Homeless encampment Tent City 4 relocated away from Issaquah Saturday, moving to county lands near Echo Lake and Interstate 90 in the Snoqualmie Valley.

The encampment, operated by homeless resource network SHARE/WHEEL, had been based off of Exit 20 on I-90 since March 14, occupying a gated road in the High Point area immediately east of Issaquah’s city limits.

“We’re going to miss High Point,” camp adviser Sam Roberson said over the phone Tuesday. “It was a great place and we met a lot of good people.”

Thirty-one residents, well stocked with supplies donated during their last stay, pulled up their stakes to relocate to the Echo Lake Interchange, a natural area owned by King County’s Parks Division.

SHARE/WHEEL has sent a letter to King County Executive Dow Constantine requesting permission to occupy the land, including a check for $500, Roberson said. He said he expected a response from county officials by Tuesday. The county’s Real Estate Services Section received the permit request Tuesday and began review, county spokesman Jason Argo said.

The unorthodox application was a repeat of the encampment’s move in March, when Tent City 4 relocated to High Point without a permit following a failed bid to camp in what is now the trailhead of the Cougar-Squak Corridor. King County officials denied a request by SHARE/WHEEL to use Cougar-Squak, citing ongoing construction work, nonexistent utilities infrastructure and restrictions attached to the site’s funding.

Tent City 4’s residents first attempted to move out to the corridor anyway, before rerouting when King County deployed sheriff’s deputies to guard the site.

The High Point occupation was a back-up and a move that would unintentionally turn out to be an effective Plan B. SHARE/WHEEL officials initially believed that the land was in the state’s jurisdiction and state officials spent days pinning down the exact ownership of the land. It would be nearly a week before they determined the land had been deeded to the county in 1979.

King County officials opted not to evict the camp. SHARE/WHEEL submitted a check to the county and prepared to stay for 120 days — the maximum allowable time for a temporary encampment under an ordinance passed by the King County Council in December.

Now events are repeating themselves in Snoqualmie, minus March’s drama.

“Things are going really good so far,” Roberson said of camp set-up. “Except we’re just waiting on the permit.”

King County does not intend to remove Tent City 4 residents at this time, Argo said.

“Our focus is working with faith-based organizations to help them identify and alternative location,” he said. “This is an additiont ot he work we do each day at the Department of Community and Human Services to connect homeless residents with resources so they can transition to safe, affordable housing.”

SHARE/WHEEL’s existing model for Tent City 4 calls for the encampment to stay on the properties of faith-based organizations for 90 days at a time. Roberson said that as Eastside cities have passed ordinances limiting homeless encampments’ tenure in city limits, often to once a year, those options have become hard to come by.

Sammamish was the city to most recently pass such an ordinance, in July 2014. The ordinance was passed six months after Tent City 4 left Mary, Queen of Peace, a tenure which saw two residents arrested — and eight ejected from the camp — for methamphetamine activity.

Mercer Island and Bellevue are two other nearby cities with ordinances restricting the stays of homeless encampments. One group concerned with homelessness east of Lake Washington, the Eastside Interfaith Social Services Council has recently begun calling for cities to relax their ordinances.

Diane Richards, the president of EISCC (pronounced “ice”), attended a meeting of the Bellevue City Council Monday night asking lawmakers to allow multiple homeless encampments to stay in the city for 120 days at a time. Richards requested Bellevue lawmakers join those of other Eastside cities to draw up a regional ordinance for homeless encampments.

“The tent cities are only a part of addressing homelessness,” Richards said. “But it’s an important part.”

Long term, Tent City 4 is in discussion with a Kirkland-area church to set up camp in November, Roberson said. He declined to identify the church at this time.

This story has been updated to reflect responses from a spokesperson in King County’s Department of Executive Services.