Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, February 15, 2013
www.issaquahreporter.com
Decision time Hearing examiner reviews appeal to allow Sammamish mosque a new parking lot
Helen Farrington stands by May Creek, and the new culvert and bridge she and her neighbors paid for Below, a submitted photo shows runoff from Squak Mountain during a storm. Deforestation of the area could increase the volume of water exponentially .
BY KEVIN ENDEJAN KENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
vation Futures is a funding source it is considering to buy the property. She said at this point federal grants are not being considered for the property, just local grant programs. “We are still in discussions with the landowner regarding whether and how we may work together to purchase the land,” Lundin said in an e-mail. Lundin said the group will know in early March if that plan is moving forward. Fund-
A near two-year debate involving a Muslim prayer center and a Sammamish neighborhood should be resolved next week. Hearing examiner John Galt reviewed an appeal earlier this week by the nonprofit group “Friends of SE 20th,” which contested the city’s conditional approval of a 44-space parking lot in the 22000 block of Southeast 20th Street. The city’s Planning Department gave the Sammamish Muslim Association approval for the lot — assuming it followed a list of 34 conditions — on Sept. 6, 2012. The SMA initially applied for a parking lot in March of 2011. The current prayer center, a converted 2,900-square-foot single-family home, will not be altered itself. “Friends of SE 20th” voiced several issues with the city’s conditional approval of the parking lot, noting they don’t believe it’s compatible with the surrounding vicinity. They argued additional traffic will make it tough for neighbors to get in and out of their driveways. They also took issue with the number of prayer services and hours — something, they say, makes the SMA different than other religious organizations in Sammamish neighborhoods. “The thing that brings concern to me is the intensity, it’s five times a day, it’s 365 days a year, there is no day of rest for me from that scenario,” said Don Allaire, president of the neighborhood group. Friends of Southeast 20th attorney Mark Davidson argued that depending on the time
SEE SQUAK, 3
SEE MOSQUE, 3
LINDA BALL, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
CLEAR CUT CONCERNS May Valley residents fear worst with potential tree removal on Squak Mountain
BY LINDA BALL
“You take away that sponge, we’re going to have problems.”
LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
T
he video of prior flooding of May Creek is genuinely terrifying. Water lapped over SR 900 causing traffic to come to a near stop. Low-lying farmland is submerged.
It is a scenario that Helen Farrington and her neighbors don’t want to replay as they worry about the potential clear-cutting of 216-acres on Squak Mountain that has been purchased by Erickson Logging, Inc. of Eatonville. The neighbors say the heavily timbered mountainside keeps heavy rain and drainage from eroding the hillside, which would further complicate May Creek if the trees were gone. “You take away that sponge, we’re going to have problems,” Farrington said. When a bridge over a 30-inch culvert was snapped by a truck, six neighbors paid $100,000 for a new one on their private road. “That’s a lot for working families to come up with,” Farrington said. The new culvert is 12 feet wide, 9 feet high and 30 feet long. Three weeks after the new
– Helen Farrington culvert and bridge were completed, five Coho salmon came through. “Historically there’s always been fish in May Creek, and now they’re returning,” Farrington said. Then, when Farrington heard of the Erickson purchase, “I freaked out,” she said. “We had this bridge built based on the amount of water that comes through now.” Ingrid Lundin with the King County Parks Natural Resource Lands Program, said Conser-