County Protects Critical Habitat
The Snohomish County Council authorized the purchase of approximately 11.8 acres of property, referred to as the King site, on Wednesday.
"This property purchase provides habitat protection and restoration within middle Little Bear Creek," said Councilmember Dave Gossett. "The plan is to also to provide community access opportunities to this important area."
The owners of the property, Mark and Gina King, agreed to sell their property to the county for $266,000. This purchase price is the 2010 assessed value of the property. The cost of this transaction will be paid out of the $70 million in mitigation funding from King County's mitigation for the Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant.
On October 17, 2005, the Snohomish County Council approved a Settlement Agreement and Release with King County regarding construction of the Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Facilities (Brightwater) in Snohomish County. A condition of that agreement was that King County agreed to provide Snohomish County $70,000,000 to mitigate the impact of the Brightwater facility on surrounding communities. Funding was provided for a variety of projects including recreational facilities, public safety improvements, habitat mitigation and a Community Resource Center located at the Brightwater facility.
"This is only one of a series of purchases to protect habitat and provide public access with Brightwater funds," noted Gossett. "Road and park projects are also proceeding to serve the community."
The county has a Brightwater Habitat Mitigation budget of $10,800,000, of which $4,216,000 has been spent and $6,584,000 remains. A total of 90 acres of habitat have been acquired for habitat preservation purposes with more purchases planned for 2011.
