Road safety, tree canopy, city budget: Lake Forest Park residents address concerns to City Council at first town hall
Monday, May 25, 2026
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| About 100 people attend the LFP Town Hall on May 20, 2026 Photo courtesy Third Place Commons |
By Nick Ng
About 100 people attended Lake Forest Park’s first town hall event Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at Third Place Commons. After Mayor Tom French and councilmembers introduced themselves, some residents lined up on either side of the stage to ask them a question. Councilmembers Ellyn Saunders and Matt Muilenburg were not in attendance.
Third Place Commons Board of Directors Vice Chair Erika Olson moderated the event. “[A] town hall is an enduring tradition that has been with us since the very beginning, earliest days of our American democracy, and that’s pretty cool to continue to uphold that tradition,” she said.
Road safety, e-motos
Lake Forest Park resident Catherine said road and pedestrian safety near her home in Horizon View is a concern. She described walking in front of her house as “death-defying” because she has two grandchildren who are deaf, and she said they won’t hear approaching cars from her driveway.
Catherine also talked about motorized bikes and scooters “zooming around Horizon View Park.”
“Do people need to have helmets or not?” she asked. “I remember when my granddaughter was about 10 months old, and she walked on the park walkways. I’d be terrified to have her up there right now.”
French acknowledged that e-bikes and e-motorcycles are a problem. “I can tell you right now that when I talk to the 37 mayors around this Puget Sound region, every one of them has had really serious issues around the country,” he said. “Sadly, there are fatalities, and the fatalities are largely in teens, and that’s just unacceptable.”
According to Senate Bill 6434 that Washington State Legislature passed in 2018, there are three classes of e-bikes or “electric-assisted bicycles”:
- Class 1: The e-bike’s motor provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and stops assisting when the e-bike reaches 20 miles per hour.
- Class 2: The e-bike has a throttle that can propel the e-bike and cannot provide assistance when the e-bike reaches 20 miles per hour.
- Class 3: Same as Class 1 except the motor stops assistance when the e-bike reaches 28 miles per hour.
E-motorcycles or e-motos, however, can vary between 4 to more than 40 horsepower.
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| Mayor Tom French (far right) and members of the LFP City Council answered questions Photo courtesy Third Place Commons |
Regarding helmets, French said Lake Forest Park has an ordinance on wearing helmets when riding a bike. “It’s a full stop,” he said.
French said that Interim Police Chief Diego Zanella is working on the ordinances and will bring them to the City Council for consideration. He added that the Lake Forest Police Police have a new motorcycle, which will be used for traffic law enforcement, including all cyclists.
“We see people going by 35 or 40 miles an hour,” French said, referring to e-motos on the Burke-Gilman Trail. “It’s a miracle that we haven’t had issues.”
Tree canopy
Lake Forest Park Tree Board member Ross Baarslag-Benson told the Council that the City’s existing tree canopy is one of the “most effective things we can do for climate change and air quality” and “one of the biggest qualities of our Lake Forest Park.” He said that planting small trees takes many years to grow and give an adequate canopy, and the invasive English ivy is already covering some trees.
Councilmember Larry Goldman, who is also the council liaison to the Tree Board, said the board has a strong tree ordinance that prevents trees from being cut down and requires new trees planted to replace the lost canopy.
He said some board members have already proposed strengthening protections by revising the City’s ordinance on increasing the protection of larger-diameter trees because they are the “keystone species that provide a lot of biodiversity.”
Regarding ivy removal, Goldman said the City pays into the King Conservation District, which in turn maintains a fund of about $100,000 that the City can spend on any conservation project. He said that money might be used to support more ivy-removal and tree-health work.
Sound Transit bus lane
A Lake Forest Park resident, who did not identify himself, talked about the proposed Sound Transit bus lane project along State Route 522/ Bothell Way through Lake Forest Park. He recalled a community meeting at Lake Forest Park Elementary School about two years ago that drew about 400 people, adding that “everyone there was in opposition to the bus lane.”
He said the scale and the cost of the project, which he alleged to be $600,000 to $900,000, would involve cutting down about 400 trees and constructing a 9,000-foot concrete wall.
“You know what big problem is this solving? It’s to move people two minutes faster on buses that are halfway filled,” he said, adding that the project be “scrapped.”
Councilmember Paula Good said while “it's hard to stop a train as big as Sound Transit,” she said many residents may not fully understand the project’s potential impacts because they do not live near the SR 522 corridor. She also said she had not seen heavy bus ridership — no more than eight people during rush hour — and did not believe the project was necessary.
“I think [Sound Transit] is probably going to have a big sticker shock when they do see that because…9,000 feet of dirt is a lot of dirt, a lot of diesel.”
French said the bus lane project is part of the regional network with costs at about $561 million, based on 2021 estimates. “We said, absolutely not. You do not own those properties. We’re not going to submit permits on behalf of somebody who’s not in agreement with you.”
“There’s a whole scoop of people on 150th Place, and they’re all in opposition right now,” Goode said. “None of them have signed permits, so the process with Sound Transit is they cannot submit any permits until every property that they need has a possession-and-use agreement.”
Lake Forest Park Tree Board member Ross Baarslag-Benson told the Council that the City’s existing tree canopy is one of the “most effective things we can do for climate change and air quality” and “one of the biggest qualities of our Lake Forest Park.” He said that planting small trees takes many years to grow and give an adequate canopy, and the invasive English ivy is already covering some trees.
“What I’d love for the Council to do is to be creative and think about ways that we can help that,” Baarslang-Benson said. “It would be wonderful if we could go to Sound Transit and say, look, instead of planting these community trees someplace that’s not going to help us, provide us money so that we can hire two full-time arborists. Is that something that the Council can get behind?”
Councilmember Larry Goldman, who is also the council liaison to the Tree Board, said the board has a strong tree ordinance that prevents trees from being cut down and requires new trees planted to replace the lost canopy.
He said some board members have already proposed strengthening protections by revising the City’s ordinance on increasing the protection of larger-diameter trees because they are the “keystone species that provide a lot of biodiversity.”
Regarding ivy removal, Goldman said the City pays into the King Conservation District, which in turn maintains a fund of about $100,000 that the City can spend on any conservation project. He said that money might be used to support more ivy-removal and tree-health work.
Sound Transit bus lane
A Lake Forest Park resident, who did not identify himself, talked about the proposed Sound Transit bus lane project along State Route 522/ Bothell Way through Lake Forest Park. He recalled a community meeting at Lake Forest Park Elementary School about two years ago that drew about 400 people, adding that “everyone there was in opposition to the bus lane.”
He said the scale and the cost of the project, which he alleged to be $600,000 to $900,000, would involve cutting down about 400 trees and constructing a 9,000-foot concrete wall.
“You know what big problem is this solving? It’s to move people two minutes faster on buses that are halfway filled,” he said, adding that the project be “scrapped.”
Councilmember Paula Good said while “it's hard to stop a train as big as Sound Transit,” she said many residents may not fully understand the project’s potential impacts because they do not live near the SR 522 corridor. She also said she had not seen heavy bus ridership — no more than eight people during rush hour — and did not believe the project was necessary.
“I think [Sound Transit] is probably going to have a big sticker shock when they do see that because…9,000 feet of dirt is a lot of dirt, a lot of diesel.”
French said the bus lane project is part of the regional network with costs at about $561 million, based on 2021 estimates. “We said, absolutely not. You do not own those properties. We’re not going to submit permits on behalf of somebody who’s not in agreement with you.”
“There’s a whole scoop of people on 150th Place, and they’re all in opposition right now,” Goode said. “None of them have signed permits, so the process with Sound Transit is they cannot submit any permits until every property that they need has a possession-and-use agreement.”
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| People lined up on both sides of the room to ask questions of their elected officials Photo courtesy Third Place Commons |
City budget prioritization
Lake Forest Park resident Maddie Larson asked the Council what evidence and decision-making process they use to prioritize projects, such as safer streets, environmental goals, housing, climate and financial resilience.
Deputy Mayor Tracy Furutani said the Council relies on Finance Director Lindsey Vaughn and her staff to give them proposals. “That gives us a handle, at least one significant number on what some of these things that we proposed [would] cost,” he said. “We take that into account when we set up priorities as a Council. When the budget comes out later this year, you’ll see those priorities reflected in that.”
However, Furutani said there are “unintended consequences” that are outside of the City’s control, such as the state’s reduction of public defender caseloads, which “immediately tripled our public defense costs.”
“We tried to build in the cushion when the mayor talks about the fiscal cliff,” Furutani said. “He’s talking about the City requiring a 16% reserve. That is to say 16% of our operating funds has to be held in reserve for these kinds of emergencies. We don’t want to dip into that as much as we can, and so we’re basically trying to anticipate some of these unintended costs that we weren’t aware of at the beginning of the year by basically being as prudent as we can with our priorities.”
Other issues brought up include:
- How neighbors will be involved and informed before any change making NE 180th Street/Perkins Way one-way;
- Whether the City’s emergency management plan is truly “shelf‑ready” and operational in a major disaster scenario;
- Concerns about reasonable use exceptions (RUEs), their cost and risk to neighbors and the environment, and whether a moratorium or shift in burden of proof is possible.
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