The Bothell City Council on March 18 voted to add a letter to its meeting agenda that asks the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks and the King County Council to include the East Riverside Drive Veil in King County’s proposed parks levy.

The motion to add the draft letter to the agenda was made by Councilmember Jenny Aldrichs and seconded by Councilmember Dodd; the motion passed 6-0. The mayor and staff said the letter seeks King County funding for a connection identified in Bothell’s capital facilities plan (project T-108) and would be transmitted to King County officials. "What you have in front of you is a letter, essentially asking King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks and the King County Council to include the Riverside Drive Veil in the upcoming parks levy," the mayor said when introducing the item.

During a later discussion of projected agenda items, Mayor Thompson noted King County’s then-proposed levy would cover 2026–2031 and that the levy package under discussion was roughly $1.5 billion countywide. The mayor and staff said the Bothell share proposed in the county’s draft would be a pass-through allocation of about $2.2 million for the East Riverside Drive connection. Councilmembers said they supported sending the letter and asked for scrivener’s-error corrections before transmission.

Why it matters: the request would place a previously identified Bothell capital project on the list of projects King County may fund through a countywide parks levy, potentially bringing outside funding for a pedestrian and trail linkage that staff said would connect Bothell neighborhoods to a regional trail network.

What happened next: staff said they would finalize edits and transmit the letter to county officials; the council had not taken a separate recorded vote to formally transmit the letter during the March 18 meeting beyond the vote to add the item to the agenda and the subsequent consensus to sign and send with edits.