On Saturday, February 5, volunteers spent the day in Black Diamond working as part of King County’s Native Plant Salvage Program. Volunteers, working at the site of a future YarrowBay development, uprooted and repotted hundreds of plants for transport to habitat restoration sites.

“Thanks so much to the 75 volunteers who spent Saturday salvaging and potting plants. We could not do this work without you,” said Cindy Young, ecologist with King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks.  Once relocated, these plants will aid in shading streams, reducing erosion, and providing habits to local wildlife.

“It was great to have so many local volunteers pitching in,” said David McDuff of YarrowBay Holdings. “This effort is essential to ensuring that the work we do continues to honor the amazing natural surroundings that make Black Diamond such a wonderful place to work and live.” Thanks again to everyone who helped make this event a success.

Feb 01 2011 • COVINGTON REPORTER
YarrowBay commits to no increase in phosphorus from Black Diamond developments…

Jan 20 2011 • CROSSCUT
Letter to editor: Black Diamond development will meet newest standards…

Dec 16 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
Land for schools deal between Black Diamond, Enumclaw School District and YarrowBay nears completion…

Oct 19 2010 • VOICE OF THE VALLEY
YarrowBay Holdings, City of Maple Valley reach final agreement on Transportation Improvements…

Sep 22 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
The city of Maple Valley and YarrowBay find a way through traffic | Tentative agreement reached…

Aug 24 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
Black Diamond City Council unanimously approves the two YarrowBay master planned developments, The Villages and Lawson Hills

Aug 18 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
Black Diamond City Council considers YarrowBay projects The Villages and Lawson Hills
Aug 17 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
YarrowBay staff showed respect and concern with community issues…
Aug 12 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
YarrowBay projects The Villages and Lawson Hills are the right way to develop in Black Diamond

Jun 29 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
Twists and turns in Black Diamond’s hearing for The Villages and Lawson Hills | Week One

May 27 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
Closed record hearings set for YarrowBay projects in Black Diamond

May 11 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
The Villages and Lawson Hills developments in Black Diamond recommended for approval

Apr 28 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
Community Facilities District law gives communities a better way to make development pay for its impact

Apr 16 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
YarrowBay’s The Villages and Lawson Hills Black Diamond developments clear first hurdle

Mar 17 2010 • COVINGTON REPORTER
YarrowBays an opportunity for Black Diamond

Black Diamond, Wash. – January 31, 2011 – In a letter to the City of Black Diamond, YarrowBay announced a “no net increase” plan with regards to phosphorus runoff to Lake Sawyer from The Villages and Lawson Hills MPDs. Phosphorus is responsible for algal blooms and other water quality issues and in order to protect the quality of Lake Sawyer, YarrowBay will implement a number of mechanisms to ensure that the lake’s existing phosphorus levels are not increased as a result of its MPD developments.

A major criticism of urban development, phosphorus runoff is limited by city code; however, unlike most master planned communities in Washington, YarrowBay is self-imposing a “no net increase” standard for its phosphorus runoff mitigation. This goes above and beyond the standards put in place by the Lake Sawyer Management Plan and exceeds all existing state and local requirements, including the Department of Ecology’s 2005 Stormwater Management Manual for Western Washington, which the City of Black Diamond has adopted and identifies phosphorous removal guidelines and treatment strategies.

“After reviewing the data on existing phosphorus runoff and estimates of the runoff from the planned MPD developments, we are confident that we can provide no net increase in the amount of phosphorus flowing into Lake Sawyer from our property,” said Colin Lund, YarrowBay’s Chief Entitlement Officer. “We want Black Diamond to remain an attractive place to live, and protecting Lake Sawyer is an important part of building this community.”

YarrowBay will implement “source controls,” such as requiring the use of phosphorus-free fertilizers in all parks, and will employ stormwater treatment facilities, such as large wetponds or large sand filters, to remove phosphorous from the MPDs’ stormwater runoff. In addition, low impact development techniques will be employed where appropriate on the MPD sites and YarrowBay will look for opportunities to use other phosphorus mitigation measures elsewhere in the City. As a result, The Villages and Lawson Hills MPDs will not cause any increase to Lake Sawyer’s existing phosphorus levels.

“Because YarrowBay has a long-term vision for these new districts of Black Diamond, they plan to invest in the monitoring necessary to assess their true potential impacts and in turn put in place the mitigations necessary to protect Lake Sawyer,” said Al Fure, a consultant with Triad Associates. “Small, piecemeal developments often aren’t able to assess and correct for their environmental impacts to this degree, but the size and scale of the YarrowBay developments present a unique opportunity to do this.”

YarrowBay will monitor phosphorus levels of stormwater currently exiting their MPD properties and draining toward Lake Sawyer to establish a baseline and, with its proposed monitoring program, will undertake all necessary mitigation measures to ensure “no net increase” of phosphorus levels above this baseline condition.

Fast Facts:

- “Old fashioned” methods of drainage control, such as roadside drainage swales, are now shown to provide a superior stormwater management benefit versus the curbs and pipelines seen in most new development. This is one example of “low impact development”.
- Individual responsibility can go a long way to protecting a shared treasured resource like Lake Sawyer:
- Washing your car on the lawn versus the roadway keeps phosphorous-laden detergent from entering the drainage system.
- Limiting fertilizer use and using phosphorous-free fertilizers keep phosphorous from entering the lake system.
- Being diligent in maintenance of your septic tank and drain field can help keep nutrients from finding their way to the streams and/or lake.
- Collection and proper disposal of pet waste can help protect nutrients from entering the drainage system and finding their way to the lake. Six dogs (or three chickens) are equal to one human’s waste.
- Erosion of soil is a major contributor to phosphorous pollution and is a reason erosion control protections during the winter rainy season are so important – the straw mulch you often see on cleared sites is a means of keeping the soil stabilized and keeping water from getting muddy while leaving the site.
- A variety of stormwater treatment solutions are now known to be effective in removing phosphorous from stormwater runoff. Some are commonly seen, such as large stormwater ponds, which settle out phosphorous-laden sediment, others are invisible to the untrained eye, such as bioretention swales, rain gardens and subterranean sand filter and settlement vaults.

YarrowBay Holding and the City of Maple Valley finalized an agreement regarding transportation improvements within Maple Valley. The agreement was approved by the Maple Valley City Council on October 6, 2010. Based on this agreement, YarrowBay Holding will make contributions to the transportation infrastructure in Maple Valley.

In August, the Black Diamond City Council unanimously voted to approve, with conditions, the master planned developments The Villages and Lawson Hills. To support the needs of the new developments, and to account for the traffic impacts on Maple Valley, YarrowBay and the City of Maple Valley signed an agreement detailing the timing of YarrowBay’s contribution to fifteen transportation improvements in Maple Valley.

“We are excited to have reached an agreement with the City of Maple Valley. By working together, YarrowBay and the City of Maple Valley will be able to improve the transportation corridor serving the citizens of Maple Valley, Black Diamond, and the greater south King County area,” said Brian Ross, CEO of YarrowBay.

The agreement details 15 transportation improvement projects of which YarrowBay will pay a mutually agreed percentage share of the costs. Each project will be initiated upon completion of a development milestone within the master planned development as set forth in the agreement.

The 15 traffic improvement projects detailed in the agreement include various intersection and road widening improvements along SR 169 and SR 516, the main transportation corridors that will be utilized by new residents of the master planned communities in Black Diamond.

“Our agreement with YarrowBay gives us the flexibility to plan for and build fifteen transportation improvements in a way that best meets the needs of our City. Maple Valley invested much staff and consulting time into negotiating this agreement, and I am proud of the outcome achieved, and look forward to a cooperative working relationship for years to come with YarrowBay,” said David Johnston, City Manager.

1.     SR 169/SE 288th Street
2.     SR 169/SE Black Diamond-Ravensdale Road
3.     SR 169/Roberts Drive
4.     SR 169/Baker Street
5.     SR 169/Lawson Road
6.     SR 169/Jones Lake Road
7.     SR 169/SE Green Valley Road
8.     SE Auburn-Black Diamond Road/218th Avenue SE
9.     SE Auburn-Black Diamond Road/Lake Sawyer Road SE
10.  Roberts Drive/Morgan Street
11.  SE Covington-Sawyer Road/216th Avenue SE
12.  SE 288th Street/216th Avenue SE
13.  SE 288th Street/232nd Avenue SE

Yarrow Bay Development is the General Partner of both BD Lawson and BD Village, the Applicants for the Lawson Hills and the Villages MPDs. YarrowBay Group was founded in 2001, and is one of the Northwest’s leading independently operated property development and management companies with a history of focusing on preserving the livable qualities of a place that its managers and employees call home. That means hiring local labor and supporting local jobs, acquiring local materials, and hiring local professional services, which not only supports the local economy, but reduces impacts on the environment.

The Master Planned Developments presented before the Black Diamond City Council had their start more than two decades ago, when the townspeople realized that the City would have to diversify its economy or suffer the fate of other rural Washington cities built solely around a single industry.

Instead of becoming a relic of a bygone era, the community came together to develop a comprehensive plan that would allow them to dictate their desire to grow organically, aesthetically and uniformly across the landscape, preserving the City’s small-town character and prudently conserving much of its forested wilderness.

Black Diamond was founded around its coal mines. In its early years, the town was bustling with activity as coal mining brought workers and their families, their steady salaries and the need for services. The town had a hotel and a drugstore. Over the years, it opened a grocery and business ebbed and flowed with each successive mine until the price and availability of crude oil decreased the demand for coal.

Throughout its history, though, Black Diamond’s population never really spiked more than its current peak of around 4,000 residents. In the meantime, the City’s neighbors in Maple Valley and Covington have seen explosive growth without the fortune of the kind of comprehensive, thoughtful planning that goes into a master-planned community.

A City moratorium has prevented large-scale, planned growth for a decade. When YarrowBay acquired several large tracts of property in 2006, it embarked on a collaborative process to implement a design capturing the City’s heritage and its vision for the future.

When YarrowBay acquired its land, the City gained a dependable partner to make the most of an unprecedented opportunity to do things the right way. Doing things “right” means implementing a community plan that focuses on Black Diamond’s Vision — with a capital “V.”

The City’s Vision recognizes the essential small town character of the area, matched with the needs and expectations of residents, old and new. It means diverse housing types for different lifestyles, needs and means. It calls for commercial spaces that not only drive business and jobs, but capture the “Main Street” sense of community. And it means respect for the environment, wildlife habitat and recreational needs— open space, trails and natural features that define the City’s and the region’s quality of life.

YarrowBay’s mission is to “help communities meet their growth needs through careful and thoughtful land use planning that focuses on the principles of smart growth, sustainability and transportation efficiency.”

These are not just feel-good marketing words; it is a core belief that drives company founders, executives and employees — all of whose affinity for the quality of life in the Northwest motivates them to excel every day. It has also directed YarrowBay’s success.

These Master Planned Developments were a long time in design and planning. Change is never easy, and is best absorbed gradually. YarrowBay has strived to engage the community through public outreach, such as hosted meetings and advertisements, throughout the initial planning stages. Nothing about this process has been hurried or impulsive.

Consequently, Gene Duvernoy, president of the Cascade Land Conservancy, in his testimony to the Hearing Examiner, called the MPDs preservation of open space “innovative,” and “very credible.” He stressed that Black Diamond’s open space program “has been carefully crafted to create an attractive and environmentally responsive system.”

Former Mayor Gomer Evans has spent his lifetime in Black Diamond, and was on the original City Council that incorporated the municipality in 1959. He has seen the changes in and around Black Diamond, and told the Council on June 30, 2010 that the “Master Plan Development provides a great opportunity for this city to manage its future and to do that in a well-planned and reasonable way…

“This plan was developed with our voices. It is well-thought out; and it addresses the needs that our voices have raised, including environmental issues.”

YarrowBay believes in operating with honesty, trust, and respect, both as individuals and as a group. We are guided by five leading principles—Community, Sustainability, Partnership, Diversity and Creativity. We firmly believe in creating “value for our owners, investors and employees by creating better places to live, work and play in the Northwest.” And we believe that a vast majority of residents of Washington share these values. More than building homes and paving roads, land planning is about embracing the human element and being deliberate in establishing the socio-physical structure that encourages community gathering in parks, open spaces and recreational centers. It means providing alternative transportation and a means for safe walking and bicycling. It means creating a healthy balance of jobs, services and housing.

This initial approval stage is not the final word on development of the Villages and Lawson Hills. The City and the community will have many more opportunities to voice their concerns as the project builds out.

The codes and regulations in these MPD applications were cast to “guide unified development over a period of many years.”  The MPD Code is designed to assure that each MPD builds out in an incremental and phased fashion.

I firmly believe that what you have before you is a comprehensive, sensible and thoughtful design plan, crafted in a manner consistent and reflective of Black Diamond’s Vision and community spirit. The Villages and Lawson Hills are the community’s vision, and YarrowBay is honored to be the company to carry out that vision. These MPDs exemplify the best in creative community and land use planning, and are representative of some of the best work YarrowBay has composed to date. And I proudly stake my reputation on it.

Brian Ross, Founder and CEO, YarrowBay Holdings