Written by The owner of the Kennydale Blueberry farm has applied for a rezone from RC to medium density R8, to allow additional homes to be built on the 3.5 acre site.
Council is considering allowing the property to instead be zoned to low density R4, which would allow one or two new homes, and would require that a biologist survey the wetland and put it into a protected status at the time of development.
Many members of the public have expressed concern that waiting to survey the wetland until the development may be too late; they have specifically pointed to the site shown below, which is directly across the street from the blueberry farm. Some have speculated that the wetland peat bog may extend from the blueberry farm right under 20th street, to this site. ( I snapped the picture below last weekend)
And above and below is how the site looks today, now that some digging is occuring. A neighbor told me that ducks have been flying in and out.
While R4 would require wetland protection, we’ve been told that RC zoning would not require wetland protection, and that dog kennel runs or horse paddocks could be built on the low lying areas.
Personally, I would like to see the 2.25 acre damp area remain a blueberry farm, regardless of whether an additional home is built on the uplands. We have many homes in Renton Highlands, but only one U-Pick Blueberry farm.
Whoa, look at all that water! It was NOT raining enough to make a puddle that big….Are they even allowed to be digging there? It seems like it should be a protected wetland area too….
Mother Nature Wins
from Inez Somerville Petersen
I was at the pond, known earlier today as a foundation, about the time Randy showed up. It was amazing. All this wet beautiful dirt all around, I could hardly walk to the edge of the pond to take video it was so squishy. The pond was smooth, and a neighbor told me the ducks had just left.
Here are couple of clips from the video I took:
http://inieleague.org/video/WetDream.wmv
The developer, American Dream LLC , is going to have to rename his company to the Wet Dream LCC by the appearance of things.
For the Staff to be so hell bent on upzozning the Kennydale Blueberry Bog without any science to justify doing so–well, it’s another reason not to vote for Staff’s leader. We can’t abide such incompetence much longer.
And what if the owner of Wet Dream LLC decides to sue Renton because of the bad job of land use management EDNSP did, who pays? Not Alex, Rebecca, or Erika–I believe they live outside the city limits in neighboring areas.
legal misinformation
Renton’s councilmembers and citizens are being seriously underserved by the legal counsel retained by your city bureaucracy. You need to consult legitimate environmental law professionals who can give you the legal advice absent so far in this discussion; state and federal law do not allow dog kennels or equine centers on protected wetlands. Prior Converted Croplands laws protect even the drier areas on any wetland-associated agricultural property which is abandoned as farmland.
disclosure and analysis
SEPA is a full disclosure environmental law. it applies to you Mr. Corman. it requires disclosure and analysis of impacts prior to the time that decision making occurs. it is not confined to building only it is required of any decision you make where the impacts are probable. see King County v. Boundary review board. that includes rezones and it is no different for any other rezone including the hilands. there is nothing unconstitutional about it. you have to have the study and disclosure and analisis in front of you before you can even legally vote on it. you cant vote on it. they have not disclosed or studied the issues.
Re: disclosure and analysis
the blueberry owners are the ones that have to pay for the study not the city, besides that hole already studies the water issue. nice lake!
Blueberry Farm and Related Kennydale Creek
This is not the first time that the City of Renton has allowed its own Environmental Codes and Land Use prescriptions to be ignored. It’s time to gather a few dollars and sue the developers who ignore the written aggrements they drew up prior to development. (However, they will cry to the City at which time the City will hire an attorney and fight you tooth and nail). Perhaps our new Mayor can exhibit some of his clout (he said he had some) and tell the Planning Department that they must follow their own rules and regulations and tell Developers that they must do the same – without shortcuts. (Where are the fines when we really need them?) The City is more afraid of being sued by the developer that by the public. Which has the deepest pockets? Where are our tax dollars going, if not to hire educated Planners and City Employees who respect the laws (Codes) and regulations they were hired to enforce?