Instructions for Speaking at KC Council Meeting on Tuesday, June 14 at 1:00pm

Using Zoom

  • Download the Zoom app if you don’t have it: https://zoom.us/ (works on phones)

  • Open Zoom and click the Join button

  • Type in Webinar ID: 830 3407 1240. You will automatically be on mute, and your video will be off.

  • They will call on you to speak. When they do a dialog box will pop up on your screen and ask you to click on it to unmute yourself. Click the button and start talking.riends of Sammamish Valley
    serena@friendsofsammamishvalley.org; 425-985-2992

Using a Phone Call

You can connect to the meeting by calling 1-253-215-8782 and using the Webinar ID 830 3407 1240. Connecting in this manner, however, may impact your ability to be unmuted to speak. They should call you by the last 4 digits of your phone number. You need to know how to unmute your phone to speak. In a busy meeting, this may not work. Consider Zoom.

To LISTEN to the Meeting Only 

  1. Stream online via this link: https://livestream.com/accounts/15175343/events/4485487, or input the link web address into your web browser.

  2. Watch King County TV Channel 22 (Comcast Channel 22 and 322(HD), Wave Broadband Channel 22)

What to Say

You will have one minute. It goes by really fast. We suggest you identify yourself, tell Council what actions you are requesting and maybe pick one or two key points to highlight. Suggestions below.

I am <name>. I live/work/own business in <general location>.

I am speaking on adult beverage legislation. Please vote NO on Ordinance 2022-0147.  And please repeal Ordinance 19030. 

Some key talking points to select from if you so choose. Or you can also just say the above and be done.

  • Alcohol manufacturing facilities and retail bars belong inside the Urban Growth Area. There is plenty of space in the urban area for these businesses.

  • The Rural Area does not have urban infrastructure such as sewer hookup, sidewalks, stoplights and turn lanes, streetlights, and parking lots. Urban use manufacturing and retail businesses need this infrastructure.

  • Businesses without proper infrastructure create toxic runoff and cause flooding. These impacts, together with significantly increased land prices from encroaching commercial activities, threaten protected farmland and the livelihoods of the farmers.

  • Negative impacts to agriculture production from climate change are threatening food security.  We need to be doing more to support our farms and local food security.

  • One purpose of the Rural Area is to buffer farms from commercial activities. Urban use, commercial businesses should not be placed in these critical buffer zones.

  • Farmers working in the Sammamish Valley provide food to underserved communities in Seattle.  Many of the farmers are diverse, coming from the Hmong, Khmer, Hispanic, and Black communities, as well as others. Their livelihoods are at risk as is their ability to provide food to underserved communities.  

  • The Rural Area is intended to protect our watersheds and natural environment. Polluted groundwater, reduced instream flows, and habitat loss from commercial businesses harm fish and wildlife.  

  • Public safety issues result from cars parked over the white line and pedestrians walking on the side of narrow, unlit rural roads and highways.  

  • No turn lanes along rural roads increase traffic backups.

  • Cars parked in residential neighborhoods create safety issues for our children.

  • Manufacturing facilities and retail bars sprawling through 302 square miles of Rural Area, rather than clustered in the cities, will create more truck and car traffic and be counter to County goals to reduce our carbon footprint.

  • Visual blight from signage and other commercial activities is incompatible with rural character.

  • Manufacturing facilities and retail bars are loud and sometimes smell, impacting rural character, residents who live nearby, and wildlife.

  • Alcohol manufacturing and retail facilities inside the urban area pay more for land, leases, permitting and operations as it includes urban infrastructure and space with less restrictions. Those operating on Rural Area and Agriculture lands pay much less, allowing them to generate unfair profits.

  • Over several decades King County has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on successful rural, fish and farmland protection programs. The legislation flies in the face of taxpayer dollars being spent on these programs.

  • Allowing alcohol manufacturing and retail into the Rural Area sets a dangerous precedent. Other types of manufacturing and retail businesses will want to locate in less expensive Rural Area lands as well.

  • The Board unanimously invalidated the Ordinance 19030 twice in strongly worded, unanimous decisions. The appeal of the Board’s decision is nothing but a waste of taxpayer dollars in defense of special interest legislation.

  • County officials are required to uphold state and county laws that protect agriculture, the environment, and rural communities. Citizens should not have to sue the county to get our elected officials to do their jobs.