Bellevue is ready to take action if the King County Council follows through with a draft regional solid waste transfer plan the city claims will cause traffic and self-hauling problems in Factoria.
The draft plan the county will soon be reviewing proposes to close the transfer station in Renton, as well as continuing its commitment to close the Houghton station in Kirkland. King County has a memorandum of understanding with the city to close Houghton — considered a blight in its residential setting — in 2023.
Bellevue is joined by a number of Northeast King County municipalities concerned the county’s conclusion that no other transfer stations need to be constructed to handle the increased usage at the Factoria station is based on flawed data.
“I don’t know why you would say that, when all you really have to do is remain silent,” Mayor Claudia Balducci said Monday night. She later described the idea of putting the lack of need for another transfer station in Northeast King County in writing as “political pandering at its worst.”
During a joint meeting of the Bellevue and Kirkland city councils on Monday, Eastside officials discussed collaborating to continue pushing King County to leave the option for another station on the table.
“We’ve said, ‘If we can find a site in Kirkland, we’ll have it,’” said Kirkland Councilmember Toby Nixon. “But not in Houghton.”
King County Councilmember Jane Hague told the Reporter Tuesday the solid waste division has a strategic plan for capital spending, however, transfer stations can cost as much as $160 million to construct. The draft plan includes analysis as to whether constructing another in Northeast King County is necessary, she said, adding a discussion by the county council is expected in June and a public hearing will be held before action is taken.
Bellevue was joined by eight of its neighboring cities in issuing a letter to King County Executive Dow Constantine, stating the draft report “is based on a combination of assumptions and strategies that are untested” and its regional support is “uncertain at best.”
Eastside cities are strongly questioning the county’s assumption that the region will reach a 70 percent recycling rate base by 2030. Residents won’t reach that prediction on their own, according to a letter from Bellevue City Manager Brad Miyake to Constantine on May 6. It may take mandatory collection requirements and reducing bulky waste fees in each city’s private hauling collection contract, the letter states.
“The 70% recycling goal assumption in and of itself is likely to require many more such actions by all cities, including mandates, bans and the funding of garbage ‘police,’” the letter continues. “There is no evidence and no assurances that cities will be willing to undertake such sweeping policy changes.”
Bellevue issued King County a conditional use permit in 2012 to construct a new Factoria recycling and transfer station north of the current site on the 13000 block of Southeast 32nd Street. That CUP did not address the impacts of King County’s new solid waste strategies, according to a letter from Bellevue Land Use Director Carol Helland to King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks Director Christie True on May 6.
The draft report proposes restricting times for self-hauling at the new station — expected to open up in less than a year — while also extending the hours the station is open to self-haulers each day. Those times spill into Factoria’s peak traffic periods between 4-6 p.m., according to Hellands letter, adding hundreds of trips. The draft report anticipates 230 weekday trips to the station will occur when the Houghton station closes, and 180 on Saturdays.
Should the county follow the draft report, the city will require a new CUP process be initiated to address traffic and environmental impacts based on an environmental impact statement. King County would also be anticipated to pay an updated traffic impact fee to the county of $5,000 per p.m. peak hour trip as of Jan. 16, 2016 if expanded usage needed to be approved at the Factoria station, according to Helland’s letter to True.
“The city will begin proceedings necessary to enforce the terms of the existing CUP approval should it become necessary,” Helland wrote of the city’s expectation the county comply with all necessary approvals and environmental reviews prior to expanding usage in Factoria.
“I don’t know how optimistic I am,” Balducci said of the county council changing its direction during Monday’s joint council meeting. “We’re coming to the end, so we always want to pick up the phone and try to have that conversation.”
