It’s been a long time since a market-rate rental home complex was developed on Snoqualmie Ridge. In fact, the one existing rental apartment home development, Echo Ridge, was built almost at the inception of Snoqualmie Ridge in the late 1990’s.
But that changed yesterday, July 10 2013, when the tell-tale orange tape went up and trees began coming down on land parcel S-11 at the corner of SE Swenson 
Drive and Snoqualmie Parkway – the entrance to the Deer Park neighborhood.
According to a July 8th Planning Department report to the Snoqualmie City Council, “engineering plans were approved and a Phase II Mixed Use Consistency Review is nearly complete” for The Woodlands, a 100-unit, market-rate rental townhome community being developed by Evergreen Housing Development Group. The Woodlands will consist of 11 buildings and an office/community building.
Snoqualmie Ridge Division II, which began developing in 2005, was planned to incorporate a mix of different home types and retail. That includes single family homes, attached and detached multi-family homes (condos), affordable housing (rental and for sale) and market-rate rental homes. The Woodlands will be the first market-rate apartments in Snoquamie Ridge Division II
In the past city officials have said it is important to have market-rate rental apartments in Snoqualmie for those who cannot (or choose to not) buy homes, but can afford market-rate rentals. Echo Ridge Apartments were built to serve the population of Snoqualmie Ridge Division I, thus leaving a need for apartments in division II.
For more information on The Woodlands visit their information page on the City of Snoqualmie website.
Comments
And Echo Ridge is not even full? I am still in shock over the deceptive tactics our city “leaders” used to push this through. Going from 46 to 100 appartments was called a “minor modification” by the city so it was not required to bring this project up for vote? I can already tell you what my vote will be next election…. And for the planning dept. please retire!
I second the motion-all in favor?
Seriously! Only one driveway in and out onto an already thin road. I do expect and hope a turn lane onto Swenson is included in this ” planning” as its already near head on collisions trying not to have ones back end taken off when turning onto Swenson from the parkway and having another vehicle leaving deer park or about to turn left out of deer park! I agree that this was not a minor alteration in planning
You are so right!!! It is a hassle already…the Swenson drive is parked full with cars already left and right…And the Street is so small…How will that work? I think somebody only thought of the Money they will make.
I think Echo Ridge is pretty full – and it is good to have affordable housing on the Ridge (and competition for Echo Ridge). Lots of families going through transitions (newcomers, divorcees, young couples) need to rent for a period of time and there is very little available on the Ridge in terms of rentals. Diversity makes our community stronger.
Why don’t they find a place on the ridge then for it??
The People in Deer park choose to live in Deer Park and not on the ridge for numerous reasons…
The housing market slowly goes up and with that complex it will go down rapidly! Many in here don’t want affordable housing here! I do not want to sound rude, negative or judging in any way.Not at all…The houses in here are all pretty expensive and everyone takes extremely well care..Our parks,the streets and Trails…100 Apartments bring a lot of People here..I doubt this will not be a bad thing and having a negative Impact! Just saying what many others think!
EP…I just called Echo Ridge and can move in at the end of the month if needed. That is not the point here…read what TJ and I wrote again. This is a danger in Deer Park and 100 units should have NEVER been pushed through by the city. 46 units would have been enough…and if not they should have moved it to another site. Last I looked; there was plenty of land still available in the master plan across the street by the future school and the new Mormon Church. If they could push through 100 units as a “minor” modification, then they could make the property across the street work as well.
Will we ever have a proper grocery store and pharmacy on the Ridge? Yes, Bartell, wonderful, but it is in North Bend! A few more conveniences would be nice. Issaquah Highlands is on their way to being much improved with a grocery store going in and the now completed theaters. There needs to be more here for our young people to enjoy, so we don’t have to go off the Ridge all the time. It would be nice to put revenue back into the community.
It is incredible sad to see the trees coming down so fast!! Me living on Mc Intosh court i see it all up front and i really wonder if that is needed?
Where will the Kids of that complex go to school??? Deer park kids like mine have to ride the bus to North Bend Elementary…This school is small and the class sizes are already big! There is no way they can take any more kids! I am just sooooo disappointed! On the other side of the street was plenty of space…Now the whole corner to the Entrance of Deer park is messed up! We choose to live in Deer park because of all the green and being a little away from the Ridge…Now it is just the same…SAD!!!
When a handful of trees came down on Swenson, I was surprised. When I saw the entire section leveled, I was saddened. I too am concerned about safety, congestion, and, a lowering of property prices. Going from 46 to 100 units is unwelcome news to me. Combine this with the ‘white roof’ landing strip (as I call it) industrial building on The Parkway, and we are becoming just another crowded sub-division.
Because of this construction the street lights into the Swenson Street are no longer lit up and it is extremely dark at night. Why isn’t the city doing anything about this? It’s dangerous for the neighborhood especially with so many kids in this area.
There is so much hypocrisy here on the part of the Mayor and planning department (esp. Nancy Tucker). This was originally supposed to be retail. It was rezoned to high density apartments because supposed there was no demand for retail. Yet the city if petitioning King County to add the Leisure Land site to city limits due to a lack of retail space. HUH? We have had a 2013 of poor planning decisions – eg. the white “landing strip” roof in the business park (keeping all the trees the city cut would have prevented that), end-to-end clearing and increasing density on S11 (was it really necessary to cut right up to the edge of the Ridge trail?? So greedy…), the lowering of the berm so we can all look at Chase’s parking lot (ummm… I have a Chase account but will not use this place), etc. Time for the Mayor and city planners to go….