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Commissioners weigh trail access and Conservation Futures limits at Wallace Swamp Creek wetland
Summary
Consultants identified sensitive floodway, landslide and wetland areas at Wallace Swamp Creek Park and noted Conservation Futures funding restricts active recreation without an equal-value swap; commissioners discussed boardwalks, trail surfacing, and Department of Ecology approvals.
Kenmore’s consultants and commissioners discussed potential trail access and active‑use tradeoffs at Wallace Swamp Creek Park during the Aug. 7 Planning Commission meeting, emphasizing regulatory limits tied to sensitive areas and past funding sources.
The nut graf: much of the Wallace Swamp Creek site is regulated floodway and wetland, which restricts development; the city acquired portions with Conservation Futures funds, which limit active recreational conversions unless the city performs an equal‑value land swap.
Jennifer Kiesalis, landscape architect on the consultant team, described the site’s limiting features and preferred trail treatments: "There's a lot of sensitive areas out there. So if you were considering putting in a trail system, you may be looking at doing a boardwalk system as well to kind of have less impact on a sensitive area like that," she said.
Tom, the lead consultant, explained the Conservation Futures constraint: the property "was acquired with Conservation Futures. And 1 thing I can I need to clarify about Conservation Futures? If you bought it with those funds, you cannot have active recreation on it. But you can swap a part of the site for an equally comparable site if you choose to do so." Commissioners discussed alternatives including routing trails around buffer edges, using ADA‑accessible natural surfacing (mulch or rubber play‑area surfacing) rather than crushed rock, and working with utility and county rights‑of‑way (the Tolt pipeline and King County) to reduce wetland impacts.
Commissioners also asked about permitting. The consultant team said trails within wetland buffers are sometimes allowed but that any crossing of wetland itself would require Department of Ecology review and environmental mapping by specialist consultants as part of master planning.
Ending: The commission did not authorize specific construction at Wallace Swamp Creek; rather it asked staff and consultants to include the wetland constraints and potential boardwalk/trail options in the PROS update and to treat any active‑use proposals as subject to Conservation Futures rules and to site‑level environmental feasibility studies.
