Neighbors Angry After Backhoe Plows Through Park Forest at Proposed Fire Station Site

Neighbors of are expressing concern and anger after a backhoe cut a muddy swath through the forest Tuesday in a corner of the 220-acre King County park at the proposed site of a new Kirkland fire station.

“I am concerned that this is moving forward without broad community knowledge,” said Patti Anderson, a member of the Denny Creek Neighborhood Alliance who lives nearby. “I feel protective of the contiguous forest up here. I’ve been waiting for a white signboard to go up at the site, and nothing, nothing, nothing.”

Fire Chief Kevin Nalder said Wednesday the backhoe crew was taking samples for a geological survey to determine how well the site drains, and said the first public hearing on the proposal to locate a new station in the park has been scheduled for March 8.

“We got an OK from the (King County) parks department to do the survey,” he said. “This is just to find out whether or not we can move forward. Once we know, we will be able to have an educated discussion with the public about whether or not we can even put a fire station there.”

The two-acre site on Finn Hill is in an unincorporated part of King County that will become part of the City of Kirkland on June 1, when an annexation vote approved last year takes effect. The city and Fire District 41, which provides service to the area but will cease to exist when annexation takes effect, have been negotiating for months with King County to acquire the site for a new station.

Fire officials want to sell two smaller stations on Finn Hill and consolidate them into one larger station, which they say will be better located to improve response time and cheaper to operate. Proceeds from the sale of the existing stations will pay for the new one.

Although there have not been any public hearings on the plan, some Finn Hill residents who know about it are questioning the propriety of locating a fire station in a public park.

“We're really concerned about the danger” of building a station at that location, said Judy Abdo, who lives nearby and walked through the bulldozed area Tuesday evening.

“This is a blind curve,” she pointing to winding and wooded Juanita Drive on one site of the site. “In winter when it’s cold, this is the iciest stretch on the hill.”

The backhoe cut several tracks through the site, which is at the intersection of Juanita Drive and NE 138th Place, and cleared two areas of perhaps 400 square feet each, apparently to dig for soil samples. Most of the native vegetation along the tracks was destroyed, and at one spot a track cut across a park trail popular among hikers and mountain bikers.

Also at the site Tuesday evening looking at the damage was cyclist Edward McCall, who said he lived nearby and had confronted earlier in the day the backhoe operator and another crewman, apparently a supervisor. He said they were impolite and he said the backhoe operator became hostile.

McCall said he questioned how they could be allowed to cause that kind of damage on public land with no apparent permit. He said the crew replied that they didn’t need a permit and that questions should be directed to fire and county officials.

However, King County spokesman Doug Williams said the county did issue a permit to Fire District 41 “to do test bores to see if the site is suitable, and it requires the site be restored to its original condition after the work.”

Jim Lloyd, a Fire District 41 commissioner who lives on Finn Hill, said he was unaware of the work before it happened but noticed it Monday as he drove by on Juanita Drive.

“It was a small track hoe, but I don’t exactly know what it was doing,” he said. “I do know it was part of the process of the site analysis. What we’re trying to do is definitely for the benefit of the public.”

Big Finn is an expansive park of mostly native coniferous forests, bisected by Juanita Drive and designated a regional park by the county, which will retain control when the area becomes part of Kirkland. It includes four developed baseball fields, a soccer field and playground. Big Finn's forests, along with those of the adjacent 400-acre Saint Edward State Park, still host blacktailed deer, bald eagles, hawks, owls, coyote, raccoons, Douglas squirrels and many other native species.

Fire officials say the county is insisting in the negotiations on the site that the city include in its plans a 20-car public parking lot. All of the parking areas for the park now are near the ballfields on the east side of Juanita Drive, while the fire station site and perhaps half of the park's forest are on the west side.

The first public hearing on the plan will be on Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m., at the Mormon Church on Finn Hill at the intersection of Juanita Drive and Northeast 132nd Street.

It's overdue, said Anderson.

"It feels to me like there's some secret stuff going on. I hope they don't intend that," she said. "It may be the best location for a fire station, but how would anybody know about it? There are concerns, and people need to be aware and talk about them."