King County Local Services is wrapping up our fifth year of delivering government services to unincorporated parts of King County. 

As the region continued to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, our teams worked to empower residents, help businesses thrive, help communities plan for their future, and help fish return to our creeks and streams. 

Here are some of our top accomplishments in 2023:

In November, Local Services staff joined members of the Skyway community at Personal Touch Barbershop for a conversation about Participatory Budgeting. We heard directly from residents about what they’d like to see in their neighborhoods, as well as shared information about how Participatory Budgeting can help them meet some of those needs by empowering community. 

Participatory Budgeting

This program—which is centered on racial equity— saw how funds from its historic 2022 vote began to make a tangible difference for King County’s urban, unincorporated areas. It also received a prestigious recognition when King County Executive Dow Constantine awarded it his Performance Excellence in Innovation Award in the Equity and Social Justice category (more on that below). 

Building on the foundation they created two years ago, the Participatory Budgeting team launched another ambitious effort to empower the urban unincorporated communities of Skyway/West Hill, White Center/North Highline, East Federal Way, East Renton, and Fairwood. 

Toward the beginning of the year, they chose 29 members of those communities to make up the new 2023-2024 steering committee. After much discussion and learning, the members agreed on how to allocate $11.7 million that will be spent on public improvements and services in those communities. Then they got busy asking their neighbors to submit ideas for specific improvements, attending 41 community events and collecting more than 400 ideas. 

In 2024, the program will evaluate these ideas for feasibility and residents will choose among the feasible options via a community vote. To learn more, visit http://publicinput.com/yourvoiceyourchoice.

In August, business owners joined King County staff and other representatives to learn about recovery efforts and talk about what they would like to see in White Center.

King County Economic Alliance

Local Services embarked on an innovative partnership with community organizations to form the Unincorporated King County Economic Alliance. This program aims to continue helping businesses and individuals to recover and thrive as the region emerges from the economic slowdown created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The $5.25 million program, which was recommended by Executive Constantine and approved by the King County Council, was developed to address concerns voiced by unincorporated area business leaders and residents that local small businesses needed urgent help, particularly those owned by members of the BIPOC community; women; or people who are LGBTQ+; veterans; or immigrants/refugees; have low incomes; speak limited English; have disabilities; or have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. 

So far, 65 participants have enrolled in this program. The Economic Alliance Service Partners have hosted seven community events/markets, 32 workshops for COVID-affected workers or small businesses, and almost 200 individual economic empowerment coaching sessions for unincorporated area residents and small business owners. 

To learn more, visit http://publicinput.com/ukcalliance.

This new fish-friendly culvert under Lake Joy Road was one of three large fish passage restoration/flood reduction culvert projects that Roads completed in 2023. This project allowed Coho salmon to pass upstream, and a social media post featuring video of fish swimming upstream garnered nearly 2 million views.

Road Services 

  • The team replaced two bridges that were more 75 years old, inspected 212 more bridges, and repaired and/or maintained 15 others. 
  • Crews completed three large fish passage restoration/flood reduction culvert projects and fixed or improved roadside drainage in 13 places. 
  • Road Services built one traffic-calming roundabout and improved traffic safety at nine other intersections. 
  • They repaved more than three miles of road and installed more than 13,000 feet of guardrail. 

Crews worked through three major winter storms, plowing and/or sanding more than 9,000 lane miles and answering more than 582 customer service calls. They removed 170 tons of trash from roads, patched some 1,240 potholes, and repaired or replaced more than 12,000 roadside signs.

In June, Local Services helped organize an educational King County Comprehensive Plan + Roller Skate open house event in White Center. Nearly 300 residents attended the event to learn about the Comprehensive Plan process and (of course) to skate!

King County Permits 

  • Helped guide and support King County’s Comprehensive Plan update process, including the Snoqualmie Valley/NE King County Subarea Plan, which was submitted to the King County Council in December. 
  • Refreshed their website. 
  • Maintained an improved turnaround time for initial reviews of residential building permits. 
  • Hired code writers to focus solely on best-available science and fish passage codes. 
  • backfilled vital positions such as the fire marshal, building official, and code enforcement supervisor. 
  • Transmitted updated code language to the King County Council for updated Building and Fire Codes, School Impact Fees, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, Fossil Fuel Risk, and North Highline Design Standards. 

Fall City Wastewater Project

Plans for a new system to deal with residential and commercial sewage in the Fall City commercial area reached a milestone in 2023. 

After several attempts to improve wastewater disposal in Fall City by planning a traditional sewer system, King County found success by strategizing a more cost-effective solution: a Large On-Site Sewage System (LOSS) program that will be managed by the Washington State Department of Health. King County designed a community sewer system for the business district that treats effluent to near-drinking water standards, then disposes of it in an underground drain field.

Bidding for the contract to build the new system will close Jan. 9. The county expects to execute a contract in February and break ground on the project in March or April. We expect the project to be finished in late 2025 or early 2026. 

Snoqualmie Valley/Northeast King County Subarea Plan and King County Comprehensive Plan 

King County Executive Dow Constantine sent the recommended Snoqualmie Valley/Northeast King County Subarea Plan to the King County Council in December 

This culminated more than two years of extensive outreach and engagement by Local Services planners. That work helped shape the subarea plan, which will serve as the area’s planning blueprint for the next 20 years on topics including land use, housing and human services, environment, transportation, and economic development. 

The King County Council will review the recommended subarea plan as part of its countywide Comprehensive Plan process in early 2024.

View documents related to this subarea plan.

See the King County Council website for information on the Comprehensive Plan and Subarea Plan adoption process. 

In August, Local Services staff joined the Community and Friends of Seattle-Tacoma Pet Cemetery public dedication of the Community Art Mural Project, which was helped supported by a King County Community Service Area grant.

Grants, grants, and more grants 

Local Services did its part connecting organizations, businesses, and residents to much-needed grant funding over the past year: 

  • The new Storefront Repair Grant Program helps small businesses recover from vandalism and break-ins suffered during the pandemic.
  • The department awarded more than $90,000 in community engagement grants as part of the annual Alan M. Painter Grant Program. These funds helped support more than 50 events and projects, including National Night Out celebrations, a family-oriented Caribbean Festival, a community mural, and a home-delivery meal program. 
King County Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Anita Whitfield’s presentation of the award for Participatory Budgeting.

Awards

Local Services received a Performance Excellence Award from King County Executive Dow Constantine. These awards honor employees and work groups at King County who bring a Best-Run Government approach to their work and have made exceptional contributions in performance, leadership, and innovation. 

The Local Services Director’s Office won the Equity, Racial & Social Justice Innovation Award, which recognized the Participatory Budgeting Program for achieving exceptional improvement results and helping to make the county a welcoming place where every person can thrive. 

(Watch King County Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Anita Whitfield’s presentation of the award here)

The Participatory Budgeting Program also helped the department pick up another award, the National Association of Government Communicators’ Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Award for the blog posts/news releases that it produced for the program. We won the Award of Excellence in the Writer’s Portfolio category.