parking problems in the adjacent housing developments and businesses. Thrive fitness and the other businesses are already suffering with a lack of parking. Imagine how they’ll feel when they have 20 plus cars parked there every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for two to three hours at a time. Who knows, maybe it’s a good thing for them? Might bring more business?

When the $17 million figure is rolling around, why don’t we talk about creative funding? Let’s give someone the opportunity to have naming rights for the park? That would be worth about $2 million? Just a thought?

Thank you for hearing the homeowners in the area. I do feel like the team has listened and responded to our concerns. We are not 100 percent satisfied with every response, but we do feel like we were heard and taken seriously.

I urge every council member to vote 100 percent for the master plan and moving forward with either option 1C or 1D. This will get the grant option moving forward. Then, when it’s time to go for the bond, do some due diligence, get input from the community and put a bond measure on the ballot for whatever you think will pass.

Please, please, please, don’t pork barrel the park bond with a bunch of other stuff. Bad idea!

These are thoughts I would have shared if I would have been given the chance to comment after the presentation. I get that you’ll be discussing this issue. Thanks for doing that.

Loran Lichty

Maple Valley