Twenty-One Feet of Signatures to Save Coal Creek
IATC co-founder and VP of Advocacy David Kappler, Save Coal Creek Steering Committee Chair Sally Lawrence, and a host of other supporters clad in their white Save Coal Creek (SCC) t-shirts showed up at the Bellevue City Council meeting on December 5th and brought the full impact of the almost 4,900 petition signatures with them. The power of the people was palpable.
Barb Williams, Peter Marshall, Steve Williams and 4,871 petition signers showed up at the Council meeting. Photo by David Lai.
During the public comments portion of the meeting as Sally, dressed in business attire, moved forward to take the microphone, SCC supporters unfurled a 21-foot printout of the 4,871 petition signatures in the back of Council chambers.
The commotion clearly caught the attention of Council.
“Twenty-two hundred and fourteen folks are from Bellevue zip codes”, Sally explained. “Twenty-two hundred and eighteen are from cities to the south and east that are within 10 miles” of the SCC location, she continued, and “four hundred and thirty-nine were from Seattle zip codes”. This location information highlights the strong regional concern there is for the land, the wildlife, and the history of the Issaquah Alps. The Bellevue City Council “can be the leaders that we need”, extolled Sally, “to reach out to County and State government and bring together a proposal (to buy the land)”.
Speaking next, David, sporting a dark sweater with the tail of his shirt hanging out, highlighted some costly impacts of the proposed 35-unit development that the City of Bellevue cannot afford to overlook. Drawing upon his 18 years of experience as an Issaquah City Councilmember, where safety and efficiency were paramount, David pointed out to the Councilmembers how residents of the proposed development would face 1,850 feet of walking or riding on the narrow shoulders of the very busy Lakemont Blvd. before they would get to the safety of the closest city sidewalk. The City of Bellevue would bear the likely costs in the millions to close this unsafe gap. Bringing water and sewer services to the site will also be very costly and disruptive. “You have to tear up the road for 1,820 feet to get water to the site. 2,480 (feet) to get sewer to the site. It’s just not an appropriate place to develop” he concluded.
View David’s hand-crafted map of locations and lengths of the costly, disruptive, and overlooked safety and infrastructure needs of the Isola development, further evidence that this is not an appropriate place to develop. Click here.
it’s almost game time
Is the SCC message getting through? Is all the time and effort going into trying to save this land making a difference? If the actions of four Bellevue City Councilmembers who approached Sally and David after the meeting to express their interest in our efforts is any indication, then yes, we’re getting somewhere.
Bellevue’s Development Services department is expected to finalize their permit proposal for the Isola development in early 2023. The public hearings on their recommendations are scheduled for early March. Sally and the SCC Steering Committee and IATC are gearing up for the big push to get Bellevue, elected and community leaders, and Isola to change course and preserve this land.
Get involved
Join the long and growing list of supporters by signing the Save Coal Creek petition and keep an eye open in the coming weeks for new ways to join this fight to save this critical land from development.