Green Valley Road begins just east of the Neeley Mansion on Southeast Auburn-Black Diamond Road and from there twists and winds past houses, farms and fields, its serpentine coils enfolding grazing horses, sheep cattle and other beasts of the field.
People who live along that bucolic stretch of road as well as the people who take Sunday drives along it and the people who bike and motorcycle it would like to keep things the way they are.
But Kirkland-basesd BD Village Partners, proponents of a 4,800-home development in Black Diamond called “The Villages”, is now proposing to build a connector road all the way from its front door to SE Green Valley Road east of Flaming Geyser State Park.
The prospect of dumping hundreds more cars per day onto Green Valley Road, which sees more than its share of accidents every year, has galvanized people who don’t want the connector road there to stop it from being built.
Twenty-five people came to Flaming Geyser State Park on Monday evening to talk about something they believe would wreck one of King County’s true gems.
Among the worried is State Sen. Pam Roach, who lives on Green Valley Road, not far from Flaming Geyser State Park. She called the road “wonderful.”
“That’s why people take Sunday drives,” Roach said, “that’s why they go bike riding out here. It would be terribly dangerous to dump a lot of traffic onto this.”
According to the BD Village Partners’ master plan development application filed with the City of Black Diamond on July 29, 2009, The Villages would encompass 1,196 acres southwest of the city and include residential, retail commercial offices, three schools and 775,000 square feet of retail and offices. The total resident count is projected at 10,000 to 12,000 people, and it’s a given that many would have cars.
The Villages would consist of two subareas: the main property and the north property. The main property is located south of Auburn Black Diamond Road and west of SR 169. The north property is located on the west side of SR 169, two miles north of the main property and north of Southeast 312th Street, if it is extended. A draft environmental impact statement is being prepared and a public hearing will be held later this fall.
Troublesome road
Gerold Mittlestadt, who has lived on Green Valley Road since 1993, said he has seen the effects on the road of increased traffic, including cars, trucks, school buses and bikers. He said Flaming Geyser State Park’s entrance and exit is located at the bottom of a bad section of the road, and noted that the entrance and exit to Cadman Sand and Gravel is located at the SR 169 corner with Green Valley Road.
“Anyone that has traveled Green Valley Road would not or could not support the idea of traffic entering and exiting The Villages, Mittlestadt wrote in a letter to the City of Black Diamond on Aug. 31. “Green Valley Road is very limited to expansion due to two miles of cliff and slide areas, blind curves and Flaming Geyser Park activity.”
Mittlestadt said that a traffic light would not solve the accident probability because of the blind corner south of SR 169. He said that during the last 16 years he has seen several deer and elk hit by cars and trucks and one motorcycle. He recalled how a Cadman Ready Mix truck tipped over coming around a curve near the entrance to Flaming Geyser State Park.
“… The thought of the Green Valley Road option should more than convince all technical and non technical experts that the access to SR 169 should be accomplished by a road directly from inside The Villages development,” Mittlestadt concluded.
Green Valley Road resident Jay McElroy spoke up.
“If we do nothing, it’s almost guaranteed that we will have that new road that empties that new town onto Green Valley Road near your front yard, and with that we are going to have everything we’re talking about: a lot more people, traffic lights and congestion.”
Roach has set up a blog at: savegreenvalleyroad.blogspot.com.
