King county flood management planning

Kick-off meeting recap

We held two online meetings on October 4 and 6, 2022. With the help of guest speakers we shared information about flooding in King County and about the development of the next flood plan. 

More than 80 people participated across the two meetings. Meeting attendees shared how flooding affects them and ideas to help prepare for flooding or reduce flood risks. We gathered a lot of valuable feedback to shape the focus of the flood plan. Our staff is following up with folks who shared specific questions or comments in the meeting chat. 

Here is some of the collective feedback we heard:

• Interest in planning for climate change.
• Interest in Integrated Floodplain Management (IFM). Carol Macilroy, Carol Macilroy Consulting, and Brandon Parsons, American Rivers, introduced IFM in their presentations. IFM is a collaborative model designed to deliver more funding, more partners, more support, better results, and be a more efficient way to reduce flood risks.
• Need for solutions to stormwater, small stream, lakeshore, and coastal flooding.
• Interest in having flood risk reduction projects do more! Such as protecting and restoring habitat for fish and wildlife, supporting local agriculture, and improving water quality in streams, lakes, and Puget Sound.

Recordings from both meetings are available on the King County Flood Management Plan webpage. We invite you to watch and if you have feedback, please share it with Jason Wilkinson at Jason.Wilkinson@kingcounty.gov.

Couldn't make it to the kick-off meetings? King County is interested in coming to you. We welcome your suggestions for community events that we can attend to hear from you about flooding. Please contact Chrys Bertolotto at 206-263-2677 or cbertolotto@kingcounty.gov to discuss options.

Partner Planning Committee

We shared a broad invitation in September and October for people to join the Partner Planning Committee. This Committee is one important avenue for gathering public input on the flood plan, and will help inform the recommendations in the plan. We’re grateful for our partners’ time and interest in participating on it.

King County will hold the first Committee meeting this week on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022, from 11am to 1pm. Committee meetings are open to the public. If you are interested in attending, please contact Spencer Easton at seaston@esassoc.com for the virtual meeting information. The agenda is posted on the Partner Planning Committee webpage. Future Committee meeting dates will be posted when they are scheduled.