The Donut Hole is a 156 acre rural unincorporated island in the heart of Maple Valley. It is owned by King County.
The County is poised to redesignate and rezone this area as urban so it can sell it to private developers to build 1,200 - 2,200 housing units in the midst of Maple Valley.
The City is concerned that, so far, the County has allowed no City control to plan how the area should fit in with the surrounding City community, and there are no provisions to mitigate or pay for the impacts additional population will have on Maple Valley's roads, parks and other local facilities and services.
The City is continuing to work to gain a voice in the future of the Donut Hole. We welcome your help!
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The City of Maple Valley is striving to ensure there is a local voice in determining the future of 156 acres in the heart of Maple Valley. We invite your help!
The Donut Hole is a 156 acre rural unincorporated island that is in the geographic heart of Maple Valley. It is unique in Washington as the only rural island entirely surrounded by a single city. Until now, because the land has been outside the urban growth boundary, per the state Growth Management Act the City of Maple Valley has not been able to plan future growth on this land.
The land use and zoning of this large area in Maple Valley is owned and controlled by another government - King County. King County is pursuing action right now that will affect how that property is developed.
In June, 2007, the County adopted King County Ordinance 2007-0350 allowing the County Executive to bypass an open competitive sale of the Donut Hole, and authorized the Executive to negotiate a land swap and sale directly with Yarrow Bay Development. King County recently announced it would be going out for a RFP for the property.
Historically, King County's Department of Transportation has used part of the Donut Hole for a maintenance shop and as a gravel pit, and has leased out the remainder for nine holes of the Elk Run Golf Course. For the past decade King County's presence in the donut hole has been that of a good neighbor - and that is appreciated.
The land's existing designation is rural with a mineral extraction overlay that allows one home per twenty acres. That's eight homes for the entire Donut Hole. Without a mineral extraction overlay on the Donut Hole, the existing underlying zoning is RA-5, allowing just one home per five acres.
The density and type of development that King County allows on the Donut Hole will drive its value when sold. The County has proposed a Comprehensive Plan Amendment that would redesignate the Donut Hole from rural to urban, and rezone it to R-8, allowing eight residential units to the acre -- 1,280 residential units. This is a floor density and can be increased to twelve or more units per acre, using existing King County incentives like Transferred Development Rights and affordable housing credits. Under the changes proposed by King County, the Donut Hole could be developed with as many as 2,200 housing units. King County is also proposing a code change to also allow the Donut Hole to be developed as an Urban Planned Development, further opening the Donut Hole to commercial development.
Because the Donut Hole is completely surrounded by the City of Maple Valley, we believe that the future of the Donut Hole should reflect a vision of the people who will be most affected by its development.
We believe, as a fellow local government, that the County should be deferring to the City in determining appropriate land use regulations and zoning for the Donut Hole. This property is in the heart of the City, is entirely surrounded by the City, and will become part of the City through annexation at some point in the future.
At stake are the principles of local self-determination and any notion of a community planning its own growth and character. That is why the 37 cities united as the King County Suburban Cities Association have asked King County to have the donut hole annexed into Maple Valley prior to any development applications for this land. Local government should be allowed to plan and approve of the growth that they will be servicing in the future.
King County's proposed Comprehensive Plan Amendments and Urban Planned Development code changes would pre-empt City planning by seeking a rezone and potential development of the property prior to annexing the property into the City that will be impacted by the land use change.
And because the County has not been willing to see the property annex to the City before it develops, currently the County would determine what development standards are used in this Maple Valley community, the County would evaluate environmental impacts and if/how they should be mitigated, the County would receive all traffic or other impact fees needed for City facilities, the County would receive all tax revenues that the City typically receives from development to pay for the City facilities and services needed to serve the development.
The City of Maple Valley and many residents attended an October 16, 2007 public meeting that King County held at Kentridge High School, and gave comments on the County's proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments affecting the Donut Hole.
Interested citizens concerned about the future of the Donut Hole have formed their own group with their own independent web page. You can find them at www.maplevalleydonuthole.org.
The City believes a better way to determine the vision for the Donut Hole is through a joint planning process by the City and King County. In October 2007, Maple Valley asked the County to enter into Memorandum Of Agreement (MOA) to jointly plan land use in the Donut Hole to address the concerns about the impacts on the City's capital facilities, services, and surrounding neighborhoods. A December 7 response from Executive Sims proposed eliminating joint planning from the MOA, proposing instead a technical work group to review development proposals. The City has informed the Executive that in light of his rejection of joint planning, we will pursue our own process to plan future land use for the Donut Hole in order to protect the City's position. Click here to see the City's letter to the Executive about his rejection of Joint Planning, the Executive's rejection letter, and the City's original Oct. 4 invitation to a MOA for joint planning.
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State law provides the City with its own planning tools. Since the County has not yet agreed to joint planning, and in order to make sure the City and its residents have an appropriate voice in the future of the Donut Hole, the City has initiated our own planning process. On October 29, 2007, Maple Valley held an Emergency Town Hall Meeting to begin gathering citizen input on the Donut Hole and how the City should develop its own plan for the Donut Hole's future. Click here to see the October 29 Town Hall Meeting minutes. We continue to invite public input for the City's own planning effort for the Donut Hole. Click here for the City's comment form. |
Stay tuned to this web page for further information on the City's own planning process.
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