A hearing examiner ruled Monday on the East Lake Sammamish trail permit appeals.

The ruling, in part, struck some conditions from the permit the city of Sammamish issued in July 2015 for the 1.3-mile stretch, which the county would see widened and paved to complete the upgraded path connecting Redmond to Issaquah.

“There’s a degree of success for us,” King County Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Brown said Monday, “and there’s a degree of success for the city.”

The county, which was set to begin construction on the segment in mid-October 2015, was one of three parties to appeal the city’s permit in 2015. (The hearing examiner denied the Sammamish Homeowners’ appeal outright. The third party to appeal withdrew it’s challenge.)

Brown said the county does not plan to appeal the decision. Similarly, the city of Sammamish will likely not appeal the decision, though that decision is not final, Sammamish Director of Community Development Jeff Thomas said Monday.

Alleging the city overstepped its lawful powers, the county appealed 10 conditions to the shoreline substantial development permit, which included requiring the county to work with private citizens regarding trail specifics, manage drainage from nearby property, narrowing the trail in specified areas to save additional trees and relocating a stop sign.

Hearing Examiner John Galt heard more than 23 hours of testimony over four days (Dec. 16-18, 2015 and Jan. 28).

County and city staff were able to come to an agreement regarding several of the issues prior to the ruling, which Galt included in his report.

In one area, the county agreed to “tighten the clearing and grubbing limits,” saving 11 (up from zero) trees, removing seven (up from five) and monitoring seven (down from 20) trees, according to the report. Similarly, negotiations saved another 43 significant trees in a different portion of the trail segment.

Regarding the stormwater vault, the county agreed to strike the planned vault from the project’s design and to move a planned retaining wall further east, according to the report. Lake Sammamish 4257 LLC, the applicant that eventually withdrew its appeal due to this negotiation, will make “certain improvements to a drainage channel through its property and provide a drainage covenant across its property to Lake Sammamish,” according to the report.

Galt quashed the condition requiring the county to manage runoff from nearby properties.

“The county has no obligation to correct existing drainage problems unless it will exacerbate them,” Galt wrote.

Galt spent some space examining the traffic revision at the 206th Avenue Southeast-East Lake Sammamish Trail intersection, where the city wanted to halt trail traffic and the county wanted to install stop signs to give trail users the right-of-way. Ultimately, Galt did approve stopping vehicles as the county originally proposed.

Admitting the “situation … is difficult for all parties,” Galt discounted much of the county’s and city’s arguments.

“[T]hat relative volume and speed always dictate where crossing priority will lie is equally not true,” Galt wrote. “The primary factor in this decision is the lack of departure sight distance for bicyclists stopped at the crossing. Without adequate departure sight distance, bicyclists will be very vulnerable to being hit in the intersection by vehicles.”

The 206th Avenue Southeast and trail crossing is “essentially a right angle,” according to the report. There are 15 single-family residences located west of the trail on 206th, a cul-de-sac with a speed limit of 25 miles per hour.

Finally, Galt ruled that the county must adhere to the city’s 100 percent plant survival rate.

“King County cannot complain about being required to comply with essentially the same standard it expects of persons who obtain permits from it,” Galt wrote. “Interpreted reasonably, [the condition] requires replacement at a 1:1 ratio of mitigation planting that die during the first year.”

As long as no one appeals the decision, the county anticipates beginning construction on the segment, which stretches from the 4300 block of East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast to Southeast 33rd Street, in late June, Brown, county parks director, said.

Widening to approximately 18 feet and paving the current soft surface trail could take one year to complete, Brown said.

Background on trail:

The total budget for the Sammamish portion of the trail project is about $39.4 million. As of March 2015, the county spent $24.1 million, according to King County Parks and Recreation Capital Project Managing Supervisor Frank Overton.

Funding is provided by the voter-approved 2014-19 Parks, Trails and Open Space Replacement Levy, as well as by grants from the Transportation Enhancements Program, the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program and state Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program.

The county originally purchased the railbanked corridor in 1998 and installed an interim soft-surface trail along the 11-mile stretch, which opened to the public in 2006.

The Sammamish trail, once completed, will be part of a 44-mile-long regional urban trail corridor from Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood to Issaquah.