Why is SR-169 (Maple Valley Highway) so dumpy? (Renton, Mill Creek: truck rental, rentals)

[twoincomes]

The Maple Valley Highway, extending between Renton and Maple Valley, seems a bit run down. There are junk yards, medical marijuana dispensaries, welding shops, taverns, and other indications of lower end. Is this a not very nice part of unincorporated King County?

Do you think it will ever get nicer?

[Ira500]

It's exactly because it's unincorporated King County that it has those things. The county doesn't have as many enforcement powers as cities do, and they don't have a real budget for things like design and zoning. So it's a lot of unincorporated King County that, at the very least, is kind of haphazard. It's also kind of a run down road on the Renton end. In cities, they can restrict things like junkyards, casinos, marijuana dispensaries, etc.
I do think it will get nicer, because the county is trying very hard to get out of the governing the unincorporated areas business. Once a city takes over, they'll have more of a plan and money to clean it up. Also, Maple Valley has changed a whole lot in the last ten years. They've built a ton of new houses, and people want to live there because the schools are really good, and it's pretty scenery. So yes, it is a not very nice part of unincorporated King County. It doesn't strike me as dangerous, I drive through there all the time. The nearby Cedar River trail is really nice.

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by Ira500

It's exactly because it's unincorporated King County that it has those things. The county doesn't have as many enforcement powers as cities do, and they don't have a real budget for things like design and zoning. So it's a lot of unincorporated King County that, at the very least, is kind of haphazard. It's also kind of a run down road on the Renton end. In cities, they can restrict things like junkyards, casinos, marijuana dispensaries, etc.

Ah: that would also explain why Snohomish County east of Mill Creek, out into the hills approaching Snoqualmie Valley, is also filled with an odd mixture of salvage parts places, truck rentals, landscaping businesses, coffee shacks, various roadhouses, and everything in between that makes is resemble North Carolina. Must be hell getting police and fire services out there, too, other than the Sheriff's Department (both King and Snohomish Counties, the unincorporated parts).