Keep Soos Creek Trail Inside Park Boundaries

Keep Soos Creek Trail

inside park boundaries

-- Soos Creek Park extends from Lake Meridian to 192nd Street (6.25 miles). The trail runs from Lake Meridian to 208th Street and is constructed in a manner that keeps it away from homes and off streets. Because of this, you move through a variety of terrains - from uplands to forested wetlands. These wetlands offer recreational and educational experience for anyone using the trail.

Why at this time does King County Parks want to change the design of the trail by taking the trail out of the park boundaries, on a busy arterial, through two subdivisions using neighborhood streets and close to many homes? The county's response to this question is that it cannot construct a trail through the wetlands.

To that response, I have a couple of things to say. First, they have constructed the trail through the wetlands - in an environmentally safe manner - giving us access to an environment that we normally could not see. Second, in November we voted in Proposition 2 (Open Space Bond - $117 million) for the purpose of acquiring wetlands for preservation and construction of trails, offering us recreational and educational opportunities. With this in mind, I feel King County Parks is taking the easy way out - by using the streets.

I have walked through the section of the park (on the west side of the creek) they have decided not to use, and it is a beautiful forested area. This area, with Western Red Cedars, does not stand in water like the previous phase just completed from 224th Street to 208th Street. By keeping this section of the trail within the park, you would maintain the quality that has been accomplished in the past. Unlike the proposed east side route, the west side could support both an equestrian and paved trail. Therefore, providing a true multi-use trail system.

I urge King County Parks to keep the trail within the park and to keep Soos Creek Trail a rich, aesthetic experience.

- Dan Steffy, Renton