"Kempin Creek" - the city stream with a split personality. Part One.

OPINION: Part One: "Kempin Creek" is a salmon-bearing tributary of northern Bear Creek in NE Redmond. The creek first runs through 10 acres of developable county land called "Kempin Property" before entering North Redmond. (NE 128th Street near 176th Ave. NE are crossroads). This is the first of a two parts describing "the split personality" of Kempin Creek's biology as diagnosed by "qualified consultants" using Redmond's land use review process.

The Creek has an interesting land-use story. CAMWEST Development Inc. was pushing buttons really hard to get city approval to annex the 10 acres of Kempin Property. It's zoned one house/acre. CAMWEST wanted to build four houses/acre as close to the Creek as regulations allowed. They felt they would be less encumbered by the critical wetland and streams and road connections if they could build in the city by annexation rather than the county. The county classified Kempin Creek as a salmon species bearing creek requiring 165 foot buffers on each side. CAMWEST'S housing project would be less profitable if they had to build around wider county buffer standards.
It was possible CAMWEST could reduce stream buffer widths by more than half! All CAMWEST had to do was hire an "independent qualified biology consultant" to re-classify Kempin stream from 165 foot buffers to Redmond's 75 foot buffers. Not a problem. CAMWEST's "qualified biologist" claimed no fish inhabited Kempin Creek, thus the developer could build twice as close to the stream now!

At first glance, Kempin Creek looked to me like a fish-bearing (Class II) creek, to me. The King County Basin Steward - a qualified wildlife consultant - affirmed Kempin Creek had fish, proving the developer's project proposal to the city was flawed. The report was biased since the "qualified consultant" was paid by the developer. Some of you may have read my 4/07column about Kempin Creek in the newspaper when land use deficiencies were uncovered in the Kempin Property file, as follows:

• For one, CAMWEST consultant's complete report was no where to be found in the project files. Camwest's consultant faxed and emailed pieces of the report to the city after I reported the missing documents. I made multiple visits to Redmond Planning to extract the stream report. (Not being a developer with 5th amendment rights my right for a public record received second fiddle).
• Secondly: The city had a problem with SEPA, the State Environmental Planning document. The SEPA had determined the impact to the environment was insignificant. The State had been mislead by the developer's biologist's flawed report.
• The city's quandary: Starting all over again to fix a flawed SEPA would take weeks, if not months. The Director of Planning and Development came up with a brilliant solution. While rummaging through the SEPA file he noticed the required newspaper public notices were never published. Presto! the SEPA could be updated with Redmond's more salmon friendly Class II designation simply by advertising the public notice of the amended SEPA.

Many thanks to Mary Maier, County Stream Basin Steward for providing truly INDEPENDENT, qualified stream classification data on Kempin Creek; to help preserve Kempin's salmon habitat now and in future proposed land use. (The riverteen wetlands and poor stream vegetation Camwest reported along the river could supersede stream buffer regulations?)

In conclusion, the City Council never approved annexation of the Kempin Property. I remember Councilmember Richard Cole stating R-1 (one house or less/acre) is important to Redmond's "horse culture", now rare in Redmond. draft

Readers with similar county-city stream classification problems can contact the new Bear Creek - Sammamish - Cedar River Basin Steward for help. Tom Beavers is the new county Basin Steward. Resources are thin but he may be able to help or direct you to the resources you need.

Terrain Map of Kempin Property, Kempin Creek riparian vegetation. (Move the map up to orient 128th Street to the top' look for the ribbon of vegetation following the stream)

Existing and Recommended Zoning Map - map is on last page.

"Kempin Creek" is a name I use to describe it. The stream hasn't been named by the county or city or any other jurisdiction, as of this writing.

cc: Mr. R. Odle, Director of Planning and Development, City Council; The PlanningCommission@redmond.gov ; Cathy Beam, Environmental Principal Planner.

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