City to purchase land from King County to build stormwater pond

Published 2:45 pm Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Metropolitan King County Council voted at its Monday meeting to authorize the sale of property along Northeast Union Hill Road to the City of Redmond.

It was an 8-0 vote with one member — Dave Upthegrove — absent from the meeting. A public hearing was also offered at the meeting, but there were no volunteers to provide input.

The piece of land is 1.41 acres and located at 19101 N.E. Union Hill Rd. just outside of the city. It will be used for a stormwater pond, which will take up about 1.2 acres of the land, said Eric Dawson, construction project manager for the city.

Jon Spangler, a construction division manager for the City of Redmond, said the pond is part of the city’s regional plan for Southeast Redmond. The pond will take care of stormwater and improve water quality and flow control as the area redevelops, he said.

Dawson said the cost of the 1.41-acre plot of land is $1.013 million. In addition to the price of the land, he said there is also the cost of the pond’s construction, which is estimated to be about $1.55 million. To help fund the pond’s construction, the city received a grant for $937,500 from the Washington State Department of Ecology.

King County council member Kathy Lambert, who represents areas around Redmond, said things have been straightforward with the sale. She said the city approached the county about purchasing the land and “(they) said yes.”

Lambert said the pond is a City of Redmond project and the county did not have plans to construct anything on the land. However, she said, both residents and businesses nearby will benefit from the pond as it is a better place for water to go and there will be less flooding in the area.

Lambert added that whenever cities or neighboring jurisdictions ask the county for help, they always try to do what they can for them.

Dawson said the project is part of a bigger, three-part construction project that will widen Northeast Union Hill Road in that area. The dollar amounts above are specific to just the purchase of the land and construction of the pond.

The widening project stretches along the road from 188th Avenue Northeast to 192nd Avenue Northeast. Spangler said the city and county have already widened the road on either side of this portion of road.

“This is the missing piece in the middle,” he said.

Dawson said if everything goes as planned, the city will probably begin construction of the pond in February 2015.

Spangler added that they hope to have the pond operational by June 2015.