City, state and community leaders came together on Oct. 9 to celebrate the completion of infrastructure work in the Exit 7/Port Quendall area and to break ground on the May Creek Trail.
The “Exit 7 Area Improvements Project” was funded in the 2009 session of the State Legislature with $1.7 million was included in the 2009-11 state capital budget.
The improvements abut the proposed Hawk’s Landing Mixed-Use Development, a potential redevelopment on approximately 7.8 acres currently owned by Vulcan that has for decades been used as industrial land and warehouse space. Most recently the site has been the site of Pan Abode Cedar Homes’ manufacturing facility.
The state funding assisted with property acquisition, trail design and development of a soft surface trail along May Creek. The trail has been designed, a contractor has been hired and the six-week construction project has begun.
The three-acre May Creek park and trail will be the first City of Renton-
developed portion of the May Creek Greenway, which will extend from the mouth of May Creek at Lake Washington east to King County’s Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, a distance of approximately six miles. The May Creek Greenway serves several functions, including providing habitat for endangered salmon species, providing a continuous wildlife and habitat corridor, protecting steep and sensitive slopes, providing surface water storage capacity, and providing land for a developing multi-jurisdictional soft surface trail system with opportunities for interpretation, education and public enjoyment.
This portion of the soft-surface trail will be a quarter mile long, starting at Lake Washington Blvd. North, and stopping before I-405. Invasive plants will be removed, and the area will be replanted with over 2,500 native trees, shrubs and groundcovers. All existing trees will remain.
“In a few years, this site will be a lush landscape and an ideal outdoor classroom where we learn to take good care of our Mother Earth,” said Larry Reymann, Parks Commission chair.
