22-100735-Response Letter-05-03-2022-V1
May 3, 2022 Job No. 1886-001-016-0011
Ms. Stacey Welsh
Principal Planner
City of Federal Way
33325 8th Avenue S
Federal Way, WA 98003
RE: File #22-100735-00-EN
Comment Response Letter
Woodbridge Building B; 3120 S 344th Street, Federal Way
Dear Ms. Welsh:
ESM Consulting Engineers, LLC, is submitting the following response to your email
comments received on April 29, 2022.
In an effort to provide concise and direct responses, we have copied the review comments
below in italics and our responses are in bold.
2. Areas of vegetation proposed to remain undisturbed as shown on Sheet TR-01
need to match or exceed Sheet TR-01 from the land use application. Several areas
no longer show that labelling and cross-hatching.
Regarding comment #2, it is understood that access needs to be provided to the
pond. Apart from that, additional retained vegetation is still possible, please see
the attached drawing. An example of this is the area proposed as lawn near the
SW building corner. During the land use application review, visual renderings
indicated that existing vegetation and additional plantings would assist with
screening this building. Also review the attached excerpt from the Hearing
Examiner's decision regarding screening from Loop Road; Building B is similar to
Building A. Apart from this, there are no other Planning Division or ESA critical
area comments for the Building B clear/grade EN; remaining Planning and ESA
comments will be provided as part of a technical comment letter on the Building B
building permit.
Sheet TR-01 from the Early Clear and Grade set (sheet 4 of 11) has been updated
to more closely match TR-01 from the land use application (sheet 12 of 12) and is
enclosed with this resubmittal.
Ms. Stacey Welsh
May 3, 2022
Page 2
The lawn area near the southwest corner of the building has been changed to
include a large area of retained vegetation. Please note that underground utilities
in this area have been redesigned to maximize the retained vegetation, and future
landscaping in this area will be supplemented with the building permit landscape
plans to screen the building from the loop road.
The triangle area noted on your markup was approved as Parking Lot Mixed Native
Species landscaping on the land use plan set, and not Existing Vegetation to
Remain Undisturbed. Unfortunately, the hatching used to differentiate these two
landscape types on sheet TR-01 of the land use set (sheet 12 of 12) was the same
and the line type used to contain the separate hatching areas was inadvertently
turned off. You need to refer to the line type surrounding the hatches on sheet LA-
01 of the land use set (sheet 5 of 12) for clarification. The Existing Vegetation to
Remain Undisturbed areas have a thicker, cloud outline and the Parking Lot Mixed
Native Species areas does not. Also, retaining this vegetation will not aid in
screening the future building as it is behind a 100’ wide Managed Forest Buffer and
an additional ±60’ wide area of native vegetation within the WDSOT right-of-way.
The only other major difference between the two TR-01 plans is that two utility
corridors will need to be cleared for the outfall for the pond and the sewer
connection. Both of these utility corridors are within the Managed Forest Buffer
and will be replanted per the recommendation of the Forester.
If there are any questions or a need for further clarification, please feel free to contact me
at (253) 838-6113 and we would be happy to discuss them with you.
Sincerely,
ESM CONSULTING ENGINEERS, LLC
ERIC G. LaBRIE, A.I.C.P.
President
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