The Issaquah Highlands: Advocacy in Action
Thank you to Ken Konigsmark and Tom Anderson for providing information, quotes, and historical details for this article!
Grand Ridge Park came out of the three-way deal that created the Issaquah Highlands as we know it today.
“Open space is like radioactive metals. It doesn't do anything big until enough is put together for a critical mass. Nobody could come to Cougar Mountain from Seattle or Bellevue to go walking in 230 separate green spaces of 10 acres each, amid houses and freeways. That would merely provide 230 neighborhood parks. Only when the 2300 acres are massed together is there a Regional Park.”
-Harvey Manning
This quote describes the importance of having consolidated open space, rather than disparate small pieces of land. Harvey is referring here to the formation of Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, but this quote applies to the story of the Issaquah Highlands as well.
Many of you are likely familiar with the Issaquah Highlands. Some of our readers might even live there! Located North of I-90, between the Issaquah and High Point exits, this 2,223 acre site first began developing 20 years ago and was zoned to be rural.
RA-5 zoning means that there can only be one home every five acres, each with its own well and septic system. Across 2,223 acres around 228 homes could have been built in the Issaquah Highlands, creating an “urban sprawl” of large single-family homes and leaving no public or wildlife access to the open spaces and healthy habitat that exist there.
We know that this is not what the Issaquah Highlands looks like today. Instead, the highlands consists of 20% high-density urban zoning that includes retail, and is 80% protected park lands. This 4:1 agreement was reached only after the hard work of some vocal advocates, including the IATC’s very own Ken Konigsmark, and the cooperation of the Issaquah Highlands and Port Blakeley to absorb two different Transfer of Density Rights projects.
A major hurdle we had to overcome in creating the Issaquah Highlands as we know it involved a “mystery buyer” who wanted to buy the entire 150 acre rural area to build his own private mega-estate. Additionally, he demanded the county allow an electrified fence to be built around an additional 200 acres of public land to “ensure his security”.
Bob Derrick, the Director of the Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) at that time, when pressed by Councilman Brian Derdowski about how this could be considered "public land" when fenced off by a private owner said "Well, the public can look through the fence and see it".
This particular fight was brought to the attention of the IATC when this “mystery buyer” proposed a back door route to his property off of a small rural road that Ken Konigsmark lived on. Ken “exposed all this to the press, to the Council, created a big stir about it and, ultimately, when the 3-party (King County, City of Issaquah, and the developer, Port Blakely) Development Agreement was approved by the County Council it was done so on the condition that nothing could proceed until Port Blakely reached a satisfactory agreement with me and my neighborhood.” After several heated meetings the “mystery buyer” eventually backed out.
The final agreement between King County, City of Issaquah, and Port Blakely allowed dense urban zoning on one acre for every four acres of land that Port Blakeley donated to either the city or county for public ownership. This resulted in the dense urban village we see today that includes a mix of residential and retail space with direct access to public lands and trails. Another 150 acres was allocated for 40 “rural” home-sites for high-end homes. To make this possible, Port Blakely agreed to a Transfer of Density Rights.
A Transfer of Density Rights (TDR) is a zoning tool used to protect land with conservation value by redirecting development to an area better suited to accommodate it, and at the same time preserving the non-developed area. Generally, growth is compensated for by increased density on the part of the land that is going to be developed.
The Issaquah Highlands and Port Blakeley cooperated to absorb two TDR projects in this case. The first was 313 acres of the Mitchell Hill Connector Forest that ties Grand Ridge Park eastward to land owned by the Department of Natural Resources north of Preston. This created a corridor of roughly 3000 acres of public land that otherwise would have been carved up into homesites. Port Blakely paid $2.75M for the density credits that were then shifted to Issaquah Highlands for use as additional commercial space. In the second, equally crucial, deal Port Blakely bought the density credits from the 102-acre Park Pointe property lying between Issaquah and Tiger Mountain that would otherwise have been covered by 300 condos on the slope uphill from Issaquah to Tradition Plateau. These two TDR deals were essential to conserving these key open space parcels.
The final agreement between the City of Issaquah, King County, and Port Blakeley included the following:
1242 acres donated to King County as protected park land
241 acres within the Urban Growth Area dedicated to City and County park land within the development area
290 acres rezoned from rural RA-5 to high density urban zoning that allows:
3250 residential units (60% multi-family) Note: 4000 homes were actually built, still only on 20% of the land.
2.95 million square feet for office/commercial
425,000 square feet of retail
50 rural home sites on 2.5 acre lots, totaling 150 acres, for homes worth $2 million+ Note: There was continued opposition to this from community advocates, but Port Blakley did not concede this in the end.
Additionally, Grand Ridge Park as we know it now came out of this deal. Because of limits King County has on the amount of forest clearing that can be done for development on any given lot, Port Blakley purchased an additional 40 acres of land, then donated it to King County Parks. In doing so were given credit for the amount of clearing that could have been done on those 40 acres and were allowed to use that clearing "credit" within the rural area for the 50 homes getting built.
The Issaquah Highlands as it exists today serves as an emblem of what successful advocacy can achieve. The Issaquah Alps Trails Club remains dedicated to working with the public and our partners to preserve, protect, and promote our public lands now and into the future.