Cedar River Pipeline going through Renton, April 17, 1931 Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives

Seattle City leaders have had to work cooperatively with Renton leaders to build and maintain (for the past 92 years) a Seattle water pipeline through our city.  Renton’s leaders collaborate with Seattle while protecting Renton’s interests relative to land use, development, and safety.  While Seattle might prefer otherwise, Renton has insisted on our rights to drive and conduct business over their pipeline in downtown.  This is one small example of Renton asserting local control. 

As voters select their City Council Members, it’s helpful to remember why cities go through all the work and expense of incorporating.  It’s easy for an area to stay under county zoning, and rely on county services, county laws, and state laws to govern them.  If one googles “Why do cities incorporate,” they will find thousands of results telling them the answer is to have local control.

Since local control is why Renton incorporated 122 years ago,  it’s important that Renton elected officials put Renton’s local needs first.   That’s how advocacy works. When we elect City Council Members we’re not trying to replace our County, State, and Federal officials.   We have those representatives already, and we are paying many of them generous salaries for their representation. In some cases they represent the jurisdictions that inspired Renton to seek local control.

Renton Mayor Jesse Tanner, a former Federal executive and very effective two-term mayor who helped us create the Piazza, Henry Moses Aquatic Center, the skate park, the veterans park, the Landing, our modern City Hall and Police Station, and many other amenities,  used to remind me “Randy…cities don’t have friends, they have interests.”

I became adept at working cooperatively and professionally with neighboring cities during my 28 years on council, and I served on more regional committees representing our city than I can list here.  My colleagues on these regional committees had an amicable relationship with me, but they always knew I would put Renton first, the way I expected them to put the interests of their cities at the forefront.  That was my job, after all.  That’s what the taxpayers paid me to do.  That is local control.

So as you are choosing your council members in this and future elections, look at who is backing them, whether that support is tied to Renton, and whether you are confident they will put Renton ahead of other jurisdictions and other outside interests. Does the candidate give you confidence you are going to get the local representation and the local control you are paying for?  Will they fight against state laws that don’t work for Renton?  Will they insist on a fair share of county services and desirable facilities, like metro service and a Sound Transit light rail station?  Will they push-back on Renton having a disproportionate share of the county’s undesirable facilities, like sewage treatment, landfill, composting, and other facilities no one else wants? Renton Council Members need to be committed to Renton’s interests to give us the local control we’ve been paying for since incorporating in 1901.  If they don’t put Renton first,  we might as well just let ourselves be run by King County again.

Top, Mayor Law and I participated in the ribbon cutting for Springbrook Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank, an important sensitive wetland project. Bottom, the area was burned by a suspicious fire in 2023. The green and red ribbons are at the same place. (Note the same metal bollard in the bottom front of both pictures.)

In the past couple years the city has been struggling to keep its momentum in environmental protection as deadly drugs and paraphernalia are carelessly discarded, litter has been building near sensitive waterways and natural areas, and crime has caused us to backslide in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint.  I provided a detailed analysis showing ways in which crime has worsened our environmental sustainability in this blog entry three months ago.

During my 28 years on City Council from 1994-2021 I worked hard to help make Renton a leader in environmental sustainability and protection of our natural environment.  I’ve always loved the outdoors, and protecting our lake, river, watersheds, trees, native species, and natural areas has always been a priority for me.  I covered many of our sustainability achievements in a blog entry four years ago here.

While I was on council we began purchasing hybrid and electric vehicles when older ones were due for replacement

Even when taking a break from City Council, I worked hard to protect our environment along with the health and safety of our residents.  In this blog entry I covered my efforts to ensure Renton had a hard drug law that would not only save lives, but keep hazardous paraphernalia out of our parks and public areas.

I’ve seen us do better than we are doing now, and if re-elected I will help put Renton back on track to a continuously-improving environment.

This image capture from Zillow shows an unused right-of-way running between the homes on N 31st and N 32nds streets. As can be seen from the mature trees and fence lines, this right of way has not been opened as an alley.

In 1904  Renton’s Lower Kennydale neighborhood was platted in what-was-then King County.  The “Garden of Eden” plat included a grid street pattern, along with some additional right-of-ways that could be developed into alleys to potentially allow the residents to get their horses and carriages behind their homes.  Some of these right-of-ways were eventually formally abandoned by Renton, and others have remained on-the-books but undeveloped and unopened for the past 100 years. The unopened “alleys” now host large native trees and gardens, and in some cases sheds and other backyard uses.

Starting about eight years ago, Renton’s building codes began to dictate that new homes that are built on alleys should take garage access from that alley.  (This code was intended to affect only new construction, not existing homes.)  A developer is now proposing a new house on one of these lots with an unopened right-of-way behind it, that runs from Park Avenue to Burnett between homes on N 31st Street and N 32nd Street.  In a preliminary review the city has said the developer should get access from the (unopened) “alley”, and the preliminary decision has left neighboring residents upset and crying foul.

Kennydale residents turned up in large numbers at last Monday’s council meeting, describing in detail why they are concerned about an alley being built through their  neighborhood after all these decades. The development pattern has been set for 100 years, and an alley is now more disruptive than it is helpful for residents of most or all of the historic homes.  Among the worrisome issues identified, residents are concerned about saving 100-year old trees, preserving camaraderie with long-time over-the-fence neighbors, preserving their yards and gardens, and needlessly creating new security concerns behind their homes.

Residents have petitioned the city to abandon the right-of-way under the official “vacation” process identified in city and state laws, instead of developing it into an alley. I think they make a strong case.   While I am not a lawyer and I am offering a political–not legal–opinion, this right-of-way appears to never have been formally opened (i.e. turned into an actual alley). If it had not been part of a plat, and simply deeded to the County as a stand-alone right of way, it likely would have expired after five years of not being opened under RCW 36.87.090.  ( If it had been platted a few years earlier before 1904, when RCW 36.87.090 went into effect, it also could have expired by now even if it is part of a plat.)   There should be deference given to the street pattern established at the time an area is developed, and changing it after 100 years is not a step that should be taken lightly.

The process for vacating a right of way can be expensive and complicated for residents, and the Renton City Council will ultimately have decision-making authority on whether this right-of-way is vacated and how much compensation is charged for the land.  (The price set for vacated land could be anywhere from zero to 100% of current appraised value, depending on how the land was originally acquired by the government and other factors.)  I encourage Council Members to look carefully at the facts and long history in this case, and make this process as easy and fair as possible for the residents.

Mid-block section between Burnett and Park

Western section near Burnett

A foundation footing has been poured for a new home on N 31st street, and the footing is oriented with the garage at the back. The 5 foot side yard setbacks are not wide enough for cars to get to the back, and there is currently no developed alley at the back.

The view of the century-old right-of-way from the sidewalk on Park Avenue. The 12-foot-wide right-of-way is approximately centered on this fence-line, then runs through the large tree in the background, and continues for hundreds of feet (through more fences and retaining walls) to Burnett Ave North. The grade drops off steeply from right to left, and from front to back.

Related topic: It’s common for surrounding residents to use unopened/unused right-of-ways for incidental purposes in conjunction with their homesteads (such as gardening, recreating, or storage.)  The University of Washington Law review published an article about this tendency, and the legal precedents surrounding it.  

My son Danny and my grandson Luke share a birthday,  and they love to celebrate together. During this year’s party Cathy and I gathered our kids, their spouses/partners, and our grandkids outside for a photo since there are too many us us to squeeze into a photo around the birthday cakes.   Cathy and I share three of our incredible grandchildren (including Luke) with fellow-Rentonites Bob and Donna Jones, who joined us for the party and the photo. Their son Brandon is married to our daughter Katie. Cathy and I are blessed to have all five of our kids and all five of our grandkids living here in Renton.

Luke is sitting at the table with Danny standing behind him as they prepare to blow out candles