Dear Mayor Law

My name is Roy Boyer. Bill Spiry, I and our wives are new residents of the city of Renton and were part of the Alpine Nursery annexation this year.  We have lived on our properties for over 70 combined years and have nurtured most of the trees that have grown there.

We have lived and worked in this area for all these years and now have reached a time of retirement. Unfortunately, we do not have a retirement nest egg or pension as some in the government do. The nursery and our property were to be our retirement funds. In fact Bill just closed the nursery expecting to have sold our properties. We were active in getting this annexed to the city this year and quite frankly with many regrets now.

We have now gone through our third builder, all three backing out of our original contracts, mainly due to the unanticipated costs associated with the changing city requirements for development.

The last builder, Quadrant Homes, just backed out because of a new shared driveway ordinance and the prospect of a change in the square foot per lot.  These builders all spent thousands and thousands of dollars on feasibility studies.

And now even more constraining requirements are being proposed. R4 (zoning) is currently 8,000 square feet (minimum lot size). Our combined properties proposed to the city for development is 9.2 acres. A layman would think that 4 X 9.2 = 36 lots.

The reality is that after storm pond area, internal roads, tree retention, retaining walls, curbs and easements, Quadrant estimates only 23 lots now with other work at an expense that is prohibitive. Before all these new regulations, they were proposing 30, with the possibility of building homes to cover all the expenses.

And to be quite frank again, I can’t understand as a private property owner why I am paying and have paid over these years, thousands of dollars in property taxes to pay salaries and fund pensions, and most of my freedoms and liberties are gone to develop the property with a builder stripping away our retirement.

Roy Boyer, Kim Boyer, Bill Spiry, Marilyn Spiry,
Renton