Please Lend Your Support!

King County has given the green light on the marijuana warehouses on 200th Ave.  We are fighting to stop them!  Please  support this cause and save our neighborhood and community by donating to this campaign. Funds raised will go to support the legal battle to prevent these warehouses from being built. We need your help! Every penny counts! Please donate here: GoFundMe

Save 200th Ave at the Re-Zone Hearing!

Mark your calendars: Re-Zone hearing date is set for Thursday, July 16th at 9am at the Lake Wilderness Lodge. The hearing is close to home :)

Are you planning to attend?

This is our chance to voice our support for the rezone and the detrimental impact large industrial will have on our quaint rural dead end road. The hearing examiner needs to hear personal testimony. It would be wonderful to have neighbors & surrounding community members reflect how passionately we feel that the proposed large industrial at the end of our rural road and is completely out of character with our neighborhood.

Are you planning to speak or read a prepared statement?

Since last August we’ve heard the issues over and over again why our neighborhood is not suitable for industrial. Here are just a few reasons that support the Rezone:

•Road – Insufficient infrastructure, lack of sidewalks for the safety of our children, narrow and below tier 4 classification, two trucks cannot pass side by side on portions of 200th, current road condition and overdue maintenance, dead end road (one way in & out).

•Access Intersection - SE 240th / 200th Ave SE and Wax Road - Each year there are multiple accidents at this intersection (9 accidents in 2014) creating a very unsafe environment for the community. Any large industrial facility would be guaranteeing additional accidents at this already problematic intersection. •Safety – Concern for children/adults who use the road to get to/from friends homes or morning/evening walks, safety of school children at 2 bus stops visited 8-10 times each day (HS/Jr/Mid/Ele/K/PreK), and public safety response to crime that follows large industrial.

•Other – All adjacent properties zoned RA5 (residents & small farms), the access to HWY 18 no longer exists, no other industrial sites established on 200th/248th, history of proposed property; decrease in property values

•Environmental – Unknown impact on local air quality, Aquifer II, & private wells and salmon bearing Jenkins Creek.

It’s important we have speakers. Since Maple Valley Industries/Cramer is the property owner he is a party to this rezone. Let’s show Cramer’s attorney’s we are NOT a neighborhood to mess with!

Remember this is about supporting the rezone. It’s not about the marijuana because NO large industrial business should be zoned on our rural road! Instructions regarding how many copies should be provided if supplying exhibits is addressed in the hearing notice. I know it’s vacation time so PLEASE comment below if you are coming or speaking. Be sure to inform others that would support this rezone.

See everyone there!!! SAVE 200th Ave!

Please keep the Letters Coming!

It's imperative the KC Department of Permitting and Environmental Review know that we are still vigilant and not going anywhere.   We need to send emails regarding several complex issues. Please send emails to: 

• Rhonda Berry, KC Chief of Operations (Starbard's boss) -   Rhonda.Berry@kingcounty.gov
• John Starbard, Director of DPER - John.Starbard@kingcounty.gov
• Ty Peterson - Ty.Peterson@kingcounty.gov
• Dow Constantine - King County Executive -  Dow.Constantine@kingcounty.gov
• Reagan Dunn - KC District 9 Rep - Reagan.Dunn@kingcounty.gov and Lisa.Labrache@kingcounty.gov

Items to address in your letter/email:

Innocent Purchaser:  DPER has not responded to the public request to invalidate the innocent purchaser.  This is addressed in DPER's "technical review" letter to Cramer, see #2.   We have provided documentation to DPER and all KC council members proving Mr. Cramer was aware he was purchasing a portion of a parcel which invalidates the Innocent Purchaser document.  Therefore, Cramer's application is incomplete. 

Vesting - This is a complex legal issue.  Please refer to the attached letter.

Road -  Emphasize the importance of safety and ask improvements be required, not recommended.  Mel, has provided the following suggestions to use in your email.

Comments 24 – 27

Roadway Improvements – Choose one or more to include in your letters and/or e-mails to King County Department of Development and Environmental Services.

• I am responding to TSC comment number 27 regarding improvements to 200^th Ave SE.  King County is recommending that the roadway be improved to a 20^th foot width with 2 foot shoulders. This is clearly not adequate to handle the 279 additional daily trips generated by the proposed industrial project. 

• 200^th Avenue SE is currently in substandard condition for a residential street. It cannot safely handle the additional traffic from the proposed development.

• King County must impose traffic and roadway improvements to mitigate the full impact of the proposed project on 200^th Ave SE and SE 248^th Street.   The existing roadway is currently 20 feet wide in most areas and it must we widened further in order to protect the pedestrians that walk along the road as well as the school children that play in the area. Widening the roadway, installing sidewalks and adequate shoulders must be a requirement for this development.

• Why is King County DEPR staff reluctant to impose the full requirements to improve 200^th Avenue to a rural subcollector road status?    

• King County staff should impose full roadway upgrades to mitigate the impact of this industrial project.  The applicant should be forced to improve the roadway and shoulders to current standards.   Full compliance with all roadway codes should be required.  

• The applicant should be required to purchase adequate right of way and make full roadway improvements to ensure the safety of the community.    

Comment #28

• I read in the TSC comments that King County is requiring that only a portion of 200 Avenue SE be overlaid with new asphalt.   If the applicant’s project is approved, he should be required to widen, improve and overlay all of 200 Ave SE and SE 248^th.

• Why is King County DEPR recommending that only a portion of 200^th Ave SE be overlaid?  Improve the entire road and add sidewalks!!!

• 200^th Ave SE is too narrow to handle the existing car and truck traffic.   The applicant is proposing an industrial development that will significantly increase traffic.   He should be required to improve the roadway to current standards for industrial properties.

General Comments:

Air Quality & Odors

King County has failed to include any comments related to air quality impacts created by this proposed project.   What measures will the applicant take to ensure that the air quality is not affected and that nuisance odors are prevented?

What type of odors will this industrial building create and how will the neighborhood be impacted?  

Please Submit Complaints regarding DPER's Unethical Behavior

Please voice your complaints and concerns to Ms. Elizabeth Hill, Senior Deputy Ombudsman for Rural and Unincorporated Area Affairs in the King County Ombudsman's Office. Ms. Hill’s office investigates citizen complaints that assert a County agency or employee is acting in a manner that is unfair, arbitrary, inconsistent, or contrary to law.

Contact Information:
Elizabeth Hill, PE, PG, PMP
Senior Deputy Ombudsman for Rural and Unincorporated Area Affairs
Ombudsman/Office of Citizen Complaints
KCC-CC-1039
516 Third Avenue, Room W1039
Seattle, Washington 98104-2317

Via E-Mail Only:  elizabeth.hill@kingcounty.gov

Proposed Location

This map illustrates a few of the many reasons why this is an inappropriate location for the proposed marijuana facility.

King County Council Meeting Review

Thank you for all who attended the King County Council Meeting!  We had over 60 people present to represent us, and the results were overall positive.

You can watch the proceedings of the meeting here:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/council/agendas.aspx

Thank you Tzeitel for link, and the following info on how to watch what is pertinent to our issue:

-Scroll down to 9/22 Metropolitan King County Council 11 am video

-Start video at 47:00  - 1:14:48, skip ahead to 1:37:45 for speakers

-Forward to 1:44 to hear about the ordinance that could later help us & council members comments & vote outcome.

Here is a video of the news coverage on Q13 Fox that evening:

Keep up the good work everyone!

We STRONGLY ENCOURAGE ALL to attend the KING COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING

It is imperative that we pack this meeting full of as many people as possible to create a powerful impact, and Save 200th Ave!

Date: 9/22 
Time: 1:30 pm (carpools will be leaving the LDS church parking lot at 12pm)
Place: King County Courthouse 516 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 (see previous post for parking instructions)

How you can prepare:

1. Join our coordinated effort by notifying us of your attendance, and/or desire to speak or delegate your speaking time (see plan below) by e-mailing:  save200thave@gmail.com . Please include if you wish to car pool, or have room for others in your car.

2. Inform all 9 council members of the issue.  You can do this by sending them the e-mail you already sent to DPER and the LCB.  A copy-paste e-mail list is available at the base of this post, so that you don't need to reformat. 

• rod.dembowski@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1001 
• larry.gossett@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1002 
• kathy.lambert@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1003 
• larry.phillips@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1004 
• dave.upthegrove@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1005 
• jane.hague@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1006 
• pete.vonreichbauer@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1007 
• joe.mcdermott@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1008 
• reagan.dunn@kingcounty.gov 206-477-1009

3. Inform all 9 council members of your attendance by calling the above numbers and leaving a message.

4. Make and bring a sign to promote awareness.

The Coordinated Plan:
The speaking slots at the council meeting are two minutes each. There is no stated maximum number of speaking slots, but as with any meeting, after a while we will lose the council's focused attention. It's important that the first 20 speaking slots are used to present the research findings and legal items that give us the best chance of ultimately beating this thing. We want to present a planned, coherent message. So anyone can speak who wants to, but we would respectfully ask you to sign up further down the list past number 20 so we get the critical research and legal info presented first. Each person may only sign up for one speaking slot, but we are allowed to sign up and then turn our speaking slot over to someone else. With that in mind, we're seeking up to 20 people to volunteer to be a 'speaker delegate' -- to sign up in slot 1 thru 20 and then delegate their time over to one of the key presenters. If you are willing to be a 'speaker delegate' please e-mail save200thave@gmail.com .

Copy Paste Email List: 
rod.dembowski@kingcounty.gov; larry.gossett@kingcounty.gov; kathy.lambert@kingcounty.gov; larry.phillips@kingcounty.gov; dave.upthegrove@kingcounty.gov; jane.hague@kingcounty.gov; pete.vonreichbauer@kingcounty.gov; joe.mcdermott@kingcounty.gov; reagan.dunn@kingcounty.gov