The Lake Forest Park city council is trying to make sure that... they say their intent is protecting the environment and safety. But it appears that they want to make sure the Burke-Gilman trail does not get widened. They have been finding ways to tie King County's hands on repairs and enhancements. And it is long overdue for repaving. (King County owns the 2 plus miles of trail that go through Lake Forest Park from NE 145 St. to near Log Boom Park.) They say it is not their intent to stop repairs and widening, but it doesn't look that way.
Source: The Enterprise Shoreline/Lake Forest Park 9/24/2004 and previous editions
LFP came up with two stoppers last Spring - first, require that the trail surface near streams be pervious (more on what that means later). Two substantial creeks cross the BGT near the LFP Town Center shopping mall - McAleer and Lyon.
The second is to not allow the trail to cross any street. In other words at every street either the trail or the street would have to be elevated or sunk low enough to clear. I can't imagine that the person proposing this could keep a straight face. But when I was at the hearing I was far outside the door and couldn't see. It would be very expensive and look ugly and be overkill for the needs.
King County officials including Councilperson Carolyn Edmonds said "you should work with us" and the bicycle riders and lots of other people said "these don't make sense." The first part made more sense, so they split the two issues and passed the first - the pervious surface - in Ordinance 907. The mayor of LFP vetoed the bill. But then Nate Herzog, who I like, changed his vote and enabled the council to override the veto.
But what does "pervious" mean? In the context of trails it is widely accepted that it means organic material - wood chips or dirt. But everyone knows a trail of those materials would not carry the heavy traffic the BGT gets. Even gravel wouldn't do the job. So they are looking for a type of asphalt that will let water run through. But it will violate their own ordinance.
So now the LFP city council has to change the definition of pervious. If they don't then they are requiring that the sections of the BGT near McAleer and Lyons Creeks and probably other places be wood chips. So change the definition they will.
Posted by Ron Hebron at September 28, 2004 09:49 AM | Email This