Maple Valley is looking for a big, bold idea, but there are some who believe it is right under the City Council’s nose in the Legacy Site.

Some volunteers who spent more than four years working on the Legacy Site Citizen Advisory Committee feel the city is missing an opportunity to develop the property, which is a large stand of trees with rough trails running through it. The site fronts Maple Valley Highway, backs up to Lake Wilderness and is across the street from the Tahoma School District headquarters.

Maple Valley bought the property for $6.7 million in 2000, and the citizens’ committee formed in 2001. Sue VanRuff, who was vice chairwoman of the committee, noted that the council gave the group its charge prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, so the outlook was somewhat different.

“The economics was a sticking point in 2001, and it’s a sticking point now,” said VanRuff, who’s the executive director of the Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce.

Twice a month, the committee met in addition to hosting town hall meetings to gather public input. On June 27, 2005, it gave the council its recommendations. The council asked for a specific site plan, but the committee members felt it was best to provide guiding concepts and let the final details of a site plan be up to a developer when it came to that point.

It was a 20-year plan, VanRuff said, that the committee suggested be implemented in phases. Half the site would be left as open space while the other half could be developed.

“The building footprints were rather small, so there would be balance,” VanRuff said. “We went in thinking the site would be the standard for the city. Done correctly, it was going to influence everything to the south.”

The vision developed by the committee was for a gathering place much like the ones it had seen when visiting other cities like University Place (in Pierce County) and Bainbridge Island.

‘Slow’ progress

Debbie Malone has participated in the Legacy Site and sub-area planning committees. And, as a Chamber of Commerce representative on the city’s Economic Development Committee (EDC), she understands “the vision” that the EDC and the city Planning Commission “are trying to move forward on with regard to the sub-area plan,” Malone said. “The council has been slow to get on board with this plan, and I don’t think everyone is there yet. I’m pleased with the ideas behind the sub-area plan but extremely frustrated with the two-steps-forward, five-steps-backwards progress that has taken place. I respect the council’s need for due diligence, but they are reluctant to take action once committees have made recommendations.”

Malone would like council members to have more faith in the work by both the Legacy committee and the EDC.

“They don’t seem to trust the recommendations, and then other priorities take away the valuable time necessary to fully understand them,” Malone said. “The longer it takes to move forward, even with the small steps, the more momentum is lost. We’ve seen this with the Legacy Site. One of our recommendations was that doing nothing with the site was the worst thing the council could do, yet that’s exactly where we are today.”

Committee members wanted the site to be home to a permanent city hall, shops, maybe a boutique hotel or possibly a weekly farmers market – a place people could spend time at that would be more than just a place to get the bare essentials.

“What we wanted to see happen hasn’t happened,” VanRuff said.

In February 2006, then-city manager Anthony Hemstad said Maple Valley officials were looking to take the recommendations submitted by the Legacy Site committee and begin to run with them, with the possibility of seeing development of the site begin within three years. At the same time, the city was beginning work on its Four Corners sub-area plan for the south section of the city, which took in the Legacy Site.

City officials and the council wanted to incorporate the committee’s recommendations into the sub-area planning process – which is nearing completion now – and look at how to integrate the Legacy Site with Lake Wilderness, as well as tie into the economic viability of Four Corners.

Officials anticipate that the Four Corners plan would be adopted in February 2009. The purpose of that plan was to create a blueprint for future development, both commercial and residential, in the southern area of the city to good footing economically before it hit residential buildout. There are 20,020 residents in Maple Valley, and city officials expect buildout to be 26,000 at most.

Much of the work, though, that the EDC and the Planning Commission have put into the sub-area plan is repetitive, according to members of the Legacy Site committee.

“Our frustration is with the redundancy in the work the EDC is doing now,” VanRuff said. “Had that been done, all the conversations the EDC is having now would be resolved.”

Think big

In July, the council, the Planning Commission and the EDC met with experts during a developers’ forum hosted by Maple Valley. Out of the meeting came a concept that Paul Keller, principal with Urban Partners, offered to the city: A “big, bold idea.” Since then, the concept has appeared on City Council agendas for discussion, much to the chagrin of those who worked on the Legacy Site committee.

“I’m pretty darn disappointed,” said Bill Woodcock, committee chairman. “The big, bold idea was the Legacy Site. Look at that book (of recommendations). They already have the big, bold idea. It’s like they want to talk about it more than they want to get it done.”

Woodcock is concerned that the council went in the wrong direction with the sub-area plan, calling it “futile.”

“I have to be on board with the sub-area plan,” he said. “But they need to do a whole area plan. They should have done a full city plan. Looking at one piece of the city is a good idea after the vision for the entire city is done.”

VanRuff cut the council slack, acknowledging that there has been a lot on City Hall’s plate the past few years with issues like the “donut hole,” the land-use and annexation discussion with King County.

“The council is high-centered. They want to do the right thing,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for the council. This is very hard.”

Councilman Noel Gerken understands the frustration of the members of the Legacy committee, as he served on it. But he also can see the council’s perspective, he said.

“Part of the reasoning is to wait and see how the sub-area plan comes out,” Gerken said. “And I kind of agree but the clock is ticking. We are doing something with the Legacy Site. It’s not like nothing is happening.”

But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like to see the process move forward, he added.

“I would like us to get done with the sub-area plan and then start our plan and get with property owners and developers and generate interest,” Gerken said. “The whole idea is to try and increase development in that part of the city so we can have the services and retail that we don’t have. And also provide community gathering places (such as) Kent Station – some place that you want to go to hang out. We don’t have anything like that here.”

Malone encouraged the council to continue making progress on the sub-area plan and bring the Legacy Site recommendations with that.

“It takes vision and leadership to see what an incredible opportunity we have, and then serious diligence to really stand up and push it to reality,” she said. “I have had the honor and privilege to participate over the last six years, but without true council support, it can seem like wasted time.”

Malone said “positive movement on the part of a few council members has been seen recently, so maybe we can take a couple steps forward. My hope is that the council will get behind the Planning Commission and the EDC and let the sub-area plan move forward.”

VanRuff said a good place to start would be to review the citizen committee’s recommendations from more than three years ago.

“In a perfect world, I would like to see something happen on the Legacy Site,” she said. “Let our report stand as a catalyst for development. Let it be the big, bold idea.”

Staff writer Kris Hill can be reached at (425) 432-1209 (extension 5054) and khill@reporternewspapers.com

Covington Reporter News Kris Hill can be reached at khill@reporternewspapers.com or (425) 432-1209, ext. 5054.

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