Written by Seven years into my Renton Council service, after years of witnessing heart-wrenching flooding in the May Creek Basin, we finally had a plan to fix it. Cities of Renton and Newcastle had teamed with King County, along with residents, property owners, and environmental experts, to develop the May Creek Basin Action Plan. Along with colleagues and scientists, I had trudged knee-deep in mud as we examined areas hardest hit by flooding and landslides. Our site surveys were followed by hours of meetings, and teamwork with maps, zoning plans, and development standards. I had special interest in the May Creek Basin plan, as I also served as Renton’s representative on WRIA 8 salmon recovery committee, and we were getting close to publishing our draft plan for saving Chinook Salmon in the Lake Washington, Cedar River, and Lake Samamish watersheds (which includes May Creek. )
We all knew there would be more development in the beautiful May Valley. The area is characterized by lovely historic homesteads offering healthy country living conditions just minutes from employment centers in Renton, Bellevue, and Issaquah. These homesteads were interspersed and surrounded with undeveloped land that potentially offered new picture-perfect home sites, so long as the flooding, landslides and sustainability could be brought under control.
May Creek in Renton. (Photo courtesy City of Renton.)
And Renton had special interest in this plan. Parts of Renton are downstream from May Valley, and susceptible to flooding if silt raises the height of the creek bed. Also, since the 1980s, Renton, King County, and (later) Newcastle, have been purchasing properties along the creek in anticipation off a future low-impact trail system and large nature park per the May Creek Greenway plan. Renton has acquired 57 acres along May Creek to date. For Renton to achieve our goals, flooding, landslides, pollution, and other harm to the the creek had to be reversed.
The plan’s stated objectives have been successfully achieved over the last 18 years. Per the plan’s stated purpose “The May Creek Basin Action Plan provides a set of actions to: 1) address the threat of flooding of homes; 2) facilitate storm flow conveyance, stabilize stream banks and reduce erosion; 3) protect and enhance fish and wildlife habitat and water quality in the basin; and 4) prevent existing problems from becoming worse in the future.” The final plan includes agreed-on development practices, tree retention standards, setbacks, storm detention, and many other mitigations that stakeholders generally now agree have worked to protect the creek, surrounding properties, and the peace and tranquility of May Valley.
While the May Creek Basin Plan over the last two decades has been a good news story, tomorrow I’ll explain a new threat to this plan, and how caring residents, Renton, Newcastle, and King County are urgently working with partners to obtain conservation grants to purchase and protect land in this basin from timber harvesting.
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