A recent mediation meeting with a grassroots, pro-tree advocacy organization, the City of Redmond and Group Health Cooperative resulted in continued disagreement over an approved plan to cut down more than 1,000 trees to make way for a 28-acre, mixed-use development in Overlake.

Now it’s up to a court of law to decide this one.

The plan has been opposed by a number of neighborhood groups, including the Sherwood Forest neighborhood group in Bellevue.

Local organization Sustainable Redmond, which filed a land-use petition in King County Superior Court in January seeking to block the plans, invited the representatives from the property owner, Group Health, and the City of Redmond to a mediation process last week, hoping to come up with a settlement before taking the issue to court.

That didn’t happen, according to a Monday press release by Sustainable Redmond.

“We were hoping for something to happen,” Robert Berg, co-chair of Sustainable Redmond told the Reporter on Monday. “It didn’t come to an agreement. We would like the Overlake Village neighborhood to have a legacy of valuing the trees that are there. There’s value in an urban forest.”

The parties met for nine hours April 23 during a meeting mediated by the Washington State Bar Association’s Land Use and Environmental Mediation Committee, according to the press release.

Berg said he, along with all the parties at the mediation, could not comment on what was said at the meeting. But he did say court action is Sustainable Redmond’s “only option right now” in its efforts to save at least some of the 1,050 “significant” trees from being cut down as part of the Redmond City Council-approved plans for the Group Health Overlake Village development. Significant trees are defined by the city as having a diameter of six inches or more at the height of four and a half feet above ground.

A county judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments of the case June 25.

City attorney James Haney confirmed in an email Tuesday that representatives from the city, Group Health and Sustainable Redmond did meet with mediators and that they were “unable to reach a settlement and will therefore be continuing litigation.”

Beyond that, Haney said any other information about the mediation is confidential and declined to comment.

The vacant property of the proposed development, located at 2464 152nd Ave. N.E., was previously the campus for Group Health Overlake Hospital before it closed in 2008. The property is bordered by the Microsoft, Corp. campus and is next to a proposed East Link light rail station. The Overlake Village plans include 10-12 apartment buildings, 1.4 million square feet of commercial space, a 180-room hotel and a 2.67-acre park with a connecting path.

Last December, the City Council approved Group Health’s Overlake Village plan, which includes an exception to a section of the city zoning code that requires developers to retain 35 percent of existing significant trees. Council member Kim Allen was the only dissenting vote in the Council’s 6-1 approval of the plan, which calls for removal of all trees on the site.

Berg said Sustainable Redmond is supportive of a plan for a transit-based, mixed-use development in Overlake, but the group members feel at least some of the trees can be saved.

The City Council approved the plan and the exception to its zone code at its Dec. 16, 2011 meeting, agreeing with Group Health that complete tree removal is necessary because tearing up the existing pavement would hurt the trees’ structural integrity and weaken their root systems.In addition, Group Health representatives have said removing only some of the trees would expose the remaining ones to potential damage from winds.

Sustainable Redmond has long argued that there is a way to avoid cutting down all the trees, but the current plans would have to be changed, according to Berg.

Plans call for building an open green space 2.67-acre park and an urban path that runs from the Microsoft campus to the light rail station.

Sustainable Redmond has proposed to the city and Group Health to move the park to the wooded area in the northwest corner of the property.

“We’re thinking they should move the park to the northwest corner, where there is already a dense stand of older timber,” Berg said. “The park would have a different feel to it. It would be more on the edge of the site and a lot of those trees could be retained.

“This corner of the parcel is where most of the landmark and significant trees are located, said co-chair Katherine Low in the press release.

“It’s astounding to me that an agreement could not be reached that would save some of those cherished evergreen trees on a site of this size,” Low said in the press release. “One of the options Sustainable Redmond has long supported is the exchange of a parcel intended for a manicured park space for an equivalently sized parcel where the highest density of landmark and significant trees are located. This option would have provided a small public oasis of stately trees in the midst of Overlake’s built environment.”

For more information about Sustainable Redmond, visit www.sustainableredmond.org.