I got these two photos from the transit center, during the fall festival. The first one features the beautiful artwork donated by the Municipal Art’s Commission, and produced by students from Renton Technical College’s English as a Second Language class.
The second picture is my wife and daughter, with some of our close friends, leaving the Piazza Fall Festival.
I’ve been seeing many single-family homes razed in my neighborhood, as property owners either subdivide or simply rebuild with an all-new start. Below is a recent one on NE 23rd ST and Edmonds Ave NE.
The houses are typically not derelict. They are usually occupied right up until about a month before they come down. This is a strong indication of robust underlying land values, even while the nation over-all is experiencing a soft real estate market.
There was a house right across Edmonds from this one that was torn down in the same month, and it looks like the two builders are in a horse-race to see which one has their property redeveloped first. (They both look like they are doing very professional jobs.)
This home’s address was 2216 Edmonds, and I live at 2216 Harrington. After the house came down, I had a piece of mail delivered to me that was addressed to 2216 Edmonds…perhaps a fill-in mail carrier was confused! (We sent it back…no longer at this address!)
The house below is two doors down from me, and their property abuts my own in the back yard. They are replacing one home with six homes.
It’s not the first time our family has weathered development of an adjacent property, so we think we are prepared for the temporary inconveniences. The hardest part will be watching many 70 year old fir trees come down, as the majesty of our Northwest forests still make us smile. We understand the developer will be trying to keep some of the big trees, so that should help.
I found this on youtube. Flooding down in the valley, next to IKEA. This street was allowed to stay open during Monday’s flooding, but I would not have driven through.
The quality of this video is very good for a home video, and the informal narration helps you understand what is happening, but there are some profane exclamations in spots, as the water gets high around the vehicles. So turn the sound of if this will offend you.
There has recently been a city hall email buzz about potentially spotty collection of Issaquah School District impact fees.
The City of Renton sits in three different school districts: Renton, Issaquah, and Kent. Both Issaquah and Kent charge impact fees for new construction of homes of a few thousand dollars per home, which is used to off-set the cost of the new schools that will be required to serve the new residents. Renton School District does not charge an impact fee for new homes.
While the fee on new construction is a pass-though, which goes directly to the school district, the City of Renton serves as the collecting authority…we are the agency that is permitting the constuction and collecting fees, so we are in the best position to collect the School district impact fees.
Lately, East Plateau resident (and Issaquah Distict resident) Claudia Donnelly has flagged some new developments where this fee was apparently not collected, or at least not on the time frame she would have expected.
It sounds like this needs to be investigated, as I am now starting to wonder exactly who makes the final declaration about which school district a property is in at the time of building application. For vacant land, it could take a survey and careful mapping to be sure that it is clear which side of the district line each home is on.
The city of Renton receives no benefit either way since the fee is a pass-through. If we are culpable in any way, it’s not because of trying to balance any budgets…it would be more likely process confusion. Clearly, Issaquah has the most to gain in terms of getting this process in order, but we may need to do better in some way ourselves.
The email below is a sample of recent correspondance. The bottom email is from Ms. Donnelly, and includes a letter she posted in the Issaquah Press; the top email is our City Clerk’s response back to her.
I’m sure we will hear more about this before it is completely resolved.
Oops! Perhaps someone was running a little late to the airport this morning! Here is the email:
Raymond Sled 12/06/2007 7:54 AM >>>
During the early morning a taxi cab hit a fire hydrant on Rainier between SW 7th.and Grady Way. Due to the mass amount of water on the road the valves were hard to locate so a larger than normal area had to be shut down. As of this time 7:45 am the water section crew are on site and are working getting the main repaired. It appears that the car has broken the foot valve off at the water main. The repair could take 1 to 5 hours to fix. A determination will be made after we have exposed the main line and see what damage has been done. Traffic is being rerouted at this time If you have any questions please give me a call at x7400. Thanks Ray
Ray Sled
Water Maintenance Manager
P/B/PW Maintenance Division
425-430-7400
From: Julia Medzegian [mailto:Jmedzegian@ci.renton.wa.us]
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 11:07 AM
To: Dan Clawson; Denis Law; Don Persson; MarciePalmer; Corman, Randy; Terri Briere; ToniNelson
Subject: Fwd: Re: As of 5am this morn we are obviously battling withcapacity problems. Ripley Lane is under water
>>> Gregg Zimmerman 12/3/2007 9:21 AM >>>
I talked to Mike this morning, so 8:00 PM update:
1) The West Hill rain gage showed 3.5 inches of rain since Sunday morning at 8:00 AM.
2) Ripley Lane is flooded and closed. We are working with the State and Community Services to open up the pedestrian/bike trail for car access from the north.
3) There is water across the roadway at Lincoln and Monterray at the north end of Renton. Crews are out working on removing debris from the system.
4) There are full drainage ditches along some roadways in Kennydale, but no road closures at this time.
5) Some street flooding at Glenwood Ave. NE – capacity related.
6) Oakesdale under I-405 was flooded and closed for a while. Debris has been cleared from catch basins, the Oakesdale underpass is now open.
7) Hardie is flooded and closed again at the railroad tracks.
8) Late breaking word – Duvall Ave. Closed. More information on this shortly.
9) The Clarion Hotel on East Valley highway has a private parking lot flooding problem.
9) No landslides in Renton so far.
10) Two residences in low spots near Chuck’s Donuts have flooding problems.
>>> Michael Stenhouse 12/03/07 6:11 AM >>>
As of 5am this morn we are obviously battling with capacity problems. Ripley Lane is under water with signs posted, Oaksdale under I-405 is under water, the lift station at that location is running at full capacity also. We have two houses taking on water in the low spot behind Chucks donuts on NE 4th, FD is on site with Storm water verifying that it is capacity and not a plugged drain. Water over roadway signs already in place at Dennys in the North end. We have inspected the pond at the golf course, the flooding there is also due to capacity, but the new box culvert under Maple Valley Hwy is doing it’s job. The Clarion Motel at 3700 E Valley Hwy has drain problems in their parking lot threatening their front office, we will do what we can to help, but this one is a private matter.
Any questions, call
Click HERE for the notice about tonight’s public hearing on the temporary closure of Duvall.
Council Chambers, City Hall, 7:00 PM
Dear Rentonites-
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs would like your input about gangs.
You have an opportunity to provide testimony on Monday, December 10th, from 6:00-8:00 PM, at 10910 8th Ave South, in Burien. Your input will be used to help form strategies and policy regarding gangs and gang-violence. Your observations from Renton (whether positive or negative) would be of assistance to this team.
As an alternative, you can print the form below, and mail in your input to the team.
Here is the email I recieved on this topic, with an invitation for YOU, the community of Renton (and other South King County communities)
Thanks,
Randy
Read more about this, and see the detailed invitation and input sheet, by clicking here
It’s Murphy’s Law… as soon as we load a piano to deliver it to a friend, it starts snowing.
Kari Kopnick, above right, is part of the 17,000-person Benson Hill annexation area. Kari has agreed to document her experiences in transitioning from life in King County to life in Renton. I promise you will enjoy her writing style. This is her first installment.
___________________________________________________
Here it is December. Finally. For me November was one of those months where you put your head down and charge through everything without even looking up. Whew, so glad that’s over. So, here it is, December, I have a little time to breathe again, and hey, today there was a beautiful snow fall! What a great time to go for a walk in my neighborhood. I hadn’t been for a nice walk in a month.
I headed out the door. The snow was falling, my kids had been out in the snow and had a great time. It was my turn. As I walked up the hill by my house it was almost twilight and the some of the neighbors had holiday lights on their houses that were starting to turn on as I walked past. It was so pretty! As I walked my thoughts wandered to what happened in the month I worked straight through.
“Hey! I know one really big thing!” I thought as I walked past the neighbors with a 20 foot tree decorated just like the tree Charlie Brown chose. “We’re really part of Renton, now!” That’s right, the most intense local election I’ve ever followed happened in November and now my Benson Hill neighborhood is really a part of the City of Renton.
So, I wondered, what does that really mean? I mean, yes our schools don’t change and our water services are still provided by the same folks. When we call the police they’ll come faster that the sheriff could, that’s great. And our taxes will go up a couple of lattes worth every year, sounds worth it. Come on though, what does it REALLY mean!?
I know; cheaper admission to Henry Moses Pool on those super hot days in the summer. OK, that’s good, that’s really good. But what else? Well, at Renton River Days we get to stand proud as real City of Renton residents. No more cousins from unincorporated King County! And our streets will be maintained, our zoning enforced, and what used to be a struggle to figure out who to call (stray dog? King County or Renton?) is no longer a question. We’re part of Renton. We’re Rentonites.
I like that. Rentonites. Very cool.
And the walk was excellent.
Our beloved Renton Piazza boosters put on a wonderful, bright, and snowy event at the Piazza yesterday.
Santa Clause came down for the kids, bands and carolers provided music, and the crowd was warmed up against the unusually cold night with hot apple cider provided by the volunteer organizers.
Jim Medzegian, the president of the Renton Piazza Team, did a fantastic job coordinating the event, and making it special for all in attendance. I would like to name his many dedicated volunteers, but I don’t want to leave anyone out, so I just wish to say that I really appreciated all their hard work.
I ran into councilwoman Marcie Palmer at the event, who was there with her lovely family, including her professional-photographer husband Gary.
Gary and Marcie provided me with these wonderful pictures from the event!
Thanks Gary!
Santa entertains the kids
Marcie Palmer and her two boys (her husband is behind the camera!)
Me (on the right), with my son Andy and his girlfriend Amy
The city staff have studied all of the concerns raised by the public and the council, and have summarized their final recommendation into a nine page issue paper which was released yesterday. You can read the issue paper by clicking Here
We asked the city staff to prepare this comprehensive issue paper at last week’s Transportation committee meeting on this topic. We felt like the complete set of factors and considerations about Duvall needed to be available to all of us (including council) prior to tomorrow’s city council meeting.
What was not clear prior to our Wednesday meeting, was that even if Duvall was “open”, it was going to have to experience numerous temporary closures because of fifty seperate utility trenches that have to be dug across the roadway. This is due in large part to the fact that all of the electric utilities are being undergrounded (yay!), but that makes trenching across the road necessary everywhere that wires used to cross it from above (to hook up homes and other buildings). Also, trenches are necessary for sewer and water connections…so drivers would have experienced delays, metal plates across the road, and lots of rocks and gravel everywhere.
Most significantly, the in-Renton widening of Duvall would take two years (500 work-days) with Duvall open, and one year (250 work-days) with it closed. This is important, because the Newcastle portion will be open in 18 months; when the Newcastle stretch of Duvall is complete, driving that portion will be SWEET (two lanes each way). But if Renton still has six months to go, Renton would be the center of a big mess.
In summary, the Council Transportation Committee (made up of Marcie Palmer, Don Persson, and me) have made numerous suggestions to mitigate the risks and impacts from closing Duvall; with these mitigations, we now feel that it is probably appropriate to close the road for the construction period.
Here are the primary mitigations:
To protect the school kids:
We will post a police officer at Sierra Heights during school arrival-departure hours, to ensure that posted spreed limits and other driver safety requirements are consistently observed.
We will not allow trucks on union during the school day (other than school buses).
We will re-stripe Union avenue, to add a third lane…a long dedicated left turn lane, into Sierra Heights parking lot, such that parents and bus drivers will not have to wait in the queue of drivers making their way to Bellevue on the peak AM hours.
We will add a temporary stop sign at the school if it becomes necessary.
We will encourage traffic to detour on 148th and May Valley Road in preference to Union Avenue, by way of signage, an preferences at the intersections of 95th, May Valley Road, and Duvall.
To make it manageable to drive to Bellevue:
We have reviewed detailed modeling of drive times, and found we can get people to Bellevue as quickly with these detours as we can by keeping Duvall open, through the use of preferences at the intersections of Duvall, May Valley Road, and SE 95th. This is because the choke-point on the trip to Bellevue will be the one lane that Newcastle has open, across the bridge (under construction) and through the construction zone. This one-lane will move slowly, so traffic in Renton will be backing up during peak hours whether or not we have Duvall open. With Duvall closed in most of Renton, we can mark a free-turn onto the open portion of Duvall (without a stop sign) at either 95th or at May Valley Road, whichever works best to get drivers onto Duvall. This is expected to work as well as keeping Duvall “open”, especially since it would be subject to closure during the 50 trenching operations mentioned above.
Other changes:
We will add an imporved left turn pocket (refuge pocket) for drivers truning left out of Summerwind onto highway 900 (Sunset). There is sufficient width, such that re-striping, and safety turtles will make it possible to get a long protected center lane to assist left-turning school-buses and automobiles.
So, in one year in Renton, and 18 months in Newcastle, Duvall will be open with two lanes, and traffic on 148th and Union will drop to lower levels than either road has experienced in years. The new, wider Duvall will accommodate over twice as much volume as before, and make the commuter short-cuts on Union and 148th largely ineffective and unnecessary.
Because of all of the above issues, the $ 3,000,000 savings is not even the biggest factor. It’s possible we would chose to close Duvall in any case, just to realize the time savings.
As always, I value YOUR opinion on all this! So please feel free to share your comments!
My wife is trying to get though the Renton Reporter survey (earlier discussion here). She is determined to win the $3000 so she can take the family to New York to see some productions on broadway that we are interested in. 🙂
Her complaint is that only about ten percent of the survey asks about the paper’s news content, and the rest is all marketing demographics.
Some of the questions are kind of leading too, in a funny way,….like this one!…
“Including groceries, what percent of your shopping dollars are spent outside of the South King County Area?”
Another good question was “which of the following animals do you own”, and one of the choices was an “alpaca”. We’re talking detail here friends! (We used to have llamas, but alpacas were a bit too exotic for us)
Still, filling out the survey is probably a good thing to do for those who can find the time. It seems like she has spent about 35 minutes on it so far, and she still has a ways to go.
And our local paper is important to our community, so we should do our best to make it better.
Clam Lights at Coulon Park
On Friday, Nov. 30, Ivar’s Clam Lights at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park begins. A ride on Santa’s Covered Wagon, holiday entertainment, and the Parade of Boats kick off the holiday season. The fun starts at 6:30 p.m. with the official lighting ceremony at 7:20 p.m. Clam Lights runs through Jan. 1.
