King County's development machine is now talking with Weyerhaeuser on how to resolve the mess that's been made by allowing the Hearing Examiner to actually review the facts and come to the conclusion that DOT cheated to help this developer win approval of a project that area roads cannot support. King County Journal Article here.
Pay close attention to this "settlement". Any Redmond Ridge East settlement short of denying Weyerhaeuser will be undeniable evidence of what is actually causing our roads to be overwhelmed and why the GMA cannot be blamed.
Redmond Ridge East will add an additional 800 homes to Redmond Ridge and Trilogy. Redmond Ridge and Trilogy, the new Master Planned Community with ~10,000 residents when complete, has already slowed Novelty Hill Road to a crawl during the commute and the roadway is already operating well over design capacity.
The history of this project is a crystal clear example that demonstrates that it is up to people to enforce the transportation concurrency requirements of the GMA, or the law means nothing. And right now, the only government agency attempting to uphold the law in King County is the Hearing Examiners Office, but they are up against KCDOT, DDES, Ron Sims, and even the Prosecuting Attorneys Office.
Today I sent the following letter to area papers.
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Redmond Ridge East in 200 words:
• KCDOT cheated to help Quadrant/Weyerhaeuser get a traffic concurrency certificate in 2002 for Redmond Ridge East; after denying others and despite miles of traffic congestion during the commute.
• KCDOT whistleblowers are suing their DOT bosses in federal court for alleged retaliation against them, because they refused to go along with what they believed involved improper and illegal acts by their colleagues.
• DDES, KCDOT and Sims have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to do “anything” to help Weyerhaeuser.
• The hearing examiner cited multiple examples of “arbitrary and capricious” actions by KCDOT that helped Quadrant get their concurrency certificate and has recommended denial of that certificate and permit.
• Quadrant is suing the hearing examiner.
• KCDOT has spent more than a million taxpayer dollars on private lawyers to sue the examiner and defend Quadrant’s interests.
• The city of Redmond is finally fighting to keep things from getting any worse.
• The principal citizen opposition group gave up last year leaving it to Weyerhaeuser and several government agencies to sort out.
My message is simple to those government agencies. Just tell Weyerhaeuser “NO”! For a change, defend our interests and not Quadrant’s.
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