Alleging the city of Sammamish overstepped its lawful powers, King County appealed several conditions within a permit issued for the southern portion of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

The county filed its appeal to the Shoreline Substantial Development Permit July 28, asking the hearing examiner to strike 10 conditions the city set when it approved the permit July 7.

The conditions included requiring the county to work with private citizens on trail specifics, managing drainage from nearby properties, narrowing the trail in a specified area to save additional significant trees and relocating a stop sign.

On nearly every account the county alleges the city’s conditions were “unnecessarily onerous,” “burdensome” and “unlawful.”

The county claims these conditions, while not only “unconstitutionally vague and unenforceable,” would result in “substantial harm” leading to “significant delay and additional project costs,” according to the appeal document.

The county maintains these conditions violate city codes, and that some of the conditions are “inconsistent with applicable national standards for trail design and safety, triggering liability risks for the County [sic] and safety concerns for the trail users,” according to document.

Additionally, the county asserts the city’s conditional permit is preempted by federal law, including the National Trails Systems Act, which the East Lake Sammamish Trail was established under.

Further, the county asserts these “cost prohibitive and unreasonable” conditions “thwart” the state’s Growth Management Act in establishing and maintaining “essential public facilities.”

The requirement to work with Sammamish residents “unlawfully grants authority to private citizens to set permit conditions,” appeal documents state. “Rather than benefiting the public and ensuring protection of the public’s interest, this condition benefits a handful of private citizens.”

“It’s the role of the city to identify those technical areas,” King County Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Brown said.

In the case of the proposed stormwater vault, working with private citizens to determine the exact location in favor of “private landowners for their landscaping … represents an unconstitutional taking and a gift of public property,” according to the county’s appeal.

The county also claims that some conditions require them to mitigate existing problems that don’t have to do with the trail project. Like, for example, on the condition that the county “‘capture and manage’ the drainage from driveways … [t]he City exceeded its authority … [and] unlawfully requires that the applicant rectify preexisting drainage problems unrelated to this development proposal [sic]” the county’s appeal reads.

The county also appealed the city’s decision to relocate the stop sign on 206th Avenue Southeast so that vehicular traffic has the right-of-way and trail users must yield. The county claims this alteration would “require removal of additional trees and other vegetation to ensure adequate sight distances are maintained.”

The city’s permit also requires additional tree retention measures “that significantly exceeds the development regulations applicable to this project,” according to the county’s appeal.

These conditions came as a surprise to county staff, Brown said, but he remains optimistic that the county can work through these issues with the city.

Construction on the southern portion of the trail, which stretches from the 4300 block of East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast to Southeast 33rd Street, was set to begin mid-October.

Brown was unsure how long the appeal process might delay construction.

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