To the Burien City Council, Burien City Planning, Community Development Director, planning committee

To the Burien City Council, Burien City Planning and Community Development Director - Liz Stead, Senior Planner - Chaney Skadsen, and Burien Planning Commission, I am writing to submit my formal opposition of the industrial rezone designation to the "North of NERA" area. I am formally requesting a change to the more environmentally and equitably compatible designation, of Residential Mixed-Use Commercial. ​While the Burien 2044 Comprehensive Plan Update currently flags the North of NERA area for future job capacity, a standard industrial rezone is poorly suited for the neighborhood's unique physical and social realities. Under Washington’s Growth Management Act, cities must balance regional employment targets with environmental protection. Because the area between South 128th and South 138th Streets contains significant environmental assets regulated by Burien’s Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO), including possible local wetlands and the headwaters of Miller Creek, traditional warehouse or heavy industrial layouts face severe physical and legal development constraints under BMC 19.40.120. ​Rather than forcing an incompatible industrial framework onto a neighborhood composed of over 260 existing family homes, the City Council should amend the land-use designation from "Industrial" to Neighborhood Commercial / Residential Mixed-Use. The transition to a mixed-use model allows Burien to satisfy state-mandated growth through small-scale commercial enterprises, creative spaces, and middle-housing infill. This alternative protects multi-generational residential character, maintains strict environmental buffers for our fragile local waterways, and avoids the displacement or hardships of current and surrounding residents, proving that economic development does not require neighborhood destruction. ​The City must abandon the industrial designation for this site due to six insurmountable environmental, structural, and equitable conflicts: ​1. Direct Violation of Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) Regulations ​ The target area sits directly over a highly vulnerable Critical Aquifer Recharge Area. Under Burien’s environmental framework, land uses that involve hazardous materials, heavy fleet maintenance, or toxic chemicals are heavily restricted because any surface spill poses an immediate threat to the groundwater supply. Forcing an industrial zone onto a protected aquifer creates a public health liability that directly contradicts the state and city’s environmental protections, as well as Burien's own guiding vision of equitable and sustainable development. ​2. Stream Buffer Mathematics Make Industrial Footprints Impossible ​A documented Type NS Stream runs directly through the North of NERA proposed rezone area and serves as a tributary to the Miller Creek Corridor. Notably, the Port of Seattle Commission recently finalized an $800,000 funding agreement toward a $3.5 million joint interlocal project to restore a segment of Miller Creek in Burien and SeaTac, replacing a failing culvert and creating 450 feet of new salmon habitat along Des Moines Memorial Drive. (https://www.portseattle.org/news/port-seattle-finalizes-800000-funding-miller-creek-restoration - Perry Cooper(Port of Seattle - Media Officer -cooper.p@portseattle.org) ​The documented Type NS Stream that runs directly through this zone, serves as a tributary to the Miller Creek Corridor and has stringent and clear protections. Burien’s CAO mandates a strict "no net loss" of ecological function, utilizing the Site Potential Tree Height (SPTH) model to calculate non-buildable buffers along waterways. Industrial logistics and light-industrial facilities and warehouses require massive, unbroken concrete foundations and wide truck-turning radiuses. The winding layout of this tributary and its mandatory riparian buffers physically fragment the land, making it impossible to construct standard industrial footprints without violating local development standards and state environmental laws regarding impermeable surface limits. ​3. Downstream Stormwater Threat to Salmon-Bearing Miller Creek ​Replacing natural soil with acres of industrial asphalt will completely disrupt local hydrology with the lack of permeability. The resulting toxic stormwater runoff carrying oil, heavy metals, and tire dust, will flow directly into the Type NS tributary or enter via interconnected groundwater. Because Miller Creek is a protected, active salmon-bearing waterway, allowing industrial development in the North of NERA area directly undermines Burien’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) goals, which explicitly mandate the protection of regional watersheds and the prevention of downstream fragile fish habitat degradation. ​4. Unresolved Chronic Flooding and Unfinished Drainage Study Mandates ​During the City Council review of the Otak Flood Reduction Notes on October 13, 2021 (see attached document below), professional engineering data from this City funded study, clearly established that this target area suffers from severe, chronic flooding that the city's current infrastructure cannot handle. According to the data analyzed under Alternative 9 and the preferred Alternative 13, the surrounding stormwater network requires extensive, multi-million-dollar regional remediation before any additional capacity can be safely introduced. ​The Otak study outlines strict technical prerequisites that must be physically implemented upstream and downstream to prevent catastrophic neighborhood flooding: ​- Conveyance and Detention Demands: The preferred mitigation framework (Alternative 13) explicitly requires major conveyance improvements from S. 124th Street through S. 136th Street, alongside stream and wetland enhancements to mitigate increased flow rates and potentially the need for a new detention facility. ​- The Secondary Alternative Impact: Even the secondary choice (Alternative 9) dictates a massive 9-acre-foot storage requirement for a 5-foot-deep detention facility in North SeaTac Park just to offset current chronic neighborhood flooding. ​The city cannot logically approve a industrial rezone which inherently replaces permeable soil with vast expanses of non-permeable concrete slabs, before these regional stormwater capital improvement projects are fully funded, constructed, and operational. Introducing massive industrial runoff into a critical basin that is already failing is a recipe for severe public infrastructure failure and downstream/upstream property flooding. ​5. Severe Road Infrastructure Limitations ​An industrial zone at this location will inevitably spill heavy freight and semi-truck traffic onto the adjacent grid. S. 128th Street and its connecting north/south side streets are narrow, residential roadways completely lacking the deep structural reinforcement needed to support continuous heavy axle loads. Introducing industrial freight here will cause expedited asphalt failure, threaten underground utility and drainage lines, and create severe, unacceptable safety and possibly sinkhole hazards for the families walking, driving, and living in this neighborhood. ​6. Destruction of Residential Property Rights and Financial Viability ​Imposing an industrial delineation on the North of NERA/Cedarhurst neighborhood area creates immediate, devastating financial hurdles for the surrounding residential neighborhood. Lending institutions maintain incredibly strict lending guidelines for residential homes caught inside or directly bordering industrial designations. Imposing the drastic change to "Industrial" zoning designation, will effectively freeze the ability of current residents in the North of NERA/ Cedarhurst Neighborhood (and possibly the bordering Boulevard Park Neighborhood) to refinance existing mortgages and strip away access to affordable homeowners insurance, if they can secure coverage at all. ​Furthermore, labeling these properties as "legal nonconforming", does not just hinder, but strips away the right to build equitable and affordable housing additions, such as Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). It completely destroys the traditional resale market possibly limiting current residents (and possibly surrounding residents) to predatory, below-market all-cash offers and prevents families from rebuilding their homes in the event of a natural catastrophe. Rezoning to Industrial instead of a Residential Mixed-Use Commercial designation is unnecessarily detrimental, especially when standard industrial use cannot physically or legally clear the environmental hurdles on this land. ​Conclusion ​Because this land contains a protected aquifer, an active stream tributary, inadequate street infrastructure, and unresolved flooding in a salmon-bearing stream basin requiring massive, unimplemented regional drainage fixes, it is a textbook example of land that is entirely incompatible with heavy industrial use. ​I urge the Planning Commission and City Council to: 1. Update the official Critical Areas map to accurately reflect the complete water conveyance/ Type NS Stream network. 2. Actively inform the public regarding the scope, constraints, and prerequisites identified in the Otak drainage study. ​3. Prioritize and implement funding solutions for the professional recommendations outlined in Otak's Alternative 13 framework. If these regional fixes cannot be fully funded before a rezone, the city must establish a binding infrastructure plan that requires investor buy-in to mitigate environmental impacts to Miller Creek and prevent worsening flood conditions in the Cedarhurst and Boulevard Park communities. ​4. Remove the "Industrial" designation from the North of NERA project area and implement a low-impact, Residential Mixed-Use Commercial designation instead. ​These measures are absolutely necessary to uphold the overarching, legally mandated objectives of Burien's Comprehensive Plan, particularly as they relate to equitable, sustainable, and environmentally sound development. ​Thank you for your time, and please include this formal statement in the official public record, and include the attached documents. Sincerely, Your Constituents Boulevard Park - Burien Please watch this video of Otak study presentation to council on 2021-10-25 (2021-10-25 BCC OTAK presentation and 2021-10-25 BCC OTAK presentation Q&A) Presentation: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uoml1xve3jzp26hplfqs8/2021-10-25-BCC-OTAK-presentation.mp4?rlkey=s64lqrb5smgkzpnvv4dibrivh&st=6y48eq9l&dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yvej6uvcleeqrib1x71yj/2021-10-25-BCC-OTAK-presentation-Q-A.mp4?rlkey=g13g55a3d0o1vm3mx6a78qfjz&st=7svg3iit&dl=0 Please see the attachment of page 16 (66861.jpg) of the "20260211 Draft Existing Conditions Zoning Limitations" where it mentions there is no streams present, but this is incorrect, and needs to be updated to reflect the presence of a Type NS Stream that was mapped by Otak in their 2021 hydrology study that was commissioned by the City of Burien to reduce flooding.