NO MOTORCROSS IN MALTBY

MXGP's moved on...

2006-09-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

A few representatives of MCC attended a county planning commision meeting last night regarding making changes to the R-5 zone to make it easier to build an MX track.

Apparently it was a very one-sided meeting with alot of support for the virtues of MX, and how critical MX is to the survival of western society.

With approval of the changes a foregone conclusion, all the more reason we need to incorporate so these clowns at the county aren't making the decisions for our community.

An MCC representative spoke with Gary Strode there and learned that he has found a new location, and the changes to the R-5 zone will make it easier for him to build there. He stated that it was "NOWHERE NEAR MALTBY." Thank goodness.

We wish him well in his new location.

Incorporation Blog started.

2006-09-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Just started a new blog to keep everyone posted about the incorporation effort and answer questions. You'll find it at MaltbyInc.Blogspot.com

Don't forget to vote NO on I-933. Apparently it gives the county wiggle room to put in Motocross track's where they now can't. Let's not take a chance.

Incorporation effort is underway!

2006-09-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

MCC leaders met with Greg Stephens last night to go over incorporation of the city of Maltby.

The last 2 years have been unsuccessful mainly due to the fact that the proposed city was too large. This year's submitted proposal is roughly half that size, an area of about 22 square miles.

With developers intensely proposing to push the GMA boundaries to Broadway, we can see if we don't act now that soon Maltby will look like the area east of Mill Creek, it's coming this way. And we'll be trying to stop ridiculous developements every year.

We're not against developement, we just want our community to have a say in how we are developed. Without an incorporated city here, the county will continue to hand developers building permits like they're passing out candy. As an incorporated city all building permits would have to go through the city of Maltby Building Dept.

We're planning an informational meeting in about 4 weeks to give everyone an idea of what's being proposed. Probably to be held at the Maltby Community Center.

To succeed will require a good amount of community support, help spread the word.

Stay tuned for details on the meeting.

Contamination agreement

2006-08-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

Rinker and the Health Dept. appear to have settled the contamination issue for now.

Spoke with Fire District 7 and they said that they're in the initial stages of working with Rinker to determine the fair market value of the property. A regional tranining facility is still very much their goal if they can agree on a price.

There's several hoops they have to jump through to make it happen.
Nevertheless, the slow wheels of county government have begun turning.

Article in today's Times

Holding Pattern...

2006-07-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed, we're pretty much in a holding pattern until we find out if MXGP is pursuing another site or not.

There is the slim possibility that MXGP could work with Rinker to re-zone the pit next spring. Although, after several MCC representatives met with Graham Hardwick to let him know what the neighborhood thought of the idea, I don't think it's likely (He was informed that we would fight and drag this out for five years and let the world know what kind of neighbor Rinker is). Should that happen though, the Fire Dept. has indicated that they'll condemn the site to use it as a training facility. Excellent idea we think, in that there'd be no noise or traffic.

Should a re-zone happen and the Fire dept. back out, the next option would be to bring all pressure to bear on Rinker to sell to the Parks Dept. for a new park.

Last but not least would be our appeal and legal recourse with the aid of Bricklin, Newman & Dold.

We would be remiss if we didn't thank all of you who graciously donated to the MCC legal fund. A portion of the funds in Trust we're used in Jennifer Dold's research and Rebuttal Letter to the County. We are leaving the remaining portion in the Trust until we know MXGP has moved on, or the Fire Dept. or Parks Dept. has purchased the site, at which time we'd have BND return the remaining funds pro-rated. There's enough funds there for BND to go right back to work if need be.

We're keeping our ears open for now...MXGP seems suspiciously quiet. If you hear anything, please leave a comment.

We'll keep you posted. MCC

Encouraging article in the Herald.

Seattle Times Story 8:15am Thursday 4-20

2006-04-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Times did a story on the contamination issue today. Here it is... Story

The Woodinville Weekly did a story as well.

This year's incorporation of the City of Maltby efforts didn't pass. After reading Gary Strode's comments indicating that he may not give up on this site, we should be all that much more committed to putting together a feasible incorporation proposal for next year. Unwanted projects like this and others would have to go through the Maltby City Council.

The powers that be plan to funnel future developement in Snohomish County to the Maltby-Clearview area to control sprawl, you can see it starting to move this way from Mill Creek and Bothell. Unless we work to incorporate now, we will be constantly fighting to stop the County from allowing projects like this over the next 10-20 years. The time to incorporate is now before the the growth is at our door and before developers can pressure the County Council to be less inclined to let us control our community's growth.

Growth will come, it's inevitable, but we want to have a say in how it's done, not PDS who generates ALL their income from building fees and doesn't like to say "no" to developers.

Greg Stephens has worked hard on incorporating with not much backing and hasn't been able to make it happen. If we can come together strong and vocal as a community next year with a feasible proposal, we can make it happen. We need to do this soon to include Grace in our City, that would include Costco which is estimated to generate 2 million dollars a year in sales taxes. The sales taxes from Costco would fund our Police Dept., which is typically a new city's largest expense. Woodinville wants to annex Grace to get that 2 million, we need to beat them to it.

Greg has a great idea of developing Downtown Maltby with the existing style of turn-of-the-century buildings. The idea of being another Leavenworth rather than Lynnwood. There is currently plenty of land there to work with, but if we don't incorporate soon it will end up as strip malls.

Snohomish County has a current population of around 670,000 and is projected to reach 1 million around 2030 growing by about 1000 people a month. Those 330,000 people will need to live somewhere. With State and County leaders committed to prevent sprawl and infill all close-in areas, we are in the prime developement area. Here's an interesting site showing the population density as of 6 years ago.

Health Dept. 1:05pm Friday 4-7

2006-04-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Spoke with Kathy Pierson at the Health Dept. regarding the contamination at the Rinker pit.

Rinker hired an environmental consulting firm named SCS Engineers to study samples taken at the Glenwood site in Everett. Apparently a similar amount of contaminated material was deposited there in a confined area. Rinker doesn't know exactly where the material at the Maltby site is located except to say it was deposited 70 feet above ground water and has since been covered by 360,000 tons of fill.

The samples at the Glenwood site were taken from 10 feet down and showed no trace of Arsenic or Cadmium and only trace amounts of Chromium and Lead, but well within the safe range. Apparently there was language in their report indicating that the winter rains had washed away and diluted much of the metals.

At this point the Snohomish County Health Dept. feels the need for expert input on this matter since this is not their normal area of expertise. They have forwarded for review copies of the SCS report to the State Dept. of Health and Dept. of Ecology as well as Hydrologist consultants. As Kathy put it "They have the people with PHD's that we don't".

She encouraged us to get back with her in a couple of weeks to find out what they've learned.

Rinker meeting 4:50pm Monday 4-3

2006-04-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

Two of our Maltby/Clearview Coalition representatives met with Graham Hardwick of Rinker on Friday to address our concerns and find out Rinker's intentions.

Apparently the meeting went well and he seems willing to work with MCC to find a suitable use for the site. The Park and Fire Dept. training facility options were both discussed. The catch is that they want to continue to use a portion of the site for another 5 years which would limit how to develope it. Zoning would need to be changed before the Fire Dept. could build as well.

As far as the contamination, it was made clear that we won't back off on that issue. This could get interesting since Hardwick indicated that they don't know exactly where the contaminated material is located. Rinker is required to submit a clean-up plan to the Health Dept. by tomorrow the 4th. Most likely they will appeal since their experts claim there is no health risk. We'll let you know how their meeting with the Health Dept. goes.

PDS should be formally shutting down MXGP's Permit application any day, we'll let you know as soon as we find out.

Comments have been posted about MXGP possibly having found a new location, as soon as we have some verifiable info, we'll let you know. If you'd like to contact the Maltby/Clearview Coalition our email address is- AkersInMaltby@Yahoo.com

UPDATE 4:50pm Tuesday 3-28

2006-03-28T16:42:00.000-08:00

Alot of new info today....

As you all probably know by now the County sent out a preview of the 2006 Docket for the County Council Hearing April 11th. Included in there is some indication of MRO changes, I contacted Dave Somers about this and he said the Rinker pit is not on there. He said it's too late for that to be considered and would have needed to have been submitted last July. If they want to consider it for removal of MRO status they'll have to wait until next year's 2007 Docket.

Also spoke with Fire District 7 today. They said they are still very interested in this site for a regional training facility. They are putting things on hold for now on advice of their attorneys who are concerned about legal action from the Health Dept. regarding clean-up of the contamination. Apparently whoever buys the property before it is cleaned-up could be partially liable for the clean-up costs and they don't want to touch that.

Having said that, should the property become rezoned and cleaned up, they plan to condemn the site and pay Rinker fair market value for the property, which according to them is 2.4 million. (1.3 million more than MXGP)

MXGP can't win, even if they get a rezone somehow next year and wait for Rinker to get it cleaned-up, the F.D. will bump them out of the picture.

The training facility sounds great in that there'd be no traffic, no noise and no stadium lights.

Wait and see...... 5:10pm Mon. 3-27

2006-03-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

As it stands MXGP is assesing their options at this time, trying to determine if it's worth the time and effort and money to fight for this location. Hopefully they'll come to their senses and look elsewhere.

You'd think they'd realize how much easier this would be to build out in the hills somewhere, where they don't have to deal with the MRO, the contamination, and hundreds of angry citizens who are determined to drag this through a 3-5 year battle to put a stop to it.

We're putting some things on hold until we know for sure what their next move is. Everything is in place to continue to ramp up for a protracted legal process. If they want to proceed here we'll be ready for them. Our radar is up and we'll be watching them like a hawk, any sign of MXGP attempting to proceed here we'll let you know. If we discover that they've moved on we'll let you know as well.

You may want to email Dave Somers to encourage him in his efforts to work with MXGP to find a more suitable location. Maybe let him know our appreciation will be shown come next election time. His email address is....Dave.Somers@co.Snohomish.wa.us

There is a wrinkle developing regarding this issue, it could be significant. We should know more by tomorrow.

Things are looking up! 9:05am Fri. 3-24

2006-03-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

The MRO designation is proving to be a major roadblock to the proposed track. The County seems to be standing firm in their recognition of this zoning and enforcement of the County Code.

If MXGP want's to continue to persue this site, they will have to work with Rinker to apply for a rezone, and there's no guarantee that it would be approved. They then would have to reapply for a Conditional Use Permit all over again. Both issues would go before the Hearing Examiner and we would fight them every step of the way. The Contamination, Noise, Traffic and Drainage problems would still be major roadblocks to overcome. We could drag this out for 3-5 years, if that's what it takes, we live here and we are determined.

Hopefully MXGP will realize that this is not the place for their track and that they won't win, and move on to a more suitable location away from quiet communities like ours. Dave Sommers has even offered to help find a more ideal location.

The Herald did a story on this today, here it is....HERALD STORY

Way to go MRO! 11:35am Thurs. 3-23

2006-03-23T11:37:00.000-08:00

Just spoke with Erik Olson at PDS. He said the reviewers had met with MXGP yesterday to inform them of all the issues that need addressing. First and foremost being the MRO designation.

Apparently when this proposal was hatched, the pit was zoned R-5 and it was unknown to them that is was rezoned R-5 MRO seven days before submitting their permit application.

There is no way to get around the County Code that prevents development in a R-5 MRO. Unless Rinker shuts down operations and tries to have it rezoned, there can be no track built. The ball is in MXGP's court now to decide if or how they want to proceed.

We didn't even get to discussing the Contamination issue or any Noise, Traffic or Drainage issues.

We'll keep you posted.

Zoning? 2:40pm Wed. 3-22

2006-03-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

One of our neighbors has discovered that the Rinker pit is actually zoned R-5 MRO (Mineral Resource Overlay). This zoning does not permit a race track or a recreational vehicle park. According to the County Code, no development can take place that would prevent future mining operations.

Here's the PDS Mineral Resource Overlay page. Zoom in on the map to 400% and you can see the Rinker pit clearly designated as a Sand & Gravel Deposit. If you have trouble with the map on this site you can download the file by going to www.NoMaltbyTrack.org, look under Research Summaries.

King 5 carried the story last night, their reporter asked the County about this and the County said they'd have to get back to her. It will be interesting to see what the County does with this revelation, as we don't believe they were aware of this since the application said the property was zoned R-5. The permit application was submitted on Feb.8th and the zoning was in effect as of Feb 1st.

The Preliminary Fire Review has been downgraded from "approved" to "conditional approved".

Herald story 7:55am Fri. 3-17

2006-03-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

The Herald story on the contamination issue came out today. Here it is.... Herald story

The PDS website shows that the Preliminary Biological Review has been dissapproved also ...strike two!

Follow along 4:35pm Thurs. 3-16

2006-03-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

You can follow along with the County's review of the MXGP proposal at the PDS site here PDS
it should be interesting. Just enter the project number - 06102142LU.
The preliminary review of the drainage plan has already been disapproved....So far so good.

Go to the website www.NoMaltbytrack.org and click on "The Proposal", at the bottom click on "Targeted Drainage Plan Analyzed". You'll see the profile drawing of the track sitting between very high berms, very misleading. Our neighbor noticed the berms are at a different scale, when shown all at the same scale (red lines) the berms are nothing more than an elevated seating area. These bumps are supposed to contain the noise?

COMMENT SUCCESS!!!!! 5:35pm Mon. 3-13

2006-03-13T18:35:00.000-08:00

It's official, our letter writing campaign was a rousing success! Final tally of letters to the County in opposition to the proposed track came in at well over 1000!! Those at the County said it's the most they've ever seen in opposition to a permit application. They're just buried. The protracker comments were well under 100.

We'd like to give a heartfelt thanks to all of those who worked tirelessly to put out flyers, put together our meeting, and just getting the word out in general. Several of our neighbors have almost taken this on as a full-time job. Thanks also to those who've contacted the local media to get publicity on this issue.

A couple of good notes...

1.Bricklin, Newman and Dold have submitted their 23 page letter tearing into MXGP's ridiculous proposal.

2. Thanks to KING 5 and their story on the contamination issue at the Rinker pit. Great publicity, now the Health Dept. knows the whole community is watching them to see to it that this issue is addressed. Well water test results will be coming in this week, we'll keep you posted.

3. As we await the SEPA notice from the County, BND is looking into additional critical issues.

4. Rinker has to provide the Health Dept. a plan to remove all the contaminated material by April 4th. This would be a several month proposition, Rinker is likely to appeal, which could drag it out much longer.

5. It's looking more and more like MXGP will be required to do an Environmental Impact Study - several months delay and 20-30k. We want the EIS done to prove what we all know to be true, that this proposal WILL detrimentally impact our environment and the Hearing Examiner will have to deny the permit.

If by some chance the County disregards all the issues that have been raised, we will need to appeal. This is where our legal expenses can really go up.

"Planning and Developement Services" is funded soley by building permit fees, so they are in the business of issuing permits, they generate revenue from no other source. They really don't like to say "no" to developers and lose that income.

The high-end cost to appeal could be as much as 25k, if we have to appeal on every issue ie, traffic, noise, drainage etc. Attorney's would need to file appeals, prepare affadavits, appear for testimony etc. Experts would need to be brought in to testify on noise, traffic, drainage etc. Jennifer Dold said it's nearly impossible to win the appeal without good expert testimony. Keep in mind that's a high-end worse case senario.

Nearly 400 of us attended our meeting, so that would be less than $100 each. Not too bad.

If we receive the notices from the County indicating the SEPA thresholds are met, meaning the County feels that an EIS isn't necessary, then we'll appeal. We will have a couple of weeks to raise the funds before the Hearing. At that point we will start a major fund raising campaign. We're committed to paying as we go so we don't get in the hole. We are starting a Trust to pool our MCC funds to cover legal and expert expenses, we'll let you know as soon as we're set up. In the meantime, please continue to send your checks for legal expense donations to Bricklin, Newman & Dold Be sure to note in the Memo "For Maltby/Clearview Coalition". Funds that aren't needed will be returned.

And thanks again to everyone, we're going to get this done!

NO MOTORCROSS IN MALTBY!

2006-02-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

TO OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS IN MALTBY,

In case you just found this blog. A company named MXGP Inc, applied for a Conditional Use Permit with Snohomish County to build a 58 acre Motorcross racetrack at the old Rinker Gravel Pit on Yew Way in Maltby.

If you live within a 5 mile radius of the Gravel Pit, say good-bye to your peaceful, quiet life in Maltby that you've moved out here to find & come to enjoy. Their proposal states the operating hours will begin 7am weekdays and 9am weekends and will be open until 10pm 7 days a week. If you live a mile or two away, you may think this does not impact you, but our friends on Fales Rd. can hear the races in Monroe - 5 miles away on the other side of Lord's Hill! This will affect you! You know how quiet and peaceful it is here in the evenings? Well, replace that with the loud, incessent sound of 50 to 100 motorcycles racing until 10 pm 7 days a week. That sound will carry a long, long way.

Gary Strode and MXGP had an illegal track operation in Monroe shut down by the county in 2004. Neighbors to that track were quoted in the Everett Herald saying,"IT'S UNBELIEVABLY LOUD, AND IT'S A CONSTANT ALL-DAY NOISE...IT'S LOUDER THAN THE FARM MACHINERY THAT'S IN THE FIELD RIGHT NEXT TO ME- I CAN HEAR DIRT BIKES OVER THE TRACTOR...IT'S LOUDER THAN THE CADMAN GRAVEL PIT!!"

FELLOW MALTBIANS-WE'VE GOT TO STOP THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

MXGP paid for Geomatrix to do a sound impact consultation, (is this what the county plans to go by?). The county's zoning requirements allow a maximum decibel output of 49 DBA and up to 64 DBA for short durations. The MXGP paid Geomatrix report, states 2 motorcycles excellerating produce 91 DBA at a distance of 100 feet. ( a 747 airplane at takeoff produces 98 DBA!!!). Multiply that by their estimates of 100 motorcycles or more per day, 7 days a week, until 10pm, in the quiet air of Maltby. According to their application, they will have major race events where there will be several hundred motorcyclists racing. They claim that a high berm and being on top of a hill will make the noise nearly non-existent.

Also in their permit it states "The sound impact on neighboring properties will be less than the noise created by the existing gravel mining operation." We reside within a couple hundred yards of the gravel pit and there is next to no noise right now just an occasional dump truck driving in the distance.After 4pm weekdays and weekends there is zero noise... just birds chirping and the babbling of our natural spring brook.

Evan's Creek flows out to the Snohomish River. In the permit request their plan is for any gas and oil spills to run off into a retention pond and then right into Evan's Creek. As caretakers of this natural spring on our property, we take special care to ensure these waters remain clean and uncontaminated. This is a salmon spawning stream.

All the homes around this property get our water from wells. If this permit gets approved we will have to be concerned with well water contamination! The permit states gas and oil spills on the ground by motorcycle riders is likely.

As neighboring residents of Maltby, we must ban together and not only oppose this permit, but we must actively oppose Snohomish County Planning and Development Services from granting this permit.

The quality of life here in Maltby is very desirable which is why we live here. The recent reports on property values show the Maltby area as having the highest property values in the county ( appreciating 36% last year)which means we pay the most property taxes. If this track is approved property values will drop significantly for anyone within earshot of this track. (Figure at least a couple mile radius.) Surely for each of us it would be worth investing some funds to defend 100-300k in home value. One neighbor we spoke with said they're willing to spend $50,000 to fight this.

We are not against people having fun on their bikes but this location makes no sense. According to the Herald, 5 sites were being considered and they settled on smack dab in the middle of Maltby.

Just today I could hear someone running a chainsaw about a mile up the road plain as day. Now, imagine fifty or one hundred 250cc or 500cc engines revving and racing until 10pm -7 days a week!

The bottom line is that this type of project should be built in a light industrial area or way out in the foothills, not smack dab in the middle of Maltby. We have nothing against motorcycle racing, but this is an extremely LOUD sport. There are alot of places out away from nice quiet communities where something like this would work.

I don't know about you but we dreamed of living in Maltby for 10 years before we bought our property and built our dream home 6 years ago, just craving the peace and quiet out here. For the first few years I'd stand on my deck every evening just listening to the silence, the frogs, the birds, just breathing deeply the fresh air and soaking it up. Telling myself what a blessing this is, what a dream come true. Thinking this is where we'll live the rest of our lives and raise our kids here.

To think that now that silence could be gone forever, drowned out by the incessant noise of a motorcycle racetrack. It literally makes me sick to my stomach.

We can't let this happen.

Check back here regularly for future updates and ongoing information. Tell your friends and neighbors about this BLOG. If you have any information you would like to share that would be helpful, or just want to voice your support, please leave your comments. Thanks! If you'd like to Email us directly we're at AkersInMaltby@Yahoo.com