Court ruling upholds right to build trail

Parks & Recreation, July, 2004

In mid-March, a Superior Court ruling in Washington will allow the construction of a trail system through an environmentally sensitive area in the East Lake Sammamish in King County. This ruling, which came one day after the Washington Court of Appeal upheld King County's ownership of the disputed section of the trail corridor, gives clear direction to the city of Sammamish for reissuing the necessary permit.

"We recently completed and opened the Issaquah and Redmond portions of the trail in February and we will be working closely with Sammamish on the necessary steps to construct and open the Sammamish section of the trail for use by pedestrians and cyclists who are eager to have this link in our regional trail system," King County Executive Ron Sims said.

In April 2003, a Sammamish hearing examiner did not allow the trail to be completed because he believed there was a more practical alternative to impacting the sensitive landscape. But, the court's ruling said, the examiner misinterpreted the definition of "practical alternative." The court found that since King County proposed to build an interim trail for public use during the planning and construction period for a permanent trail, the examiner should only have considered other interim trails as practical alternatives.