Renton’s 300-seat Carco Theatre was flooded in December, after Renton leaders initially downplayed the NOAA forecast that predicted we could see the worst flooding ever (see screenshots below). Nearly a year after the flooding of Carco, nothing has been done to reopen the theater. A local non-profit that leased space from Renton and helped community groups prepare programs for public access TV, Puget Sound Access Television, has also been displaced by the flooding.
In a recent blog post I described Renton Airport Management’s false “runway safety” explanation for pushing out Aerodyne Aviation, one of Renton’s oldest aviation research, design and maintenance centers. Today I’m describing Airport leadership’s similarly misleading messaging about the future of the Aerodyne Hangar. Airport property belongs to Renton taxpayers, and the public deserves an honest accounting of how it is being used to benefit our city.
Renton’s Airport management has declared Aerodyne’s Hangar so valuable that they want Aerodyne to pay more than three times the rent that Aerodyne paid for just their land lease last year. They say the Hangar and office complex, built by Aerodyne under their previous lease, has more than tripled the value of the property. But at the same time, paradoxically, the same Airport Management says it wants to tear down the hangar, suggesting it has no value.
For the third time in two years, a thriving decade’s-old aviation business is being pushed out of Renton Airport unfairly, with Renton airport officials giving fake or grossly misleading rationalizations. The latest falsehood is printed on a letter with the Mayor’s name in the letterhead. It appears to have been contrived by the Airport Manager and Public Works Director, and is easily disproved with a city document. It’s past time for Renton Council to investigate and stop this pattern, and require these city employees to stick to the truth. The continued dishonesty reflects negatively on city government, and leaves many residents wondering if there is a hidden agenda at the airport.
Renton’s Aerodyne hangar and office complex has hosted many thriving aviation business ventures and significant aircraft for 42 years. Clayton Scott, namesake for Renton’s airfield, had an office at Aerodyne. Aerodyne’s long success is linked to its many strong leaders and partners, including some powerhouses in aviation circles. The company and its leaders have promoted aviation in Renton, advanced aerospace research and design, supported aviation education, modeled high standards for aircraft service and maintenance, and demonstrated overall commitment to advancing safety and efficiency in air travel.
But Renton Airport Management now wants Aerodyne’s facilities vacated by next month, to then sit abandoned and producing no aviation activity and revenue, probably for years. This is the path that the former Rainier Flight Services Headquarters, the Landing Gear Works Manufacturing Building, and the Landing Gear Works installation hangars have been on for up to two years and counting.
THE PHONEY REASON FOR ENDING AERODYNE’S 42-YEAR LEASE:
Renton Airport Management sent a letter to Aerodyne stating that Aerodyne must leave specifically “to meet runway safety area requirements as they relate to the goals of the Airport Layout Plan.” But this is not true.
A recent press release from the City discussed the impending purchase of the Stoneway Site for extension of Cedar River Park, but did not mention the environmental remediation challenges that will come with it.
I support the city purchasing this site as long as Renton gets it for a fair price and we get assistance from the Department of Ecology, State Fisheries, and others to help fully clean it up.
According to the Department of Ecology, there is still formaldehyde, petroleum residue and potentially other industrial waste on the site that is acceptably capped and monitored so long as none of the soil, concrete, and buildings are disturbed. Any digging on the site requires Department of Ecology approval and likely a new environmental remediation plan. The site is also subject to continuous monitoring for chemical movement, and carries liability for whoever owns it.
Lakeside Industries is withdrawing their permit requests for an Asphalt Plant on Highway 169, just upstream of Renton on the Cedar River. This is great news for so many: the surrounding residents; Renton and Maple Valley water customers who drink from the Cedar Valley Aquifer; Cedar River salmon and other wildlife; and Maple Valley Highway motorists who would have felt the traffic impacts.
Bob Baker, who has battled the proposed plant for 8 years, shared with me that the owners of Lakeside Industries didn’t wish to create so much controversy, and the owners have been seeking a solution that would satisfy community concerns.
I’ve written numerous articles about the long-term risks this plant could pose to drinking water systems in the Cedar River Valley, including Renton’s own municipal wells serving over 100,000 residents. These articles can be found here. By choosing to withdraw their Asphalt Plant permit application, the owners of Lakeside Industries are showing goodwill and stewardship toward all of these residents. I heartily thank them for it.
Here is the official press release:
King County Council Vice Chair Reagan Dunn and local community group ‘Save the Cedar River’ have struck an agreement with Lakeside Industries that would halt the building of a proposed asphalt plant along SR-169 and the Cedar River.
“Given the alternatives, this is a far better use of the property, and a big win for the community,” said Dunn, who represents this area on the King County Council. “Rather than rock crushers, truck traffic, noise, dust, and odors, this plan will provide benign warehouse space and avoid the impacts of an asphalt plant on the greater community.”
‘Save the Cedar River’ and other stakeholders have expressed concerns in the past about potential leaks to the nearby Cedar River and wetlands, noise and light pollution, truck traffic, and potential impacts on salmon from the plant. Typical asphalt plants require onsite crude, burners, storage silos, rock crushers, mixing drums, and machines for separating materials.
“This brings an eight-year-long, hotly contested battle to a great conclusion for all parties involved: there will be no asphalt plant, Lakeside Industries can finally utilize their property, and King County can put this chapter to rest,” said Bob Baker of Save the Cedar River. “I could not be prouder of the ‘Save the Cedar River’ organization and the long, hard hours that each member put in during this challenge. And to the citizens, HOA’s, businesses big and small, that supported us, thank you!”
‘Save the Cedar River’ was formed in response to a proposal to site the asphalt plant in 2017. After protests, environmental reviews, appeals, and a lawsuit, Lakeside Industries was issued a permit for the asphalt plant in April 2022. ‘Save the Cedar River’ sued in Superior Court but ultimately lost that legal battle in May 2024. This new deal puts all that in the past.
“We see this as a win-win for the community and Lakeside,” said Mike Lee, CEO of Lakeside Industries. “Lakeside is a third-generation, family-owned, local company. We want to be good neighbors in the communities in which we operate, and finding a creative solution balancing Lakeside’s needs, our obligations to our employees, and the concerns of the community, is a success that took all parties working together.”
Under the new agreement, Lakeside Industries would not move forward with construction of an asphalt plant under its approved permitting. Instead, they would reengage with King County to permit a warehouse as an alternative. ‘Save the Cedar River’ has agreed to support this alternative use and agreed not to oppose the permit application.
“I want to give credit to Mike Lee with Lakeside Industries for listening to the community and finding a solution that is a win-win for everyone,” continued Baker. “And a huge thank you to Reagan Dunn who stood by my side throughout this and for brokering this fantastic deal.”
This alternative use of the site would be a warehouse building for commercial use. The estimated trip traffic for a warehouse is substantially lower than what was estimated for the asphalt plant. The warehouse plan would protect all the critical areas as required by the County Code. However, the alternative use would still need to go through a new permit process by the King County Permitting Department.
Dunn and Baker will be available for interviews at the Lakeside site from 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Dunn can also do interviews over phone or Zoom. 18825 Renton-Maple Vally Road, Renton, WA 98058.
In a post last week I described my hopes that we could preserve our beautiful Piazza fountain. But on Monday night, Renton Council announced plans to turn this fountain into a planter.
The plans also eliminates the Piazza’s other water feature, the babbling brook featuring Renton’s “Summer Breeze” sculpture of a young girl stepping gently into the water.
Together, these two lovely water features have visually anchored the Piazza since the early 2000s. And the splashing water features incorporate generous bench seating which provide critical cool resting areas for scores of visitors on hot days.
Renton’s Piazza Fountain has welcomed visitors to Renton’s downtown since the Piazza park was built 24 years ago. In addition to making downtown more inviting, The fountain and surrounding Piazza are a gateway to Renton for everyone arriving by bus through the adjacent transit center.
The beautiful fountain is dedicated to beloved Renton resident Marge Richtor, who served our community for decades in numerous roles including on Renton Parks Board. She was a friend and inspiration to all of us who knew her. A plaque on the fountain commemorates the dedication.
In recent years, the fountain has not been maintained as well as in the past. And this year, even though temperatures are in the 80s and people are out and about, the fountain has been entirely neglected.
This should not be allowed to go on for long. It’s time to clean the fountain and get it flowing again. As in the case with our broken clock tower, the public notices when these community centerpieces are neglected.
Just as importantly, the city has been making plans to revise the Piazza landscape. If they do so, the fountain should remain the inviting centerpiece that it has been for the past two decades.
If you share my view that this fountain should be cleaned, maintained, and preserved you can let the Mayor and Council know by emailing mayor@rentonwa.gov and council@rentonwa.gov.
Just two weeks ago a teen in Colorado was convicted of murder for throwing a rock which punctured a car windshield and killed the driver. Thrown objects from Renton’s derelict Park Avenue buildings could readily cause a similar death.
Four months after Renton’s Public Safety Chair assured the public that she was taking the safety of of the Park Avenue buildings very seriously, a social media post now shows evidence of office furniture being hurled from the taller of the two buildings onto Park Avenue below.
This is not the first time that objects have been thrown from high up in this building, but I have not previously seen photographic evidence of objects being thrown into the traffic lanes.
Renton’s Public Safety Chair, Carmen Rivera, shared an entry on several social media sites on January 13 stating “We remain committed to ensuring the property is secured and that we can move toward a resolution that benefits the community.” In the same post she assured the public the property would be secured and patrolled.
A month later, I documented here that the property had not in fact been adequately secured. Please see that post for complete background on this topic.
These buildings are desperately out of compliance, and the City of Renton has every right to go onto the property and physically abate them, and bill the out-of-state ownership group for the cost. To meet code, the deathtrap buildings need to be emptied of occupants, and all doors and windows secured with either the originally designed glazing or architectural panels that match the building. Cleanup should occur around the buildings to eliminate blight. The buildings should then be surveilled, with electronic means and perhaps an occupant residing in a trailer onsight, until the buildings can demolished per an approved permit. I would also like to see water service restored to the buildings, with at least temporary fire protective equipment, so that the open-elevator-shaft, waterless building does not turn into an inferno that threatens our entire city.
If the City had conducted emergency physical abatement when many of us had first recommended it, these buildings could still be valuable and serviceable, and could continue to support thousands of jobs in Renton.
It’s way past time for the Electric Utility to remove the derelict power line towers on Sunset. Our views in Renton are cluttered enough by power lines, that we don’t need a bunch of additional rusting towers adding their own blight.
I took these photos two years ago, and the scene is no different today (other than a little more weed growth and more rust. )
This power line was abandoned and replaced by a new run many years ago, but the retired power lines were initially left in place. Several years ago copper thieves began climbing the towers and stealing the wire, so as a safety measure the power company removed the rest of the wire.
I assumed they would eventually apply for demolition permits to remove the ugly, unnecessary towers, but that has not happened. I’ve expressed my displeasure to our local utilities in the past that they never seem to prioritize maintaining the appearance of their easements in Renton. This is just one example of it.
I don’t remember whether these were owned by PSE or Seattle City Light, but in either case the City of Renton should lean on them to take them down and clean up this easement.
When I was on City Council I used to let Public Works know when I saw confusing signage, and I’m not going to stop doing it now. The arrangement on southbound Union Ave NE that puts an “End School Zone” sign right before a school zone with a speed camera seems like a definite mixed-message.
Any motorist trying to accelerate to the posted speed limit of 30 MPH in this gap will have to immediately hit the brakes to avoid a ticket. And they’ll make these speed changes passing through the intersection with NE 10th Street, where their variable speed will be confusing for drivers turning onto Union.
Every sign diverts drivers eyes and attention from the road for a second or two, which is enough time to travel 20 or 30 feet at the posted speed limit. Diverting drivers’ attention from the road, and making it confusing, is especially undesirable in areas around schools.
In short, it seems like it would be a good idea to merge the two school zones.
This confusing signage could be a result of an Arizona contractor, American Traffic Solutions. They install and operate Renton’s speed and red-light cameras, in exchange for a cut of the revenue from traffic fines. Even if they are the ones that engineered this, the City of Renton should take a look at it, and see if the configuration really makes sense.
(I’ve spurred other fixes to photo enforcement cameras, like this one at McKnight Middle School. )
Here’s a variation of an old riddle: What time is it when the hour hand points to both 9 and 10:30?
Answer: Time to get your clock fixed!
Renton’s downtown landmark 4-sided clock, which sits on a tower on it’s own cozy “Clock Tower Plaza,” does not appear to have functioned correctly for years. It appears to have run properly shortly after it was last moved in 2021, but sometime in the years since it quit keeping proper time.
And unlike most stopped clocks that are correct twice per day, the tower clock is never correct because all four of its faces are showing different times.
As Renton works to revitalize the downtown, it’s important to keep up with the basic maintenance. And setting the tower clock, and repairing it as necessary, is one of these tasks.
While there is not a lot of information about this clock online, I remember it joining our downtown landscape as part of the Metro Interim Transit Hub in 1997. Metro Transit had just been part of King County for a few years, and they were creating a hub and spoke system that would increase transit service between “transit hubs” in urban centers in King County. Renton did not have a transit hub, so we agreed with Metro on a temporary hub on Burnett between South 2nd and South 3rd streets, with a permanent hub coming later. Since Metro was paying for infrastructure in other cities, they agreed to pay for bus shelters, signage, and (if memory serves) I think this clock in Renton. The clock was placed at the corner of South 2nd and Burnett, with a sign alluding to it an South 3rd and Burnett.
In the following years we completed a purchase of the former Mazda dealership at this location for about half a million dollars, and ultimately built the transit center with Metro’s help (for about $3 million), the parking garage (for about $8 million), renovated the Mazda showroom into the Pavillion (for about $2 million), and built/landscaped the Piazza park (for about $1-$2 million). I think we moved the clock to its new location on South 3rd and Burnett when we built the parking garage. The dollar amounts I’m quoting are approximate, from memory; they should be fairly accurate. Prices were obviously lower in 1997.
The clock was moved temporarily again in 2020-2021 to allow reconstruction and improvements in South Third Street.
After the clock was moved back to its current home, it kept time for a while. In 2022, Renton spent $4500 on holiday lights just on this clock tower, recognizing its significance as a landmark.
Downtown merchants and visitors deserve to have the clock fixed. Friends have told me they’ve reported the broken clock in the past, but I plan to add my personal report to “Renton Responds” to see if we can get the clock accurate again. Hopefully the time has come to fix the clock.
The Rainier Avenue Phase 4 improvement project was originally scheduled to be completed this week, but after multiple delays it’s now expected to continue until at least October.
The last major delay was approved by City Council last summer, when the Council authorized a change order that added about four million dollars and 129 extra work days to the contract. Utility franchises will pay the $4,000,000 in additional charges, but Renton’s motorists and businesses are paying for the delays through their lost time, idling, frustration, and lost business revenues.
This latest delay was specifically caused by installation issues with a Joint Use Trench (JUT) that will be used for utility routing by PSE, Lumen, and Comcast. Because of unexpected conflicts with other in-ground utilities, the JUT has had to be installed at a depth of ten feet underground instead of the planned 5 1/2 feet. The extra 4 1/2 feet of depth significantly increases the cost of the worker protection shoring in the trench, requiring excavator placing of heavy steel frames instead of the hand-placed steel sheets. The extra depth also put the trench deeper into the water table, requiring pumping and loose sand management. Making matters worse, some of the extra soil being removed has some minor petroleum contamination (probably from old service station activities), and the soil has to be taken to a special site.
While I understand that utilities can cause delays, I think there could have been more effort placed on minimizing the number of days with lane closures.
In past years Renton Council passionately debated every proposed lane closure; Council used to typically restrict lane closures to hours, not weeks or months, and Council tracked them. When asked about a planned lane closure, or how long a prior lane closure had lasted, former Public Works Director Gregg Zimmerman always had the answer. Mr. Zimmerman usually knew immediately because he had been personally overseeing the work site. In the previous (southern) phases of Rainier Ave improvement under Gregg Zimmerman’s management, he famously committed to keeping five lanes of Rainier Ave continuously open. And Council helped Mr. Zimmerman hold the contractor to it. As quoted in the Renton Patch in 2012 ” Renton Public Works Administrator Gregg Zimmerman’s promise to keep at least five lanes of traffic open throughout construction drew heavy applause and whistles from a crowd of more than three dozen attendees”
Minimizing lane closures should be a requirement in all future road projects. Even if it makes the job more laborious to keep moving cones and steel plates in and out of position when a lane closure is needed (as opposed to leaving the lane perpetually closed), the extra labor can easily pay off. Rainier Ave typically carries about 40,000 cars per day. Many motorists are reporting delays of ten minutes from these lane closures, and google maps confirms this. If every car suffered ten minutes of delay, that would represent 6,666 hours of lost car/driver productivity per day. Assuming $50 per hour for a car and driver (the Uber hourly rate), this amounts to $333,000 per day. (The real losses are people being late for work or school, paying extra for daycare, taking time from family, etc, but these are harder to put a price on.) Whether the delay actually costs $333,000 per day, or half of this, the point is still the same. It’s worth investing $5000-$10,000 per day moving cones, signs, and steel plates to keep the lanes open when work is not being performed in them.
A Facebook user recently asked about this project on a group page, and the question attracted over 70 passionate responses. Here is just a small sample:
“QUESTION???? at RAINIER and RENTON AVE
Would anyone care to share why it’s taking so long for the Road / infrastructure project to move forward? It’s been several years and not a single person was working. It’s an absolute inconvenience to all, and taxpayers should know.”
“I have empathy towards construction workers and don’t blame them specifically. Lots of hands at play here. But as someone who travels this intersection at least 4 times a day, it’s absolutely an inconvenience. Is it convenient to have to wait up to 10 minutes to get through a light? Not an exaggeration, has happened multiple times and not only when the power was out. I’m pretty patient and do like city improvements but this project should have been planned better or the city should somehow help navigate the delays.”
“The entire project is an embarrassment to take this long. It would be interesting to know why it has been taking years upon years.”
“Very sporadic as to when they will be working and when they aren’t. Majority of the time not.”
“It shouldn’t be left like it is for the time being. I drive a lifted truck and it feels like I’m out off of exit 38 going through the mountains on Rainier. It’s sick”
“It’s inexcusable and not professional nor is the city functioning in the best interest of it citizens. You don’t just leave it a mess for years. They could at minimum reconfigure the traffic and the ridiculous lane closure if they’re going to do nothing for another six months.”
Don’t be surprised to hear more nighttime business jets in Renton through October. Boeing Field has completely closed their smaller runway for the next seven months, and their large runway will be closed every night starting at 8:15-9:15 PM and continuing until 3:30-5:15 AM.
While business jets based at Boeing Field would be expected to schedule their operations for the runway’s daytime (open) hours, Renton will likely pick up nighttime traffic from jets based elsewhere that are flying to our area and trying to work around the closures. Particularly jet taxi services will likely find Renton to be the most convenient nighttime alternative to Boeing Field.
Private jet traffic will likely pick up even more this summer, particularly with the FIFA Club World Cup soccer activities.
The impact from private jets in Renton is already being felt. I’ve heard from a Mercer Island resident who has noticed an overnight increase in Renton jet traffic. Jet traffic from Renton often goes directly over Island Crest Way, near the center of Mercer Island.
At a coffeehouse meeting on Wednesday, Public Works Director Martin Pastucha was reportedly not forthcoming about where he was getting the information that seems to disagree with Renton’s 1988 and 2020 scientific wellhead protection studies (such as the extent of Renton’s aquifer). At one point he said only that it was his “hydrologist.” My wife who was in attendance specifically questioned Mr. Pastucha about his assertion that there was minimal risk to our water system because monitoring wells would let the City know of problems before people drank the contaminated water. “Yes, but how would you then clean it out?” she asked, according to the accounts of her and two friends. “You can’t just stick a sponge down there and pull the contaminants out” my wife said.
Mr. Pastucha assertively replied that yes you can indeed clean it out (as if it is routine).
He never offered a name, report, or company that was giving him his information, beyond saying a hydrologist. When I heard about this conversation, it reminded me of the “top men” scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” that I have linked above.
I wasn’t born yesterday, and I realize Mr. Pastucha might be able to find a subordinate employee who submits to telling him what he wants to hear, and it’s not my intent to throw such an employee under the bus. But if we are going to put Renton’s wellfield at risk, after all the time and money we’ve put into them, I would like to see published technical reports, with data similar to the wellhead studies, instead of stories and memos from Martin Pastucha. Mr. Pastucha has Business and Public Administration degrees, but not the engineering degree held by his predecessor when the wellhead studies were commissioned.
For those who have never seen the results of contamination in a wellfield, suffice it to say getting the toxins out of a wellfield is like trying to get pee out of a pool. It’s not going to happen overnight. Some asphalt toxins like benzene are dangerous at six parts per billion, and are not able to be filtered out.
Cleaning will typically rely on flushing, often for months or years, and this obviously only works if the source of the pollution has been removed. I remember a time on Council when this happened in a downtown well due to a dry cleaning chemical, and it took months to get the source eliminated and the well back on line.
