Man stands firm in protecting Federal Way wetland from developers

In a quiet corner of Federal Way, a small handwritten sign states simply “wetlands.” An arrow points across a street toward tall trees and low underbrush.

Multiple developers have seen a vision of single family homes when looking at this patch of nature, tucked between Military Road South and Peasley Canyon Road South in the eastern most part of Federal Way.

However, one man sees a natural treasure worth protecting.

Loren Meiser has lived near this patch of trees for the past 25 years and has nominated himself as their valiant protector. The handwritten sign is just one of many actions he has taken to try to stop the land from being developed.

“You have no idea how much I love this place,” Meiser said.

The area is made up of two parcels of land, totaling about 19,000 square feet. Much of the land has been confirmed to be a wetland, which carries certain protections. It is still possible to build on land that is designated a wetland, but it requires extra justification, inspections and special care.

There have been at least two development attempts over the past five years, but neither made it to the finish line.

Loren Meiser shares his love for the wetland. (Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / The Mirror)

Although Meiser doesn’t own the land, he enjoys it daily because of the close proximity to his home. He believes it should not be destroyed because of the abundance of plants and animals that live there.

Meiser’s campaign to save the wetland has been an analog one because he doesn’t use the internet. He keeps an eye on the trees, and on many occasions, he’s confronted people on the property.

One time, he said, he saw someone cutting down a tree and confronted him. Meiser then made a trip to the mayor’s office.

“Before I got back to my house,” Meiser said, “he had two people out here putting up yellow tape,” and a “cease and desist…pounded on the tree.”

Meiser has written to legislators from the local city council to the governor. He’s published a letter to the editor and even contacted the Environmental Protection Agency.

Joe Burcar of the Shorelands and Environmental Assistance Program wrote back to Meiser in response to a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee. He told Meiser that “we appreciate you sharing your concern for the health of the wetland. We share a similar interest in making sure the wetland remains a healthy home and habitat to wildlife described within your letter.” He also encouraged Meiser to keep a close eye on project notices provided by the city for opportunities to share comments.

Meiser’s love for this patch of forest represents a lifetime of enjoying the company of trees in the Pacific Northwest. He grew up in Eastern Washington, but moved to the west side of the state around age 10 for medical treatment.

He has fond memories of hiking in the forest near that home with his family. On these walks, he said, he would often hang back from the group so he could sit in the forest on his own.

“You sit there and all of a sudden you become aware of the noises that are around you. You didn’t hear them when you were talking and walking and carrying on because you were making all the noise,” he said. Then “you’d hear little chipmunks running up the trees, you know, and squirrels chirping around and stuff.”

He does the same with the trees near his home now: “Here, I can watch, every once in a while, I catch a chipmunk or squirrel climbing up those trees, going way up there.”

The wetland also connects him with other memories of his family.

“It was my grandfather that got me into loving trees,” Meiser said. “I guess you could call him the last living cowboy.”

Red alder and black cottonwood trees tower at least 30 feet high in the wetland that Loren Meiser is trying to protect. (Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / The Mirror)

Attempts at development

The plots of land are currently being managed by Fanelli Development. Before that, it was Pacific Crest Realty, and before that, they were owned by Goldmaur LLC, according to King County tax records.

In 2018, Goldmaur LLC applied to build a single-family home on each parcel. John Comis Associates did a wetland survey in April 2018 for the application, leaving brightly colored ties that still hang in the trees there.

Through this survey, the wetland was designated a category III, requiring a buffer of 165 feet or a land use permit to ensure that the wildlife habitat is not adversely affected. The Comis survey stated that it would be unavoidable to fill in some of the wetland in order to build on it.

Surveying the wetland also documented the abundant life on the parcels. Tall red alders and black cottonwoods rise 70 feet or so into the sky, with a few Douglas fir trees keeping the forest green in the winter. Bleeding heart, wake robin and lady fern sprout from the earth. Red elderberry, red osier dogwood, salmonberry, western sword fern and Indian plum fill out the space.

According to the King County’s wetland website, “in all, some 212 species of wildlife and many species of plant life depend on Western Washington’s wetlands for survival.”

Also in 2018, Goldmaur LLC was dissolved by the state’s adminstrative power. When Pacific Crest Realty advisors took over operation of the property in October, there were unpaid fees waiting for them from the attempt to develop the parcels of wetland.

A representative for Pacific Crest Realty told The Mirror that “during my tenure, we never faced any opposition from the City of Federal Way, nor any concerned element in the community, as we had floorplans which were specific to those lots, inclusive of the wetland setback requirements.”

Loren Meiser holds a walking stick that he carved from one of the 50+ trees that used to fill his own property before a neighbor’s influence caused him to cut them down. (Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / The Mirror)

In September 2022, Fanelli Development became the new receiver of the properties. And in 2023, multiple building application materials were in progress to build single family residences on the land, this time in conjunction with three other parcels in another area. These applications are now canceled. Keith Niven of Federal Way’s Community Development Department said this means that the application expired before all requirements were completed.

Niven also said that when a property includes a wetland in Federal Way, property owners have a variety of options.

“If the wetland is only located on a portion of the property, then the owner can either seek to stay out of the critical area entirely, or, may be able to impact and mitigate for those impacts” Niven said. “This could include filling a portion of the wetland buffer or something similar – this is allowed by code.”

Niven said if the entire property is covered by the wetland, however, “then the city code has a ‘Reasonable Use’ provision. Assuming the property was not designated as a critical area tract, or has some other restriction that might limit development, then a property owner could apply for a reasonable use to build a single-family home.”

In 2018 and 2023 applications, designs of the single family home show that the homes would have been built in the areas of the lots not taken up by the wetland. This still wouldn’t have been enough for Meiser, who hopes that construction doesn’t even begin.

A preliminary site plan from C.E.S. Northwest shows where Fanelli Developments was intending to build homes in order to avoid the wetland, delineated by the gray area outlined with flags. Photo is cropped and was accessed from Federal Way city archives.

Wetlands in the world

A United Nations brief on wetlands in 2018 named wetlands as “amongst the world’s most economically valuable ecosystems and essential regulators of the global climate” and also stated that globally, “they are disappearing three times faster than forests.”

The article goes on to say that “up to 40% of the world’s species live and breed in wetlands, although now more than 25% of all wetlands plants and animals are at risk of extinction.”

This field graphic from the application documents for building in 2023 shows the outline of the two plots of land and the wetland that overlaps them. Photo accessed from Federal Way city archives.