Announcement of the City’s Withdrawal of its Clearing
and Grading Permit
Email written by Ilene Stahl
on
and others, announcing the city’s withdrawal
of its clearing and grading permit
for
”Dear Autumn,
Friends of
Park would like to announce that the city is withdrawing its clearing and
grading permit for Ebright Creek Park.! Yesterday, City attorney
Bruce
Disend called our attorney Rick Aramburu to say that he would not argue
against our motions that charged the city with violating its own code in
plans for the park. He told Rick that Dan DeFranco and Friends of Pine
Lake President Ilene Stahl would be getting a call from Ben Yazici soon,
apologizing on behalf of the city. (Mr. Disend told Rick that Ben Yazici
was misled by staff!) However when I called the city this morning, Ben
Yazici had flown to
December 1.
This means that the SEPA appeal is
on hold until new designs for
the park are approved. We are hoping that a passive design will be
implemented which will take into account city codes and respect for the
endangered Kokanee Salmon of Ebright Creek. Now that the early run
Kokanee in Issaquah Creek are officially extinct, we hope the City of
Sammamish, Washington Fish and Wildlife and King County, along with other
cities, can work together to save this rare species from the same fate.
We have struggled for more than a year to get the city to listen
to us about Ebright Park We believe that the city knew all along that
the plans for Ebright violated city code but that the majority on the
council ordered staff to go forward with the plans and used the sports
field issue to try to get votes in the election. Either the city was
ignorant of its own laws, which we are hoping is not true, or indeed this
was a political ploy to get votes. The city has spent more than $200,000
in planning
ilene stahl
425-392-0556”