Harold Zeitz says he has nothing against the two decade-old, make-shift community bike park near his house on Education Hill.

But he is against to the city’s plans for expansion.

Zeitz said he is one of more than 100 residents who oppose a planned bike project that would add more dirt-jump style bike trails to a piece of city-owned utility property within Hartman Park.

Zeitz is concerned the expansion of trails for BMX and mountain bike riders will draw more people from outside the neighborhood, creating parking, noise and crime problems inside his quiet residential neighborhood. In addition, Zeitz said he worries about the impact the expansion will have on the wetlands and wooded area near the bike jumps.

“It’s not in concert with the neighborhood,” Zeitz said of the expansion plans. “It will have a huge impact on the neighborhood. We hope our concerns are heard.”

Zeitz, along with fellow Education Hill resident Rob Katz, will be representing an appellant group of 32 other neighbors at an upcoming Redmond City Council appeal hearing concerning the city’s plans for the new Redmond Bike Park.

Education Hill resident Stephen Gasser has also filed an appeal application with the city and will speak at the upcoming hearing, set for 7:30 p.m. May 8 at Redmond City Hall during a regular city council meeting.

Gasser agrees with Zeitz that the project is too large in scope for the surrounding neighborhood and also expressed concerns about the public notice process by the city in his two-page appeal application.

The planned park, located on two acres of wooded land near the corner of 171st Avenue Northeast and Northeast 100th Street, calls for extending the two dirt-jump style trails that are currently there and adding three more trails. The trails would feature jumps for all levels, from beginners to advanced. In addition, a multi-use trail would be built around the perimeter of the park.

“I don’t want to back an amusement park,” said Katz, whose property borders the proposed bike park. “This is going to be a big attraction, so why are they putting this in a neighborhood?”

CONSTRUCTION PUT ON HOLD

After several community design meetings, construction of the new Redmond Bike Park was set to begin last summer. But those plans were put on hold after Zeitz, Katz and other neighbors appealed the site entitlement plan and the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) plan to a hearing examiner, who ruled in favor of the city last December.

At the upcoming May 8 appeal hearing, the Redmond City Council will evaluate the hearing examiner’s decision regarding the project’s site entitlement plan. Only Zeitz and Katz, along with Gasser, the other formal appellant, and city representatives will be able to address the Council during the hearing, but anyone may attend the hearing.

Robin Jenkinson, the Kirkland city attorney, will be acting as the Redmond City Council’s legal advisor on the matter. Redmond City Attorney, James Haney, will represent the City of Redmond Parks Department, Planning Department and Technical Committee.

Council will vote to grant or deny the appeal and will serve as the final decision of the city, according to a city proceeding notice.

“I am confident that when the Council reviews the record made before the hearing examiner and the arguments made by the parties, the Council will deny the appeal and uphold the permits, just as the hearing examiner did,” Haney said in an email to the Reporter.

If Council denies the appeal, then Zeitz can appeal to the King County Superior Court, which he said he plans to do if the May 8 appeal is denied.

Zeitz and Katz have already filed a Complaint for Declaratory Judgement in King County Superior Court regarding the project’s SEPA plan. That appeal won’t be heard by the county superior court until August of 2013, according to Katz, meaning this project could be delayed by at least another year.

Katz said the park’s expansion plans would interfere with the buffer zone around the wetlands area east of the bike park.

“We would lose that protective barrier,” he said. “It’s the city’s job to validate and protect the wetlands. Why don’t they want to protect the wetlands?”

If Council denies the site entitlement appeal at the May 8 hearing, then Katz and Zeitz can add that appeal to their current SEPA lawsuit in King County Superior Court.

“We want the Council to take a good, hard look at this,” Zeitz said. “We don’t intend to stop. We intend to see this through.”

The hearing examiner’s decision can only be overturned by City Council if council members find “that the hearing examiner had erred someplace along the line,” according to Council President Pat Vache, who could not share his opinions about the bike park because the issue is quasi-judicial.

Redmond resident Doug Schmitt, the co-chair of the bike park’s citizen steering committee, said he is frustrated by the opponents who have delayed the bike park project, which is designed for giving neighborhood residents a healthy, recreational outlet.

“I think they are wasting a lot of people’s money and time,” he said. “The kids need something to do. It’s constructive and good. It’s exercise. If this gets kids out of the house and spending energy, then I’m all for it.”

SO WHAT’S THE BEST SOLUTION?

The dirt jumps near Hartman Park have been around for about 20 years, during which time residents would construct dirt ramps and jumps on the parcel, only to have the city come bulldoze them down when they got too high or dangerous.

Plans for the Redmond Bike Park began in 2009 when Mayor John Marchione instructed staff to look into a way of legitimizing the dirt jumps in the wooded area into a city park. City officials say the park would be built mostly by volunteers who use the park so the construction budget would be minimal. In addition, this will create a sense of ownership and responsibility for users toward the park, city officials and bike park supporters say.

Schmitt said no matter what the final decision is, the bike park will continue to get used and built up by the bike users.

“They would have to fence that place off with barbed wire to keep people off those trails,” Schmitt said. “They are never going to get rid of that park. That’s the reason the city wanted to do something.”

Zeitz said the best solution is to keep the park the size it is now and establish it as a city-sanctioned park.

“It’s been used for 20 years, so it must be pretty good as it is now,” Zeitz said. “Let’s formalize it, but keep it the same size. Let’s keep it a neighborhood park, not a regional park.”