Letter: Loss of Wellington Park

Editor's Note: The following letter was sent last week to the Snohomish County Parks Director.

Tom Teigen, Snohomish County Parks Director
6705 Puget Park Drive
Snohomish, WA 98296

Re:Loss of Wellington Park

Tom,

I am a long time resident of the Wellington Neighbourhood, which we were drawn to by the magnificent natural beauty and tranquility of the land and trees. Over the last 10 years, this proud neighbourhood has withstood continued pressure from land developers, in partnership with King and Snohomish Counties, to rezone and develop our beloved neighbourhood into another glorified suburb of Seattle, akin to Kirkland and other surrounding areas south of us.

Now, yet another potential threat has been proposed to our precious environment in the form of the development of the Wellington Park into a large multi purpose sports and recreational facility with a 750 car parking lot and 100,000 square feet of commercial building space. I am very concerned about these proposed plans.

Although we have children who are active in a variety of sports activities, as do many of my neighbours, I strongly am opposed to the development of such an intrusive sports facility which impacts the natural settings of our local community.

Old growth cedar trees in the Wellington Park are not only a symbol of natural beauty and home to many birds and animals, but serve as an important wind and sound protection to our neighbourhood. These trees will be destroyed when the clear cutting starts.

Noise, night light pollution, ground water run-off from the paved parking lots and artificial turf fields down the hillside to the salmon-bearing stream below in Little Bear Creek will detrimentally change the local environment forever.

Have you visited our community and seen our local country roads? We do not have the infrastructure to support the huge influx of automobiles that will descend upon the area once the proposed sports facility is completed.

I urge you to reconsider the proposed plans for the development of the sports facility and , instead, work towards a more environmentally well balanced development of the Wellington Park allowing the richness of the local area to survive.

Sincerely,

Lee Capell

Woodinville