Drafter
Clerk 06/14/2012
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AN ORDINANCE authorizing the King County executive to execute a twenty-year trails agreement with the city of Seattle to provide for the use by the county of certain real property owned by the city for the purpose of providing public recreational trails.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. King County is the home to one of the largest nonmotorized trail systems in the country. For forty years, the county has played a leadership role in developing and implementing the overall vision of a countywide regional trails system.
2. The King County Regional Trail System includes over one hundred and seventy-five miles of paved trail that are used to make millions of recreational and commute trips each year by bicyclists, walkers, hikers, skaters and equestrians.
3. Local trails complement this system and offer connections to the regional trail system.
4. Together, King County and other jurisdictions and agencies collectively offer approximately three hundred miles of multi-use paved and unpaved trails connecting urban and rural areas, linking communities and providing recreation and mobility options.
5. King County continues to work with other county agencies, local jurisdictions, Washington State and others to develop this trail network ensuring connectivity throughout the county.
6. The city of Seattle, acting by and through its Seattle Public Utilities Department, owns in fee real property located in King County and commonly referred to as the Tolt Pipeline Right of Way, the Lake Youngs Reservoir Perimeter, the West Seattle Right of Way at Duwamish Waterway, the Snoqualmie Valley/Rattlesnake Lake Connector Trail and the Cedar River Pipeline Drain Right of Way (collectively known as "the property").
7. While the primary purpose of the property is for the transmission and distribution of a public water supply, certain recreational uses are compatible and provide multiple public benefits.
8. In December 1973, King County and the city of Seattle entered into a twenty-five year agreement in which the city granted the county nonexclusive permission to use a portion of the Tolt Pipeline Right of Way for recreational trail purposes. That agreement expired in June 1998.
9. In March 1988, King County and the city of Seattle entered into a fifteen year permit agreement in which the city granted the county nonexclusive permission to use portions of the Lake Youngs Reservation Perimeter property for recreational trail use. That agreement expired in February 2003.
10. In 2009, King County and the city of Seattle commenced discussions to formalize permission for the county to continue to use the Tolt Pipeline Right of Way and Lake Youngs Reservation Perimeter property and to use other portions of the city's property known as the West Seattle Right of Way at Duwamish Waterway, the Snoqualmie Valley/Rattlesnake Lake Connector Trail and the Cedar River Pipeline Drain Right of Way for the construction, operation and maintenance of public recreational trails.
11. Approval of this trails agreement would formalize the permission and use of over twenty-five miles of regional trails in King County for twenty years.
12. The city of Seattle is willing to grant King County permission to use portions of its property for limited recreational trail purposes, subject to certain conditions and provided that such use does not unreasonably interfere with the city's use of the property for its water supply system or other necessary utility purposes.
13. In consideration for use of the property, King County will pay Seattle Public Utilities a maintenance fee per year and will in turn grant Seattle permission to use certain county property located at the north end of Rattlesnake Lake in the Cedar River watershed for a recreational trail and access road serving the Cedar River Watershed Educational Center.
14. The agreement is consistent with the 2010 King County Open Space Plan: Parks, Trails, and Natural Areas, the parks and recreation division's Business Plan focusing on the county's role as a regional trail provider and partnering with groups and jurisdictions to provide additional recreational opportunities, the current Regional Trails Needs Report, a legacy of regional trails plans and the King County Strategic Plan.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The King County executive is hereby authorized to execute an agreement with the city of Seattle, substantially in the form of Attachment A to this ordinance, granting King County permission to nonexclusive use of city-owned property for the purpose of providing public recreational trails.
SECTION 2. In partial consideration of the rights granted to King County under Attachment A to this ordinance, the King County executive is authorized to execute an agreement substantially in the form of the Rattlesnake Lake agreement attached as Exhibit G of Attachment A to this ordinance and granting the city permission to nonexclusive use of county property described in Exhibit G of Attachment A to this
ordinance for a Seattle Public Utilities trail and access road to the Cedar River Watershed Education Complex.
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