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Lake Forest Park
1/21/09 UPDATE:
 We need your support in the final push for improvements to the Burke-Gilman Trail in Lake Forest Park!
King County needs a Conditional Use Permit in order to begin construction, and the City of Lake Forest Park is, once again, standing in the way. By tacking on nonstandard requirements for trail construction, Lake Forest Park is placing unrealistic conditions on the County.
You may have read about local residents raising environmental concerns. The County completed its environmental review more than a year ago, and has made efforts to minimize and mitigate environmental impacts to the surrounding wetlands.
From opposition testimony tonight, you can expect to hear from residents who are a biologists (though not certified wetland biologists) speaking in defense of trees, which are supposedly protecting salamander habitat. County wetland experts dispute this claim. The residents contacted King County about these concerns and were given paperwork to file an appeal. They failed to do so and are now trying to impede trail upgrades through other channels.
These trees, and the shade they undoubtedly provide lakefront property, are unfortunately on the public right of way. Your right of way. Your narrow swathe of public property that allows you to walk and bike next to Lake Washington and connect to points north and south. Overgrowth and other infringements on your public right of way make this, the oldest section of the trail, sadly the least safe.
Cascade Bicycle Club and King County have already been before a Growth Management Hearings Board in defense of the trail, and we won. Now, as the County is ready to move to the next phase, we need your help to remind the hearing examiner tonight that it’s time to fix the Burke-Gilman Trail through Lake Forest Park.
Questions? Contact Chris Rule, Cascade's Organizer, at chris.rule@cascadebicycleclub.org or 206-957-0689.
 Read on for more details:
The hearing
Background
Proposed Improvements
Cascade's History of Involvement
Talking Points: Why Support the Trail?
More Information
Consolidated Public Hearing Details:
The King County Department of Parks, Cultural and Natural Resources has submitted applications to the City of Lake Forest Park for a conditional use permit, sensitive areas public agency exception, and a shoreline substantial development permit, for the purpose of resurfacing and widening the 2.3-mile stretch of the Burke Gilman Trail in Lake Forest Park. The consolidated public hearing will begin at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 with a presentation by King County. The public comment portion of the hearing will begin at 7:00 PM. If the hearing cannot be concluded on the 21st, it will be reconvened at 6:00 PM on Monday, January 26th. Speakers will be allowed 3 minutes to present during the comment portion. Lengthy testimony may be submitted in written form.
If the Hearing Examiner approves this application, the applicant will still need approval of all applicable permits through the Lake Forest Park Planning and Building Department prior to starting work including, but not limited to, a Building Permit, a Sensitive Areas Permit, and a Clearing and Grading Work Permit.
Project Background:
Discussions surrounding the redevelopment of he Burke Gilman Trail began in 2003, when an evaluation of this section of the trail determined the need for safety improvements. The study included recommendations on how the trail could be redesigned and rebuilt to provide for the safety of all users, as well as adjacent homeowners. This segment of trail includes issues ranging from impaired sightlines and inadequate signage to cracks in the pavement-all of which are problematic for cyclists, drivers, pedestrians, adjacent homeowners, and other users. The landscape architecture firm of MacLeod Reckord is currently working on the design, and will oversee the project through construction.
Project Proposal:
The existing trail has an asphalt surface approximately 10-feet wide with about 2 feet of dirt shoulders and discontinuous grass and gravel shoulders on both sides of the trail. The proposed redevelopment project would widen the asphalt portion of the trail to a width of 12 feet and provide two gravel shoulders, one 1-foot wide on the west and north sides and the other 3-feet wide on the east and south sides. This project also includes the following features:
 Replace pedestrian bridge over Lyon Creek and possibly replace pedestrian bridge over McAleer Creek.
- Replace existing retaining walls and construct retaining walls in new locations, as needed, to support cuts and fills associated with new trail configuration.
- Install new culverts and/or modify existing culverts that cross trail alignment.
- Redesign traffic controls and signage where trail intersects public and private roadways and driveways.
- Replace overgrown and/or unhealthy vegetation with new native, or near-native, planting. Provide restorative native plantings in wetland buffer areas.
- Replace existing deteriorated benches and trail furniture with new benches, trash receptacles, signing, racks and other elements. Replace, where necessary, existing fencing, generally in kind and in a way that protects privacy and preserves trail views/visibility.
- Remove obstacles at intersections to improve visibility/sight distance at crossings.
Cascade's Involvement
Despite the opposition of most residents, three professional engineering reports, the Burke-Gilman Trail Citizens' Advisory Group, the Lake Forest Park Transportation Commission, King County, and the Cascade Bicycle Club, on November 9, 2006 the Lake Forest Park City Council voted 6 to 1 to pass Ordinance 951. In 2007, Cascade Bicycle Club, joined by King County, appeared before the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board, to appeal this ordinance, which set conditions on the Trail that would make it impossible for King County to maintain and upgrade it while observing federal, state, and county traffic safety standards. On July 23 2007, the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board overturned the City of Lake Forest Park’s Ordinance 951. The ruling favored Cascade Bicycle Club’s petition challenging the ordinance, which would have impeded the upgrade of the Burke-Gilman Trail in one of its oldest areas.
More on Cascade's history with the Burke-Gilman Trail Lake Forest Park.
Why Support the Burke-Gilman Redevelopment Proposal?
Safety: From the beginning, safety has been the driving force behind King County’s proposal to redevelop this section of the Burke Gilman Trail, and the design recommendations reflect this. The segment of the Burke-Gilman Trail running through Lake Forest Park is not only the oldest section of the trail, but in the worst condition. This stretch is substantially degraded; its shoulders are narrow; its paving is riddled with root heaves, and it is crossed by driveways and minor streets with inadequate visibility. What’s more, the width of paving is too narrow to accommodate the present levels of use and site distances at the intersections are inadequate.
Trail Volumes: The Burke Gilman Trail supports 2,000 to 3,000 users a day – which equates to roughly 1 million uses each year. This trail functions as a vital asset for a range of users. Not only does it provide a critical transportation corridor for commuters, but it is also used by recreational bicyclists, walkers, runners, and skate boarders. On any given weekday, 1/3 of the trail users are comprised of commuters. In the recently published bicycle and pedestrian count report, conducted by WSDOT and Cascade Bicycle Club, the count location just north of this section of the trail in Bothell, had the highest number of bicyclists out of 96 statewide count locations (with 286 in 2 hours).
Regional Significance: While the proposed redevelopment is taking place is Lake Forest Park, we cannot deny that this section of the trail serves as a transportation corridor connecting several jurisdictions: Seattle, Bothell, Woodinville, and Kenmore – to name a few. The public benefits of this trail go beyond the geographic constraints of this proposal; it is a regional facility, and one that needs to be recognized and maintained as such.
Designation as an "Essential Public Facility": On July 23, 2007, the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board overturned the City of Lake Forest Park’s Ordinance 951, and declared the Burke Gilman Trail an “Essential Public Facility.” The importance of this declaration should not be forgotten. As the Growth Management Hearings Board noted in invalidating Ord. 951, Cascade “demonstrated and convinced the Board that the Burke-Gilman Trail is an important regional transportation and recreational facility, serving residents from cities stretching from Seattle to Bothell, and continuing to the Sammamish River Trail, connecting to Kenmore, Woodinville and Redmond. Surveys indicated that the trail is more than a recreation facility, in that it is also an important non-motorized transportation facility for commuters – bicycle commuters in particular.” As a declared EPF, the City of Lake Forest Park cannot frustrate the redevelopment of this trail.
Benefits of Bicycling and Walking: Bicycling and walking have numerous benefits: health, quality of life, protection of natural resources, equity, efficiency and accessibility, choice and mobility, improved air, noise and water pollution, and a decreased reliance on the automobile. Bicycling and walking are solutions to many of the prevalent issues we face today. For instance, the obesity epidemic; in 1990 in Washington, 10% of adults were obese; in 2006, 24% were. Climate Change: replacing an automobile trip of four miles with a bicycle displaces 15 pounds of air pollutants.
Whether we personally use this trail, we directly and indirectly benefit from people who do. The more people who bike and walk, the healthier our communities are, environmentally, socially, and economically. And for those of us who drive, trail users alleviate congestion on our roadways.
Supports state, regional and local policies, plans and guidelines: The only multi-use trail passing through Lake Forest Park, the Burke-Gilman Trail, is a regional facility, so designated by King County’s Regional Trails Plan (October 1992), the county’s Non-Motorized Transportation Plan (May 1993) and by the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Destination 2030 Regional Transportation Plan adopted in May 2003. In addition, bringing the trail up to modern standards further supports the goals, policies and standards established in the Washington State Bicycle Facilities and Pedestrian Walkways Plan, the Climate Action Plan, the VMT reduction law, and the Washington State Bicycle Facilities Design Manual.
More information:
- The City of Lake Forest Park’s page with documents regarding the Trail are available here.
- Detailed history of Cascade's involvement in LFP is available on Cascade's website here.
- Read Cascade's written testimony here.
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