The King County Assessor participated in a number of town hall meetings on the subjects of property assessments and taxes. These are links to their 10/17/22 presentations.
Assessments & property tax town hall recording
Assessments & property tax slide deck
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Posted in Uncategorized
Through mid-November, 2022, the King County Council will be meeting about the proposed 2023-2024 biennial budget. more
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Posted in King County
May Valley is surrounded by the relatively steep hillsides of Cougar, Tiger, and Squak Mountains, much of which is park or natural resource lands.
The 109 acre DeLeo farm, located on a hillside next to western May Valley, was purchased for conservation by King County Natural Resources and Parks in 2018. Neighboring the property is 30 acres locally called “the DeLeo Wall, which butts up against the Cougar Mountain Regional Park.
The DeLeo Wall is owned by Dalpay and Associates, a real estate company. They applied for a permit to clear cut the property.
As part of their forest management authority, the WA Department of Natural Resources (DNP) granted Dalpay permission to clear cut the property. The City of Newcastle sued Dalpay, Erickson Logging, and the WA DNR claiming DNR ignored city and county codes and findings. The case will be heard by the Pollution Control Hearing Board (PCHB). The hearing is scheduled for October 18-20, 2022 at 9AM.
Drone movie showing the potential clear cut area
How Washington allows clear cutting when cities don’t want it
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Posted in Land Use
A number of years back, FCUAC decided to capture comments about transportation in the area. Shortly after, this data was projected so that it could be used on maps.
This is a list of transportation locations in the FCUAC service area. It consists of points (intersections), lines (roads and road segments), and polygons (areas). With some minor exceptions, every item is mapped.
Four Creeks has a program that builds maps for residents and communities. One set of those maps are focused on transportation.
Some of the maps in the set are:
All the transportation maps are on the Atlas site in the Maps>Gallery under the Thematic group. [broken link; add map links to this page]
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Posted in Transportation
The proposed King County 2022-2024 biennial budget includes funding to work with community members to re-imagine public safety in the urban unincorporated areas. more…
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Posted in Safety
King County Local Services is gathering a list of community needs and priorities for the Four Creeks/Tiger Mountain CSA. Please visit the following link below to provide your input and forward to your to neighbors.
https://publicinput.com/fourcreeks
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Posted in Four Creeks
Four Creeks is working on a facelift for its web site. During testing, don’t be surprised if you end up on pages that have crazy page layouts and/or formatting.
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Posted in Four Creeks
In December 2018, the Parks Division of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks purchased 109 acres of undeveloped, forested land adjacent to the SE corner of Cougar Mtn Regional Wildland Park, with the intent of conserving the land to enhance habitat, while allowing for low-impact recreational use (e.g. soft-surface trails).
The contiguous open space across Cougar Mountain, Squak Mountain and Tiger Mountain, often referred to as the Issaquah Alps, provides habitat for a variety of wildlife species including cougar, black bear, bobcat and deer. The acquisition has high quality second growth Douglas fir forest that would be a valuable contribution of habitat values within this section of the park. More from the application for funding…
FCUAC Mountains subarea map here…
Starting in 1970, Washington State provides annual funding for conservation via the Conservation Futures Tax (CFT). King County used CFT funds for the purchase. More on CFT…
The King County Council made land conservation a priority in 2018 by allowing a larger percentage of CFT funding to be “pulled forward” in time (i.e. allowing future funding to be spent in earlier years). In the current market of rising land prices, being able to purchase properties earlier can be desirable. (See King County Land Conservation Initiative)
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Posted in Land Use
King County Roads Strategic Plan (2014): The Strategic Plan includes a detailed discussion of the financial constraints faced by King County Road Services, their effect on our ability to maintain the road system, and the strategic priorities that guide our investment of Roads’ limited funds.
https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/roads/strategic-planning.aspx
King County Roads 2016 Transportation Needs Report (2016): The TNR is a list of improvements to serve unincorporated King County’s transportation needs, projected to the year 2031. It is a component of the King County Comprehensive Plan.
https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/roads/transportation-planning.aspx#tnr
Regional Transportation System Initiative (2017-2018): This partnership between the Sound Cities Association, King County cities, the Puget Sound Regional Council, the Washington State Department of Transportation, and King County identified the critical connecting roads that comprise the regional road network and their unmet maintenance, operations, and capital needs. The regionally significant roads include SE May Valley Rd, Issaquah-Hobart Rd SE, and SE 128th St. The final report and a large format regional road network map are at the link below.
https://www.regionaltransportationsystem.org/resources/
Other King County Road Services Resources
Slides used by Roads at the November FCUAC meeting (PDF)
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Posted in Transportation
In accordance with state law, a franchise approved by the King County Council is required in order to use County road rights-of-way for the construction and maintenance of waterworks, gas pipes, telephone, telegraph and electric lines, sewers, cable TV, petroleum product pipelines, and other such public and private utilities.
Franchise Application – new, renewal, amendment, or transfer
Franchise Application Instructions
Franchise Application
By order dated September 4, 2018, the King County Superior Court ruled that King County lacked authority to impose franchise compensation or rent as provided in Ordinance 18403. King County is appealing this ruling. While the case is on appeal, the Facilities Management Division (FMD) does not intend to take further action to negotiate or collect franchise compensation as described in the Compensation Notice and Estimate sent to utilities earlier in 2018. In the event the Superior Court’s ruling is overturned on appeal, FMD intends to resume action on the Compensation Notices and Estimates, and will notify utilities of the steps that will be taken at such time.
Related Information
King County Code Chapter 6.27: Right-of-Way Franchises for Utilities
King County Code Chapter 14.44: Utilities on County Rights-of-Way
King County Code Chapter 4A.675: Real Estate Services Fees
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Posted in Codes and Regulations
