General Questions

• Q: What is the Scenic Hill Neighborhood Council?
• A: The Scenic Hill Neighborhood Council is an officially recognized neighborhood coucil formed under the City of Kent Neighborhood Council Program. The council was organized and registered with the city in 2007. Originally it only included all of the homes on Scenic Hill, north of the Kent Swim and Tennis Club. In August of 2008, the council voted to expand its boundaries to include all of the homes on Scenic Hill, south of Scenic Hill Elementary. The council now includes 899 homes and a number of businesses. We are the 3rd largest neighborhood council in Kent.
• Q: Which neighborhoods in Kent have organized into neighborhood councils?
• A: The official list of neighborhood councils can be found here: City of Kent Recognized Neighborhoods.
• Q: What purpose does the neighborhood council serve?
• A: The neighborhood council provides a framework for spontaneous cooperation between neighbors as well as between the city government and our neighborhood at large. Simply, it allows us to discuss and resolve neighborhood issues in an orderly way and to interface with the city as a cohesive unit. Speaking with a collective voice has helped our neighborhood address neighborhood issues such as speeding and pedestrian safety. It has helped us come together as a community by organizing our annual potluck as well as our quarterly meetings. It has even helped us connect with the politicians running city government through the first ever city office candidate forum in living memory.
• Q: What is the legal status of the neighborhood council, does it have any real power?
• A: The neighborhood council is legally a "social club" that has no legal recognition or tax status.  It has no legal power and does not function as a homeowners association or any other regulatory type of organization.
• Q: Why isn't the neighborhoor council a 501c(3) or similarly organized group?
• A: The neighborhood council executive committee investigated organizing as a 501c(3) non-profit group last year but the greater council rejected the idea when it was presented.  Becoming a non-profit would have not granted the neighborhood council any real power or regulatory authority as some neighbors had suggested.  It would have only accomplished three things: it would have formalized our book keeping under existing tax law, it would have forced the council to be non-political, and it would have made it much easier for the neighborhood council to seek out and receive donations of money and materials for neighborhood projects (e.g. parks improvements, trail maintenance, neighborhood improvements, etc).  Without a 501c(3) tax-exempt non-profit status, many businesses will not donate to the neighborhood because they have no way of accounting for it and will not receive any tax benefits from the donation.

Graffiti

• Q: What to do when you see graffiti?
• A:  You can call 253-856-GRAF and make a report. Or cou can email Sara: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Or finally, you can go to the City of Kent website:http://www.ci.kent.wa.us/Police/ and select Graffiti on the right hand side of the page for more information.

Clean and Sober Homes

• Q: I heard that we have "half-way" houses in our neighborhood, is that true?
• A: Yes it is true.  They are called "clean and sober" homes and we have a couple in our neighborhood.
• Q: What is a clean and sober home?
• A: It is a group home for recovering addicts who have successfully completed treatment for their addiction and are now transitioning back into society.  Typically the residents are from out of state or other communities some distance away.  This is to give the residents the greatest possible chance of a full recovery from their addiction.  The residents are not allowed to own a vehicle and must take public transportation to/from work.  The clean and sober homes have zero tolerance for drug and/or alcohol consumption and their residents are regularly tested.
• Q: How do we force them to leave?
• A: We can't.  There have been countless court cases around the nation where cities have tried to forcefully relocate clean and sober homes through zoning and/or ordinances.  None of the efforts have stood up in court because recovering addicts fall under the protection of the ADA (American Disabilities Act) and are therefore protected under the law.
• Q: So what can we do?
• A: Be good neighbors.  The neighborhood council had a lengthy dialog with the manager of the clean and sober homes.  He is a very responsible person who has expressed his willingness to resolve conflicts with the neighborhood.
• Q: Where are the clean and sober homes in our neighborhood?
• A: Good question, we have the information in our records, I will find it and post it here.
• Q: Who do we contact if we have a problem with one of the clean and sober homes and/or their residents?
• A: Another good question.  We do have an answer to this, I need to check it out first before posting it here.

Speeding/Pedestrian Safety

• Q: People speed all the time past my house, isn't there anything we can do about that?
• A: Yes there is.  The neighborhood council has been working through the city's traffic abatement program for the past two years.  The city and your neighbors have collected speeding data that confirmed our speeding issue.  Last year the city installed two solar radar speed signs, one at each main entrance to our neighborhood.  As of December, 2009, the new speed data shows that cars have slowed down significantly because of the signs.
• Q: Can't we put in speed bumps?
• A: No.  Speed bumps where nixed by the fire deparment because it would limit their access times to the neighborhood.  Besides, speed bumps usually result in an increase of engine noise as drivers slow down to go over the bump and then gun their engine to make up for lost time.
• Q: What about round-abouts?
• A: This was given some serious consideration but again, the fire department's requirements disqualified round-abouts as a solution.  The fire department requires a radius of 100 feet to ensure that fire trucks can make the turn.  The result would have been that some of our neighbors homes would have to be condemned and torn down to make room for the round-abouts.
• Q: What about lowering the speed limit?
• A: Lowering the speed limit will not happen for several reasons.  First of all, there is a significant number of neighbors who do not want to lower the speed limits.  Without a concensus this will not happen.  Second of all, the city has said that the Reitan/Maple/Woodland Way coridor has an "arterial" traffic designation that prevents it from having a 25 MPH speed limit.  Originally, when the designation was made, the speed was raised to 35 MPH but after quite a bit of protest from neighbors, the city lowered the speed to 30 MPH.
• Q: So what can we do?
• A: Since we have exhausted all of our options for mitigating speeding, it makes sense to focus on pedestrian safety now.  Our neighborhood almost completely lacks sidewalks and typically has no safe pedestrian passages on our busiest streets (e.g. Reitan and E. Maple).  Scenic Hill is one of, if not the oldest platted neighborhood in Kent.  We have homes that were built in the 1890's as well as homes that were built in the 1990's and everything in between.  That means our neighborhood was developed decades before the city had a sidewalk requirement for home developers.  Newer neighborhoods in Kent all have nice curb and gutter and sidewalk improvements in them as a result.  We have passionately urged the city to consider adding sidewalks in our neighborhood and they have refused.  Our only option is to execute an LID (Local Improvement District) whereby we vote to levy a tax on ourselves to pay for the sidewalk improvement.

Do you have a question for the FAQ?  Please post it as a comment and we will find the answer and add it to the FAQ.