26TH YEAR, NO. 2
THE PLATEAU’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2017
SAMMAMISH
AERIAL ATTACK
REVIEW
Falcons fly past Wolves, 59-47 Page 7
Brakes applied to Sahalee Way plan BY LIZZ GIORDANO
lgiordano@sammamishreview.com
GREG FARRAR | gfarrar@sammamishreview.com
A cyclist on the East Lake Sammamish Trail Jan. 6 discovers the route is closed by a barricade at Southeast 43rd Way for a stretch of demolition and reconstruction activity up to Southeast 33rd Street.
Lake trail progress slowed by homeowner legal challenges BY LIZZ GIORDANO lgiordano@sammamishreview.com
Legal challenges over land ownership along with environmental and safety concerns are slowing down the completion of the East Lake Sammamish Trail, an 11-mile path that runs along the east edge of the lake. Even as construction begins on the second-to-last segment of the trail, advocates say completion of the trail is still not a done deal, pointing to landowners along the lake they say are drawing out the process. The group Sammamish Home Owners, a nonprofit organization that represents lakeside residents, says it isn’t opposed to the trail, but it wants the new trail to follow the old and it wants construction to minimize impact on the environment. The East Lake Sammamish Trail is the missing link in a 44-mile “locks to lakes corridor”
regional trail that connects Golden Gardens Park and the Ballard Locks in Seattle with Issaquah and the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, passing through Bothell, Redmond and Sammamish. “Once the trail is done, you will be able to ride a bike from downtown Issaquah to downtown Seattle,” said Doug Williams, media relations coordinator for King County’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks. The East Lake Sammamish Trail follows the former Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway rail line, which was purchased by King County in 1998. By the spring of 2006, an interim soft gravel trail was constructed with plans to eventually pave the entire trail in phases. “We knew it was going to take time,” Williams said. “We didn’t know it was going to take a decade to go from a soft sur-
face trail to a paved trail.” The first Sammamish segment, a 2.6-mile-long section from 187th Avenue Northeast to Inglewood Hill Road, was completed in 2015. Construction on the south segment, between Southeast 43rd Way and Southeast 33rd Street, began in December. The county anticipates construction on that segment will close that portion of the trail for about a year. “It’s a major undertaking, lots of work that goes on,” Williams said. “Not just a question of grading it and putting blacktop over what’s there.” Sightlines will be enhanced,
ON THE WEB n Learn more about the ELST and the design for the last segment at county-hosted information sessions Jan. 10-25. Sign up for an appointment at bit.ly/2ibFr4c. n The city is accepting comments regarding a permit application for an East Lake Sammamish Trail parking lot near Inglewood Hill Road. Learn more information at sammamish.us.
SEE TRAIL, PAGE 8
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In a 3-4 vote, councilmembers voted against authorizing a $1.58 million design and engineering contract agreement for Sahalee Way Northeast improvements during the Jan. 3 meeting. Mayor Don Gerend and Councilmembers Tom Hornish, Ramiro Valderrama and Christie Malchow all opposed moving forward with the project. Valderrama, Malchow and Gerend criticized the Sahalee Way plan for not increasing road capacity. The dissenting group supported waiting until the city’s first Transportation Master Plan is completed before deciding whether to move forward with the project. “They (residents) think we are doing Sahalee Way to fix them sitting in traffic at (State Route) 202. And what we are being told tonight is that’s not what we are doing at all,” Malchow said. “We can’t build our way out of it — that in the morning and the p.m. peak we will be always sitting in traffic. Which, I think is a very different message than I think has been out there.” Valderrama said he has heard residents ask why go forward with the project if it doesn’t increase capacity on the road. Victor Salemann, a resident and professional engineer who has worked on city projects, SEE PLAN, PAGE 8
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