All posts by Kirk Hall

Request for Support

Neighborhood Events, Neighborhood Security, Safety

The STACC committee sent a letter (see below) to Michael Jimenez, Senior Planner, at Pierce County in regard to the Public Notice Short Plat request for approval at 12009 132nd Ave Ct E, Application #1010106. He replied that our comments about safety, traffic impact and the proposed density being reduced have been sent to the engineering department and added to the record for the Hearing Examiner to consider.

We encourage more neighbors to send additional messages to Pierce County. Email or call Michael Jimenez, Senior Planner at:

michael.jimenez@piercecountywa.gov

(253) 798-7181

Here are views of the area asking for the short plat.  As you can see if approved this will dump a large number of vehicles on to 136th. If you don’t mind waiting while 10 or 20 vehicles try to leave 136th at the stop sign you can ignore this post, but if you don’t want even more congestion you ought to write a letter to Mr. Jimenez.

Please see the STACC letter below these pictures.

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This is the letter sent by the STACC committee:

Sunrise Terrace Architectural Control                                                                                                                 Committee STACC C/O RTPC4227 S                                                                                                                     Meridian Ste C-120 Puyallup WA                                                                                                                           98373sunriseterraceacc@gmail.com

Michael Jimenez, Senior Planner

Michael.jimenez@piercecountywa.gov  Phone: (253) 798-7181

Dear Mr. Michael Jimenez,

The Sunrise Terrace Architectural Control Committee, STACC, is writing to you because we need your expertise and help, please. STACC has safety concerns regarding the short plat property with parcel number 0419118016, Application #: 1010106. As we understand, the property will be developed for six single-family lots. The safety concern involves a higher likelihood of vehicular accidents with increased traffic. The proposal states that on a daily average, 60 vehicle trips will be added.

The entrance and exit of 132nd Avenue Court East for the proposed short plat is Military Road. Less than 100 feet from their intersection is a stop sign, where most residents turn right onto 122nd Street East. All the houses in Sunrise Terrace (north), Sunrise View Estates, Shawnee Ridge and additional homes exit via Military Road.

Also, Military Road and 122nd Street East are used as major thoroughfares from SR 162 Orting-Sumner Highway to South Hill and Highway 512 making them highly congested. Many drivers try to short-cut congested traffic by taking Military Road since going west up the hill on 122nd Street East is heavily congested. Also, the Tehaleh developers are building a new road down the western hill of Bonney Lake, connecting with SR162, which will force even more traffic up Military Road and 122nd Street East.

We have seen very unsafe accidents at the intersection of 122nd Street East and Shaw Road about 1500 feet from the proposed short plat.  At least an additional 952 average daily vehicle trips will be made at that intersection since 100 townhomes and twenty single-family homes from the new development, Shaw Heights, are currently for sale.

In addition to concerns about safety, there is another statement in the proposal that is incorrect. Criteria 2 of Required Findings asks the applicant to state how “the public use and interest will be served by such short subdivision/large lot division.” South Hill Development LLC answers that “The proposed plat will provide a well-planned and harmonious addition to the neighboring parcels, therefore encouraging future property improvements to be built to similar standards…the proposed plat will easily integrate with the neighboring properties and blend well with future adjacent property development.” Respectfully, we firmly disagree with their answer and believe this proposal is inharmonious with the surrounding properties. For example, larger lots are characteristic of Sunrise Terrace and the neighboring communities.

Sunrise Terrace was “well planned” in the 1960’s; the properties have been improved and the covenants remain in place today. Rather than changing the lot size and setbacks, “the public use and interest” would be better served if South Hill Development LLC would build homes on lots of similar size to the surrounding community. As proposed now, the number of homes would greatly outbalance the existing two homes directly across the street on 132nd Avenue Court East. We are not opposed to the development of this property, but we strongly feel that a safer and more “harmonious addition” of only two to three houses would better integrate with the older established neighborhood and have less impact on traffic and safety.

We appreciate you taking these comments into consideration.

Sincerely,

Sunrise Terrace Architectural Control Committee

Celeste Hurst, Committee Chair

Luke Rambo, Member

Nancy Jo Williams, Member

Julie Hrivnak, Member

Jacqueline McMahon-Ehlen, Member

Masha Williams-Jeans, Member

Scott Elder, Member

 

June 12, 2023

New Route From The Valley Highway Up & Down South Hill

Neighborhood Security, Safety

 

WSDOT will be holding a meeting at 1pm on April 19th at High Cedars (14604 149th Street Ct E, Orting, WA 98360-8451) in the Rainer room to discuss their recommendations for cross county transportation improvements.  Due to the continuing increase in traffic on Military road and the additional impact of the new road from Tehaleh to the valley highway at 128th, they have been investigating how best to move this traffic up and down from South Hill.

Two options have been considered, widening Military Road or developing a new route between the valley highway at 128th to either Reservoir road or 144th.

We have learned that WSDOT is planning to recommend that Military Road/122nd be widened with one additional lane up the hill. This recommendation with be discussed at the meeting on the 19th.

The additional traffic on Military Road will make it even more difficult to get into and out of our neighborhoods. Please consider attending the meeting on the 19th to express your concerns about this additional traffic.

Elvin Lerew

My opinion is that WSDOT needs to complete a new way up and down South Hill BEFORE considering putting in the new road from Tehaleh to the valley highway at 128th. Unless they do, we are going to see much greater traffic congestion for years until the new route is completed.

 Kirk Hall

View Machu Picchu on your computer

Interesting Things

I received a link for a virtual tour of Machu Picchu from a family member.  It looks just like I remember it, even though it was long ago when I went there with my wife.  I sent  the link to Dav Eide for his suggestions and he thought, as I do, that I should share it with the Neighborhood.

Go to this link, and Google Earth will pop up (It takes a while to load the presentation so be patient).  When it finishes loading you can click a red balloon or one of the pictures on the list at the right. It’ll zoom in and you can click to walk around like you are really there. It’ll have little white arrow things once you zoom in (screenshot at bottom)  and you click those arrows and it will walk you that direction, plus you can look up and down just by clicking any area on the screen.  It will take several hours to explore Machu Picchu, but you can go back to it as often as you like.

https://earth.google.com/web/@-13.16070387,-72.53759399,2092.02815297a,3842.87972043d,35y,0h,59.94192371t,0r/data=Ci4SLBIgMjRiNWFhNTFlOGExMTFlNmJhN2U2ZjgxOGQ2OWE2ZTciCG92ZXJ2aWV3

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Electrical Substation Vandals

Neighborhood Events

The headline below appeared in recent news concerning attacks on local power   substations:

Detectives ask public to check surveillance footage in connection to Pierce County substation attacks

This emphasizes the fact that security cameras don’t just help their owners directly but can also help our community. Hopefully there will be enough cameras around the vandalized substations that they will have caught the vandals in action and provide clues for the police to be able to apprehend them.

Intersection of 136th & Military Rd.

Safety

One of our neighbors sent me an e-mail about the fact that many people are ignoring the stop signs in the intersection of 136th and Military Rd.  They sent me a picture of the license plate of a vehicle who as they said “Blew through the intersection without even a momentary pause”. We are not posting the picture of the license plate because it is out of context.  However if you wish to see the license plate of the car we know ran the stop sign, send me an e-mail to kahalljr@comcast.net and I will send the picture to you.

These stop signs are there for our safety. Cars coming from the valley on Military Rd are difficult to spot before they reach the intersection because of the curving, downward path of the road. Before the stop signs were installed I was almost nailed a couple of times by cars coming up from the valley.

Please don’t ignore the stop signs at the intersection of 136th and Military Rd.  The wreck you don’t have is the best kind.

The pictures below were taken from the driver’s position at the stop sign on 136th Ave E.  Notice how limited the sight line is from 136th to Military Rd E where Military Rd E is coming up from the valley (middle picture). Please note also the ALL WAY notation on the stop sign.

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Too Fast Porsche

Neighborhood Events

The information below was sent to me by one of our neighbors. If you know the individual who owns the bright blue Porsche, please let him/her know they need to slow down.

There was a bright blue Porsche that went about 60mph down 136th Ave at night on Saturday at about 630 the 15th thru the sunrise neighborhood. I watched it burn out and tear past 3 times and then just saw a car exactly like the one I saw last night  pulling out of the loop at 118th this morning at 9am. So thinking they may live in here. We went out to the road to see if it came thru again, but just heard it tearing off down Military toward 162. If they do live I here, why would they think it’s ok to go that fast in a family residential neighborhood.  Not sure if we have any communication with the Shawnee Ridge neighborhood to make them aware as well.

Also, the section of road on 136th after the 4 way stop going towards Shawnee Ridge seems to be where people are going 30-40 mph consistently. There are at least 5 small children living /visiting around this corner and many dogs, plus there are no sidewalks until farther down the road and people must walk on the street. We have no speed limit signs and not sure if we can put some in.  It is a blind corner near the intersection of 118th and 136th, and the kids run across the street all the time to play in the park. I am concerned with the amount of traffic going so fast that it will result in a bad accident.

 

Elk in the Neighborhood?

Interesting Things

Bull Elk

Bull Elk 2

I have lived in our house since 1987 and this is the first time I have seen an elk in my back yard, or for that matter anywhere around the Neighborhood. I’ve seen plenty of deer, some quail, possums, racoons, coyotes, a pheasant, squirrels, bats, a bear, and even a wayward peacock, but never before have I seen an elk.  But at 0211hrs 25 Sept 2022 a young bull elk showed up on my cameras. I was getting jealous. My daughter who lives near Bonny Lake (seven miles from me as the crow flies) sees them often on her property.

Just yesterday a mother deer with her twin fauns (from this year) bedded down on my front lawn for several hours, only moving slowly away when I had to go to the library to pick up a book.

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Home Break-In

Neighborhood Security, Safety

I received the information below from Kim and Rich Amsden who live across 122nd from our Neighborhood. It is a sorry state that we live in today when things like this happen.  The Amsdens said that the police no longer have a person who can look through video recordings for relevant pictures. One way to solve this is to print out hard copies of the pictures they need to see and burn a disk with short clips showing the bad guys.  These will help if the police do catch the bad guys.

The homeowners in our area might consider an alarm system like one offered by SimpliSafe at SimpliSafe.com.  It is a do it yourself installation which is easy to install and can be monitored by SimpliSafe. The Police report Number for the break-in is 2224601550 (Burglary).  By the  way, the homeowner did just the right thing by calling the Police and waiting outside the house, because someone might have been still inside. Since the break-in the Amsdens have added an alarm system and have cameras and sensor lights installed.

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Just wanted to let you know that yesterday, September 3rd, between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm I came home to find that our house had been broken into, and items were stolen. Our garage door that opens to let your car in had been forcibly opened (it was open about quarter way when I arrived home). Our door into the house from the garage, that was deadbolted closed, was destroyed with wood shavings all over the floor, and the baseboard around the door wrecked. Inside, a wallet, a purse, and a new laptop were taken.

I immediately called the police, and two officers came (I waited outside for them to arrive in case someone was still in the house). With my credit card, they had already charged things at Safeway, Shell gas station, Walmart, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. My bank had contacted me when an attempt for $404.00 was made. Luckily, I notified the bank saying that this was not an authorized charge and had this credit card closed. The other items that were purchased will be credited back to our account (in time).

This was a terrifying thing to go to, especially since we had spent a fun day at the WA State Fair and I was returning home alone. We have lived in this neighborhood for over 15 years now, and the only people to come down our driveway are usually the mailman or Amazon.

We don’t have any security cameras, and even if we did, the police said that they don’t even have anyone to look at footage and look into it like they used to.

So, I just wanted our neighborhood to be aware and to report any suspicious activity or people wandering around that don’t look like they live here. We think that it being Labor Day weekend that whoever did this thought there was a good chance that we may have been out of town. We even had a car parked in our driveway!

Even with doors and windows locked, the police said that if someone wants to get in, they will find a way to do so. It could have been a lot worse—-they could have destroyed the inside of the house while looking for what they got.

Stranger Casing Neighborhood ?

Neighborhood Security, Safety

There was a stranger in our Neighborhood this afternoon. He was spotted on several people’s property and approached at least one neighbor’s back door.

One of the neighbors took a photo of him and asked him his name. He said it was Darren Brewer and he appears to be in his early 20s and has been found on Facebook. He had a different story here at one neighbor’s house, another story when still another neighbor saw him between two and 3 o’clock today, and then had a third story when a third neighbor saw him.  A different story each time he was asked why he was in our Neighborhood. Apparently, he was walking around quite a bit because this was all in a period of at least 3 1/2 hours. The stranger appeared impaired.

The Police were called.  If you see this individual do not approach him. Call the Police immediately.

Picture taken in our Neighborhood

Stranger

Pictures from Facebook

 

 

 

 

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