Ellensburg council approves boundary adjustment, interlocal agreement to address Craig Hill sloughing

The Ellensburg City Council on Tuesday adopted Resolution 2025-03 authorizing a boundary-line adjustment with Kittitas County and a interlocal agreement that reallocates small portions of parcels around Reid Park and establishes shared maintenance responsibilities for the hillside known as Craig Hill.

The measure, described by City Attorney Terry Weiner as a technical fix to correct historic mapping errors, will transfer several very small parcels between the city and county so the park boundary follows the county access road. The agreement also creates 10-foot maintenance easements on either side of the new boundary and sets out a cost-sharing and monitoring plan for slope maintenance and debris removal.

Weiner said the change responds to assessor records and deeds that, over decades, produced mismatched parcel lines showing some city parcels crossing into the Kittitas Valley Event Center. The adjustment will move the boundary so the city owns the southern portion of the park and the county owns the land north of the access road adjacent to the fairgrounds and barns.

Why it matters: Residents and the council raised concerns that material sloughing from the park hill has been depositing rock and debris on the county access road behind the barns. The interlocal agreement pairs the boundary correction with an operational plan — city street sweeping twice a year, county provision and maintenance of concrete “ecology blocks” at the toe of the slope, and joint drone/LIDAR surveys roughly every two years to measure slope movement.

Council discussion focused on making the fix durable and measurable. Cheryl Chance, who spoke during the legislative hearing, pressed the council to clarify terminology in the agreement — specifically what the agreement means by “debris” versus “sloughing material” — after describing observation of rocks and small trees moving behind ecology blocks. Another resident who identified himself as Matt said he believed the hill was moving more frequently than the county geotechnical assessment suggested and urged more frequent monitoring and an independent surveyor.

Weiner said the parties had already paid the county surveyor to review deeds and that the interlocal agreement provides mechanisms to monitor slope creep, meet at least every two years to reassess maintenance needs and share costs for drone-based LIDAR flyovers. The agreement also requires each party’s right to access the easement for maintenance.

Councilmembers said the boundary correction and shared maintenance framework responded to Save Craig’s Hill advocates’ concerns and provided a baseline for future action, including more aggressive mitigation if monitoring showed accelerating slope movement.

The council moved to adopt the resolution and voted in favor. The resolution approves the exchange of the small parcel portions, authorizes the interlocal agreement with Kittitas County, and directs staff to implement the monitoring and maintenance provisions outlined in the agreement.

What the agreement includes (high-level): city-to-county transfers of small parcels (ranging from a few hundredths to roughly 0.46 acres in the largest instance described in the staff presentation), county-to-city transfers of parcels (including a 0.65-acre parcel to consolidate park ownership), 10-foot mutual maintenance easements along the new boundary, city use of its street sweeper to keep the access road clear at least twice a year, county responsibility to provide and clean ecology blocks at the toe of the slope, biennial LIDAR/drone surveys to measure slope movement, and a required meeting at least every two years to review maintenance and cost-sharing.

Ending: Council members thanked residents and county staff who had worked on the mapping and maintenance plan. The interlocal agreement will go to the county for its approval next, and the monitoring plan will create a baseline LIDAR record against which future movement can be measured.