Update - Neighbors to Save Wellington Park now has a webpage & we're in Facebook too

Click here for NSWP's new webpage.
NeighborstoSaveWellingtonPark.com

And, we also have a Facebook page:
Check out (and like) NSWP's FB Save Wellingon Park.

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... a few popular blog postings

What is going on? 

Evolution of park plan

What is a Mountain Bike Building?

Part 1: Miner's Corner Park - w/ links to Parts 2, 3

The Teigen Plan

Artificial turf fields are expensive non-essentials

Change one thing ...






and, thank you for following this blog.

Wellington Hills Park - bare trees

as usual, winter offers the opposite of our evergreen reputation ...

that's especially true after days of fog when the sun, low to the horizon, 
momentarily glows through the hazy sky ...

bare trunks and branches radiate their starkness.

  
                                               Wellington Hills Park




Bill Stankus
January 2015

Yesterday's sky, Wellington Hills Park

Reflecting on the recent terrible events in France.

The value of walking in nature, feeling the natural ground beneath one's feet and simply enjoying the tranquility of trees and sky cannot, and should not, be under-valued.

Of course there are many wonderful human achievements, qualities and efforts - none the less, our modern world, brims with callousness, cynicism, selfishness … and violence.

Yet there's Nature - a tangible and necessary force that uplifts our spirits and provides calm and tonic, antidotes to a frenzied world.


And, today's sunset

yes, those are the Olympic Mountain in silhouette, as seen from Wellington Hills Park


Bill Stankus
January 9, 2015

Snohomish County 2015 Comprehensive Plan Update

Today, January 6, 2015

Planning and Community Development Committee Meeting, Tuesday at 10:30 AM in the Henry M. Jackson Board Room, 8th Floor, Robert J. Drewel Building (Administration Building East), 3000 Rockefeller, Everett. 

This morning's meeting was primarily an overview presentation by Planning & Development Services (PDS) to the County Council, essentially starting the final stages of the 2015 Comprehensive Plan process.

Today's presentation pulled together (in outline form) all the various collected countywide committee meetings, public meetings, public comments, etc. that have shaped the 2015 Update process.

The Council will now begin studying the provisional Comp Plan ... they will be asking PDS for further details and/or clarifications ... the Council will then make recommendations, changes, alternatives, etc. to the Comp Plan.

Day planners - the order of the day. 

The Council made reference to projected tasks and required time frames ... they are now setting their organizational schedules for the review process, culminating with their decision of the Comp Plan in Spring-Summer 2015.  

PS: 
Because there's a June deadline, things should start moving rather quickly.


Go here to read more about the County's Comprehensive Plan.

Go here for the "County Council Briefings" webpage by Planning and Development Services (PDS).

Go here for County Council Meetings, Agendas and Webcasts. 

Once on the County's site, note the various committees and sessions (in the dark colored boxes, lower half of page) ... you can then read the various agendas or watch the recorded sessions.

One Tree, Wellington Hills Park, Snohomish County, Washington State

Approximately 90 years ago this tree, then a seedling, made the mistake of setting its roots in a place where, circa 2014, ambitious bureaucrats want to cut it down and replace it with turnstiles, concrete and asphalt.

Majesty means nothing to ruthless politics.

photo by Bill Stankus
December 3, 2014

Turf crumbs, artificial turf, synthetic turf & ignorance is not bliss

Snohomish County currently has one artificial turf field - Tambark Creek Park - built with mitigation funds given to Snohomish County by King County so that King County could build the Brightwater sewage plant in Snohomish County.

With more of that mitigation pot-o-gold, Snohomish County wants to tear-up Wellington Hills Park and then build six artificial turf fields with stadium lights in Wellington Hills Park.

Their stated purpose: Make Wellington Hills Park a cash cow.

Turf crumbs on the surrounding concrete, near picnic tables at Tambark Creek Park, Snohomish County Washington.

For more info on the controversial use of artificial turf fields:

NBC News - How safe?

Safe Healthy Playing Fields Coalition

Lots of info at Syn Turf

This is just one of many Youtubes on the health hazards for children and the dangers of artificial turf fields.

Wellington Hills Park - Snohomish County, Washington State

240^th Street SE runs east-west through Wellington Hills Park. 

The following photos were taken approximately mid-way on 240^th – The first one is from the north side of the street, looking westward. The second is of the south side of 240^th.

If Snohomish County's Department of Parks gets their way, Wellington Hills Park  - what you see in the panoramas - would be nuked out of existence and replaced … not with the park people have said they want … but with a real pork barrel project - a tournament-level sports complex.




Play any Orwellian word game you want - their plan is NOT a community park - it is commercial development meant for the benefit of for-profit sports businesses.

  

If you search this blog's archives, you'll find lots of scenic views of Wellington Hills Park. What I can't show are the many hundreds of hours spent by average workaday people delving into the mysteries of the County's bureaucracy in order to counter the County’s sports complex plan.

Yet we persist because we want to save a natural landmark from inappropriate development and we don't want our community mugged by excessive and unnecessary “pollutions” – traffic congestion on the single road this area depends upon, evening and weekend crowds and noise, stadium lights and the constant churn produced by parking lots for over 750 cars.

  

Fundamentally we believe:  Neighborhoods should have a voice in what happens to their community.  Special interest groups may have lobbyists and easy access to bureaucracy, but that doesn't necessarily equate with "doing the right thing".

 

We are not opposed to sports or sports fields - that has never been our issue.  What we object to is the inappropriate development of Wellington Hills Park and the slick way our community has been treated.   

Sports fields have specific requirements, none that occur in Wellington Hills Park. Those basic needs are: open space, quick access via decent roads, large parking lots, sewer lines, etc.. Sports fields should also not disrupt or negatively impact their surroundings - which the Dept. of Parks' plan will do in bucket fulls.

 

In many ways, the proposed “tournament level sports complex” is no different than when a big box store elbows its way into a quiet rural town … and disrupts and impacts the quality of life and the daily life of established neighborhoods.

I close with these questions:

• Should taxpayer money (in this case, $27 million) be used to build an expensive sports complex to benefit for-profit sports businesses?

• Is this situation any different than when professional sport teams owners expect taxpayers to pay for expensive stadiums, arenas and ballparks?

 

Can't wait to see what happens when a few thousand more cars jam the road with the frustrating hope of getting to Snohomish County's Tournament-Level Sports Complex

I lied.  I can wait forever. Indeed, I hope the Department of Parks Sports Complex is never built - and it's soon consigned to that awkward looking, almost filled building in Everett ... the one with the spray painted sign: "Locked In This Building Are All Of Our Really Bad Ideas".

Time of photos
4:30PM
Friday
September 5, 2014 

Location
240th Street SE & Route 9
Woodinville, Washington
Snohomish County

This is the intersection the tunnel-vision bureaucrats and their coven of "stakeholders" have decided, in their infinitely myopic and self-serving manner, should be the gateway to the "Tournament-Level Sports Complex" at Wellington Hills Park.

BTW - At the same time as these photos, the intersection at 195th & Route 9 was equally terrible.
 

photos by Bill Stankus
Sept. 5, 2014

Beyond Wellington Hills Park: Why Preservation of the Park is Critical - Part 3

links to Part 1 ... Part 2   Part 4  Part 5

Travel-wise, as we journey to the west of Wellington Hills Park -

... the asphalt & concrete recycling business located just outside the boundary of Wellington Hills Park.

The following photos were taken before the retention wall re-building project we are currently witnessing.  

View southward from Wellington Hills Park (from that line of skinny trees).

featured:
• Roof of building no. 1, "Wellington Business Park"
• Used car lot inventory
• Glass manufacturer 

 

View southward from Wellington Hills Park (from that line of skinny trees).

featured:
• Roof of building no. 1, "Wellington Business Park"
• Route 9
• Costco

View southward from Wellington Business Park parking lot.

featured:
• Costco - store and parking lot
• Route 9
• Exit ramp from Highway 522
• Back of billboard

Photos by Bill Stankus

Beyond Wellington Hills Park: Why Preservation of the Park is Critical - Part 2

On this photo journey you've now driven a few hundred yards away from Wellington Hills Park.

This set of photos was taken at the intersection of 240th St. SE and Route 9.

(Snohomish County Departments of Parks and Public Works have proclaimed this will be the main "gateway" to their "Tournament Level Sports Complex".)

Among the features of this intersection are: 

·       Used car lot

·       Entrance to asphalt and concrete recycling business

·       Entrance to the Wellington Business Park (behind block wall)

·       Railroad tracks

·       Entrance to Costco 

 Looking eastward, uphill towards the trees of Wellington Hills Park.

The asphalt and concrete recycling business is visible behind the used car lot

That's Costco across the street. Locals refer to 240th St. and Route 9 as "the Costco intersection"

The next three photos are of trucks going to and from the very busy asphalt & concrete recycling business.

• The first two are looking northward.

• The third is looking southward. 

The last two photos were taken while in the Route 9 left-turn lane to 240^th St. The “side dumping” trucks are commonly seen and generally uncomfortably close when turning at this intersection.

Photos by Bill Stankus

2014

Beyond Wellington Hills Park: Why Preservation of the Park is Critical - Part 1

 During the past 2+ years I've blogged many photos of Wellington Hills Park

... hopefully the natural beauty of the park has been revealed.

Additionally, I've made reference that the park is a buffer zone, green space - a quiet place between residential homes on the plateau and the hustle and bustle of commerce along Route 9 and Highway 522 which are located on the valley floor.

This posting is the first in a series showing what's just beyond the park - and it ain't pretty.

The following photos are orientation for what will follow in the next few days.

Satellite view of the park and nearby area.

• The park and several types of businesses west of the park are labeled.

• Highway 522 and Route 9 are seen as diagonals in the photo.

• 240th St. is the east-west road going through the park.

• 71st. Drive is at the right edge of the photo - it is the park boundary, north of 240th.

The view westward across the park as seen from 71st Drive.
Note the grass horizon line at the center of the photo - that's the approximate location of the park's western boundary.

If you walk to that western boundary, there's a row of skinny trees ... and from this vantage point you can look down into the valley and see the highway and commerce of that area. 

In later photos the row of skinny trees and the grassy area can be used to orient where the park is located.

240th St. SE as it exits the park and goes downhill towards Route 9.



photos by Bill Stankus
2014

The Once and Future Tree Canopy

I don’t know how close you follow local legislation, but the more time I spend sitting in County meetings and churning through the County’s website … some things get are “curiouser and curiouser”.

For example … do you know about the “novel” approach legislation regarding tree replacements based on measuring the now and future size of tree canopies?

Go here and here and here to read the Planning & Community Development summary on potential changes to existing ordinances and the Executive/Council Approval Form (aka, "ECAF).

Who benefits from cutting down trees and replacing stumps with trees that might grow to a certain size canopy in 20 years – Take a guess: You? Me? Land developers? 

Another question is, what potential impact might this proposed legislation have on the development of Wellington Hills Park?

Wellington Hills Park – (def.) A small park In Woodinville Washington with rolling topography and 90-year-old trees.  Currently, it is the proposed location of a Snohomish County Regional Tournament-level Sports Complex featuring stadium lights, amplified sound system, parking for 750 cars, a 50,000 sq. ft. indoor activities building plus a "few" other goodies to boot.

In order for the “Regional Tournament-level Sports Complex” to be built, mature trees will be removed and over 250,000 cubic yards of soil and dirt will be dug up and re-purposed.

And the current Wellington Hills tree canopy?  Just imagine what small mystery trees, fresh from a nursery, will look like, next to a Costco-sized parking lot in 20 years.

BTW - the cost for this park makeover? 

That's correct, $27 million.

 

Same place - September 2012 and August 2014

A few days ago when I was taking photos of the dry grasses near the overlook of Primus, Costco, etc. I recalled the fun time I had tagging along with a bunch I guys I had just met and who allowed to take photos while they golfed.  Lots of joking and teasing about bad shots and such.  Camaraderie at it's best.


August 18, 2014

September 8, 2012

photos by Bill Stankus
2012 and 2014


**Disclaimer: I'm not a golfer nor have I ever played golf.

The British are coming, the British are coming!

.... or at least they're passing over the top of Wellington Hills Park.

photo by Bill Stankus
August 2014



(The photo is neither cropped or enlarged, the plane seemed that close.)

it was dry & then it wasn't

The photos were taken August 10, around 5PM , the sky was cloudless, bright and blue. And it was hot - maybe more than 85 degrees.

There was a prairie-like feel to the rolling hills and grasses. Western Red Cedars and Doug Firs gaveaway that the park wasn't in the Central California foothills or someplace in the Midwest.


It hadn't rained for weeks so the grasses were very dry and mostly standing upright, except when their own weight caused them to lean or layover.

I'm writing this in the past tense because yesterday it rained - and with eight hours of rain, the return of clouds and cooler temperatures (65º), change happens.

Natural harmonies and all that.

photos by Bill Stankus
August 10, 2014

Wellington Hills Park - August 2014 - photos on a hot, dry day

I know, you probably thought, I'd given up on this blog and moved to someplace with a balmier climate, perhaps Dallas or Yuma ... but I haven't.

For the past months, I’ve been trying to be a good citizen by attending County legislative sessions, reading County documents and writing and talking about the Wellington Hills Park issue …

All that and a bag of peanuts.

Anyway, the Park has not (as of this moment) been whacked by Snohomish County’s Department of Parks.

Tho, there are people swearing they’ve seen Snohomish County’s Precision Bulldozing & Baton Twirling Team practicing in nearby Maltby.

Truth be told, the people saying that have attended many more County meetings than me.

…………….

Yesterday, I did a Park walk-around and composed the following ... 

... it’s OK, you don’t need sunscreen to look at them.

photos by Bill Stankus

August 10, 2014