HomeMy WebLinkAboutC_Compton Comments.pdfFrom: Jill Ding
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2018 6:57 AM
To: 'Alison Crompton'
Subject: RE: 38th street short plat
Alison,
Thank you for your comments, you have been added as a party of record for this project and your
comments have been added to the official land use file for consideration by the decision maker. You
expressed concerns regarding the number of trees to be removed as well as the number of new lots
proposed, these are both items that the City will consider during its review of the project. Please find a
link to the project file below, you will find in the Submittal Documents folder access to all the
information the applicant has submitted to the City regarding this proposal:
https://edocs.rentonwa.gov/documents/1/fol/1325130/Row1.aspx
Thanks,
Jill Ding
Senior Planner
City of Renton
Community and Economic Development
6th floor
1055 S Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057
425-430-6598
jding@rentonwa.gov
From: Alison Crompton [mailto:acrompton44@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2018 3:11 PM
To: Jill Ding <JDing@Rentonwa.gov>
Subject: 38th street short plat
Hi Jill,
Can you send me the latest plan submitted for the 38th street short plat? I have gone out to the
City of Renton Document Website but I only seem to be able to get to the Project Description
that was included in the Hot Pink notice attached the sign by the property.
Please also add me to the distribution list regarding updates for this development.
Can you also share whether the various reports requested - Arborist, environmental, Drainage,
environmental, etc. have just been requested or have those been completed? Is it possible to see
the reports?
The Project Description states that only 17/102 trees on the lot will be preserved. I just lived
through this with the Carpenter Short Plat where they scraped the entire lot which was full of
mature trees and only preserved 3 sets of trees adjacent to Lincoln Ave. They then planted a
handful of barely 2" diameter trees directly under the power line parallel to Lincoln Ave.
38th Street Short Plat is also full of beautiful mature trees, especially on the east side as the
property slopes to the drop off as well on the south side where the private drive for carpenter
short plat and my property traverses. All of those trees create a natural border as well as natural
fence between the properties. It would be tragedy to allow the developer to take all of those
down and not replace them or replace them with trees that will take 30-40 years to reach the
maturity of what is there today. I spoke with someone at City of Renton recently that told me that
the City was taking a firmer stand with developers to NOT allow them to scrape the land for their
convenience but rather require them to find a way to preserve as many large, mature trees as
possible as those trees are essentially irreplaceable. I am hoping that is true but 17 out of 102
trees doesn't sound like that.
Currently, the view from my property is a beautiful line of mature trees all lining the south
border of the 38th Street Short plat. When I bought my property, I did not expect that all of those
beautiful trees would be leveled and replaced with a higher density, 2 story, 8 unit development
which will absolutely devalue and destroy the privacy and pristine nature of my property.
- How can I find out what trees exactly are identified to be kept?
- Is there any way to require the developer to not remove the mature trees at least around the
outer boundary/perimeter of the short plat? This would at least preserve the view and privacy for
the surrounding neighbors and certainly would be the best thing for my property and the new
proposed homes that are currently identified to be literally 20' from my driveway.
Lastly, I am concerned about the proposal for 8 units. This neighborhood actually is populated
with larger homes on nice size lots. The Newcastle Ridge development just west of the 38th
street short plat is the ONLY higher density development in the area. Even the new homes that
are nearing completion just further west and north of Newcastle Ridge are on larger lots. And the
homes all along Lincoln Ave NE and south of 38th street are also on larger lots.
8 units on lots that are 5000-6500 sq ft is inconsistent with the overall look and feel of the entire
neighborhood. It will only be similar to Newcastle Ridge which already was inconsistent with
the neighborhood. While all of the surrounding neighbors recognize these large lots owned by
older homeowners are being bought by developers, we all hoped that any development would be
consistent with the adjacent homes instead of just an opportunity for developers to maximize
their profits by cramming as many houses as possible on the land. It will also increase the impact
to the adjacent neighbors from a parking and traffic perspective. Lincoln ave NE as well as what
is proposed for the neighborhood are not overly wide streets. With a density of 8 units assuming
at least 2-3 occupants per home, we will go from 1 car to 16-24 cars regarding traffic and
additional street parking. The 3 homes approved for the Carpenter Short Plat seems like an
consistent number and lot size for the area. It maintains the look and does not dramatically
impact the traffic in any way. The proposal for the 38th Street Plat is not that way.
Regardless of whether they can "fit" 8 homes on that plat, please consider the surrounding
neighborhood. The rest of us who live adjacent to the property bought our homes relatively
recently. We plan on living in our homes for a long time. We care tremendously what happens to
this short plat as it directly affects each one of us. None of us expected to now have 8 units
across the street from us completing changing the value and dynamic of our property and the
area. We are excited about new, lovely homes that have the potential to maintain the aesthetic of
the area while preserving what we have.
I strongly encourage you to reduce the number of homes that are approved for this short plat so
that it is consistent with carpenter short plat, the homes directly across the street on 38th street
and myself. I hope that you can support the homeowners over the developer as you consider
plans for the short plat.
Thank you so much for your support,
Alison Crompton
3623 Lincoln Ave NE
Renton, WA 98056