Recap: Special King County Council Meeting on the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill

Your Update on What's Happening at the King County Council  

A large crowd at the March 20th special meeting of the King County Council

Dear Friends:

This week the King County Council’s special meeting in Renton attracted a big crowd as residents who live near the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill lined up to give their testimony on how landfill operations impact their day-to-day lives. Approximately 250 community members attended, with almost 80 offering pubic testimony.

On April 1^st, the King County Council is scheduled to vote on the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, which could expand the landfill and keep it operating for up to an additional 20 years. As it stands, and as I indicated at the meeting, I intend to vote against this plan. I would like to see a real roadmap to finally closing the landfill for good, and serious discussion of alternative options for waste management.

In the meantime, I am working to craft amendments to the plan which, if passed, could mitigate some of the issues related to the landfill.

To everyone who attended the meeting: thank you. I pushed hard to make this meeting happen, because it’s important for the full Council to hear your stories so we can all work for solutions. I would like to thank the Council Chair, Rod Dembowski, for arranging to hold the meeting in Renton. If you were unable to attend, you can still email your comments to the full Council at council@kingcounty.gov. I will continue to advocate for your interests as deliberations move forward.

Sincerely,

Reagan Dunn

Roads Update: All lanes open at 140th Ave SE & SE Petrovitsky Road in Fairwood

SE Petrovitsky Road looking east from the south side

Good news for residents of Fairwood: after being delayed by weather conditions, road crews have completed the long-awaited installation of new curbing at 140^th Ave SE & SE Petrovisky Road by the Fairwood Shopping Center. This means all lanes are open and traffic can flow freely. This new curbing improves traffic flow and safety by preventing unsafe left turns, which had led to numerous complaints to my office. 

Mountains to Sound Greenway gains National Heritage Area Status

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn with former Congressman Dave Reichert and former Senator Slade Gorton in Washington, DC to advocate for the Mountains to Sound Greenway

I was so pleased that earlier this month, the President approved a sweeping public lands bill that included the designation of a 1.5 million acre landscape along the I-90 Corridor—the Mountains to Sound Greenway—as a National Heritage Area.

The conservation of the Greenway is an issue that is near to my heart. In April of last year, I traveled to D.C. to advocate for National Heritage Area status. In 2012, I introduced a motion in the Council seeking this designation of the Greenway from Congress, which saw unanimous support. After all this time of pushing and hoping for this result, it’s gratifying to know that the natural landscape I grew up exploring with my mom and brother will be preserved, so that my children will be able to explore the same land with their kids one day.