Friends of Marymoor Park

May 26th, 2004 Meeting Summary

-- see also the April 2004 meeting summary

1. Welcome and Introductions

2) Sammamish River Restoration – Willowmoor Reach – Nancy Faegenberg (KC Water and Land Resources Section)

Nancy began by stressing that they have had very good success with volunteer labor on all of their projects.

The Marymoor Remeander Project has now evolved into a Sammamish River restoration project within Marymoor Park, renamed Willowmoor Reach. This is a reconception of the original plan. Nancy then layed out some of the site history:

The Sammamish River is the essential connector for salmon going to all of the streams in the whole watershed area (Issaquah Creek, Bear Creek, North Creek, Swamp Creek). [Interestingly, she considers the weir to be separation line between Lake Sammamish and Sammamish River] In 1914, the Ship Canal project lowered Lake WA, which changed the dynamics of the Sammamish River. In the 1960s, the Corps of Engineers dredged and straightened the river, resulting in a leveed river. Since then, the “transition zone” below the weir has been mowed, to allow free movement of flood water. Same goes for levees. The upper layers of Lake Sammamish have elevated temperatures, and this is bad for the lake and for fish in the river.

Goals of the new project are to improve habitat conditions in upper river while maintaining flood control.

Accomplishments to date: Off-leash swim area & shore protection project and modification of weir.

Design objectives: Reestablish riparian corridor, reconnect wetland and tributary stream to river, improve instream habitat, increase aesthetics, add educational/interpretive opportunities.

Conceptual: · a wider area in the transition zone might allow mowing of the transition zone to be unnecessary. · possible high-flow spillway originating above weir.

Timeline · Conceptual Design Report 2003 · Project Scoping with input from partners and stakeholders, scientific studies – August 2004 · Preliminary Design – Fall 2004 · Review by partners and stakeholders – Winter 2004 · Permits and Design Revisions – Fall 2005 · Construction – Summer 2006

Corps of Engineers may have money (75%) for this kind of work, and are potentially interested in partnering on this project.

Est. cost - $1.4 Million.

For more information, contact Nancy Faegenburg, Project Manager, 206-296-8372, nancy.faegenburg@metrokc.gov  or Christina Faine, Public Outreach Specialist, 206-296-1951, Christina.faine@metrokc.gov

3. Rowing Club Projects

The parking project on hold due to separate issues that Redmond brought up during permitting. The county has asked to uncouple these issues and process the parking improvement permits now.

Boathouse enlargement project – currently 2 proposals moving forward – one at Idlewood, and one at Marymoor. SRA has permit pending with Redmond for Marymoor site.

The permit application differs from previous discussions within FOMP – the boathouse would be built on a new pad. Unclear what would happen to the old pad – would it be rehabilitated into wetland? Unclear if road would need to be widened.

The Idlewood site would be in addition to the Marymoor site. If Idlewood was approved, though, the Marymoor site might not be enlarged and/or enlargement would be scaled back.

SRA needs to clarify what the scenarios are.

4. Development Criteria – Kevin Brown

KC Council asked KC Parks to work with FOMP in development of criteria. Robert Foxworthy is heading up the subcommittee. The plan is based on activity zones, parallel to zones in 95 master plan. Goal is to come up with evaluation criteria for park development projects

5. Special Events and Dockdog update

DockDogs – had attendance of 6000 total over 3 days. Bad weather on Saturday, but the final was great.

Desi Mela is a tentative event, a south Asia cultural event (Indian, Pakistani, etc) that would be held at concert venue with amplified music (contemporary and traditional music). $15-$20 a ticket. June 20. Would include nationally known artists in their genre.

This year, Concerts@Marymoor is running only 10-11 concerts, so other things need to be scheduled…

Thursday, July 1st, somewhere around 10 a.m. there will be some disruption to traffic/access for a short time while Vietnam Memorial replica is escorted in. Will be set up west of velodrome, and it should be a fairly popular attraction. Will be lit at night.

The next meeting will be May 26, 2004.

These notes were made by the webmaster, Michael Hobbs, and they do not constitute an official record of the meeting.  They may have inaccuracies and omissions.  If anyone has any complaints about the content of these notes, they should direct them to Michael Hobbs at fomp@marymoor.org, and he will endeavor to correct them.