The city of Bellevue is, uncharacteristically, about to do the wrong thing. Billed as a “City in a Park,” Bellevue has faithfully lived up to its motto…until now.
The history of Bellevue is paper thin. There’s Kelsey Creek Park, once a dairy farm/cattle ranch, and the coal mines of Newcastle and surrounding communities. Unless you count the strip malls dating to the 1950s, most of which have met with the wrecking ball, there is very little to point to and say; this is our history, this is how it all began.
Kelsey Creek Park, purchased by the city years ago, is preserved for future generations. The coal mining history of Coal Creek Natural Area, which played a major role in transforming Seattle from a village in the 1860s to a major seaport in the 1880s (www.newcastlewahistory.org), may soon disappear forever.
Isola Homes has proposed 35 single-family homes just above Coal Creek on a 12.3-acre parcel. City planners have recommended going forward with issuing permits.
This week’s Public Hearings could determine the fate of the scant remnants of this era on the Isola property -- a red barn, miner’s cabin #180, and surrounding acreage. Should the hearing examiner decide in favor of the developer, children and adults who might want to learn of local mining that fueled trains, steamships, and heavy industry up and down the west coast -- coal that literally launched Puget Sound commerce -- will never have the opportunity.
According to Eastside Heritage Center, from 1863 until 1963, English, Welsh, and Italian immigrants toiled shoulder to shoulder with Black miners from Missouri as well as Native Americans. Chinese laborers laid most of the railroad that hauled the coal, and Scandinavian loggers built 1200-foot-long trestles. The history of Coal Creek is American history representative of our traditional values of hard work, tolerance, and unity toward a common goal.
The proposed homes, far from jobs and services, will create car-dependent residents and toxic runoff that will flow into this salmon-spawning creek. It will block a crucial wildlife corridor between Cougar Mountain and the creek.
The sole reason to build homes in the middle of this green space is a quick profit for one developer. We must ask ourselves, “What are we about?” Are we about a quick profit, or are we about preserving history, protecting wildlife, and providing a window into the history of our community for generations of school children and adults?
If the permits are issued, this storied coal mining heritage could be permanently erased from our collective memory. It isn’t too late to halt the development. You may express your objections on Monday, February 27th, and again on Thursday, March 2nd, at City Hall during hearings to be held at 6 PM. Anyone who enjoys outings on Cougar Mountain is entitled to speak.
Most of the area has been formalized as public green space with King County’s Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park and Bellevue’s Coal Creek Natural Area. Carving it up to make room for a mere 35 homes serves a minuscule number and denies countless others, including wildlife, the opportunity to enjoy the space as an enduring trove of local and natural history.
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