Developments vs. environment

The Mirror article “Federal Way site recommended for Sound Transit light vehicle facility” reinforces the limited foresight our elected officials have relative to the impact these actions will have on the remaining tree cover and wetlands in our rapidly growing urban environment. Here goes another site, approximately one-third covered by trees and wetland vegetation, cleared for a light rail maintenance facility.

And this facility will be directly across the freeway from the former Weyerhaeuser headquarters. The headquarters site with over 10 miles of trails through forests and meadows has been open to the public since its inception in 1994 when city council uniquely zoned it as a corporate park. Yet clearing will soon began for the first of five warehouses!

When will our elected officials understand we do not live here for “bread alone,” but also because nearby forests and wetlands give us clean air, water and a natural open space respite from increasing urban congestion? Please locate these “developments” elsewhere!

Richard Pierson

Federal Way

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Rest in peace

As I sit here at the Federal Way Crossings in the parking lot eating a McDonald’s cheeseburger, I can’t help but think of the young man that lost his life in this same parking lot. This dark gloomy parking lot. The lighting in this parking lot is very bad. This parking lot has been a magnet for criminal behavior. I know this because I was once the loss prevention manager at the Sportsman’s Center Warehouse at the Crossings and I would sit in my office and watch criminal activity daily, so I can only imagine what goes on nightly. May that young man rest in peace.

Thomas Washington

Federal Way