THE FUTURE FACE OF SULTAN?

THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN AT THE July 29th, 2006 Saturday workshop of Sultan's new Planning Board. We have posted all five of these photos, as some offer better views of some areas than others. This is the first time we saw this map; it has not been displayed or on view at any public council or Planning Board function or hearing previously.

August 11, 2006 CORRECTION to the previous statement that this map has not been displayed publicly before: As Mayor Tolson embarrassingly and correctly pointed out to me after the 8/10/06 council meeting, I had indeed seen this map previously, at the February 2006 council retreat. And in response to my disbelief, he immediately accessed it on his laptop, proving his assertion. (I have not seen it since the council retreat, however.) As I desperately searched my so-called mind to find excuses for my complete memory "blackout," I decided to turn a deficit into an opportunity to poke fun at myself, while also sharing a Theory of (time) Relativity I've developed over the last couple of years of a weird phenomenon I refer to as SDT, or "Sultan Dog Time." As a non-paid taxpayer advocate trying to keep pace with a fully-paid, full-time city staff, I have noticed that a single day in Sultan -- where events and decisions seem to change and flip-flop almost as often as they do in the Land of OZ -- bears little relevance to real clock time. It shares more commonality with the concept that one year of a dog's life equates to seven human years. Thus, if you equate the 5 1/2 months since I first saw this map on Feb. 21, 2006, using Sultan Dog Time (or SDT), the passage of time has really been 3.25 years. At my advanced age and after 6.5 years of hardcore civic advocacy/watchdoggery duty, I'm hoping some folks will throw me a bone on this faux pas (or "Foe Paw") and enjoy a little chuckle at my expense.

FOR ORIENTATION PURPOSES (as shown in the all-city view below):

The Sultan River is shown on the left side of the photo as a north-to-south, slightly wandering blue line running from the top until it meets the City's city limits halfway down the picture, when it beomces gold'ish in color. The Skykomish River is located at the bottom of the map, with U. S. 2 above (north) of that river.

The red-outlined rectangle area near the top of the photo: The left side indicates the location of Sultan's WTP (Water Treatment Plant) and the city's "new" 35-acre inaccessible parkland to the west of the plant. The greenish-blue rectangle on the WTP's eastern border is a 200-unit Garth York development on the northern border of 124th St. S.E. adjacent to York's previous Rosewood Estates community. This area must first be approved for annexation by the County to be added to Sultan's UGA, then annexed into the City. The city attempt to enlarge its UGA by proposing to this area be added to its UGA in Dec., 2005, but were denied by the County, due to concerns that the City could not properly service this land. This land is, or was, at least partially owned by Tim Albers (who may already have sold it, as he now lives in one of York's Rosewood homes. Mr. Albers, along with two other nearby property owners, failed in a 2000 attempt to annex their land into Sultan's UGA. The small, irregular rectangle'ish area below the "Sky Ridge" development area is York's Rosewood Estates, built on septic. (This explanation is continued below this photo.)

G.R.I.T.
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• Blueish-green = "Pending" 754 S.F. Dwelling units)
• Blue areas= "Approved Projects" 249 S. F. dwelling units)
• Yellow = "Under Review" 396 S.F. dwelling units

"S.F." means Single Family homes. The State's OFM (Office of Financial Mgt.) designates that an "average" of 2.7 persons reside within the "average" single family home (as of July, 2006).