Inglewood Right of Way

Through our research, we learned that most of the streets were never formally opened to the public, as they were vacated by operation of an archaic law known as Washington’s Non-User Statute. This law reverts property ownership rights back to abutting property owners if the street was not open to the public within a certain time frame, in this case five years. For the Inglewood Plat, that window was from 1890 to 1895. 

It appears that King County maintained these roads for many years, likely without realizing that they were never formally opened to the public. When the City of Sammamish incorporated in 1999, we continued this practice in good faith, believing the roads were public. 

This issue came to light during a recent Right of Way permit review, when staff uncovered that the streets were privately owned due to an obscure law known as Washington’s Non-User Statute, which is now codified at RCW 36.87.090. 

Please see the following map showing the affected streets (click to enlarge).

King County took action to formally open Inglewood Hill Road in 1964, which transitioned it from a privately owned road to a public one. This means the road was already public when Sammamish incorporated in 1999.  

We have reached out to the County and continue to research this issue. To date, we have found no records, both in our possession or in the County’s, that show Inglewood’s roads being opened or used by the general public.   

We do believe there is an option that provides Council with the authority to resolve this issue. We will be presenting more information about this soon and should have a resolution for Council consideration and potential action in a few weeks.  

The City’s proposed solution of a prescriptive easement is only allowed by law on the streets that the City has maintained for ten years or more. There are streets in Inglewood that have historically been considered private and that the City has never maintained, meaning that a prescriptive easement is not a legal option for those streets. This includes streets that have quiet titles and were never opened to the public. 

The City’s street and right-of-way maintenance is funded through the Street Fund, General Fund and the Surface Water Fund, which support services citywide. There is no specific line item in the City’s budget dedicated to the maintenance of Inglewood or any other neighborhood.  

The City asserting perspective easement rights means that it will continue to serve the streets it has previously maintained, which includes continuing to respond to emergency situations.  

No. The historical fact that these old roads were not formally opened to the public in the 1890’s has nothing to do with last year’s storm.  Moving forward, storm response will be handled as it always has, for the streets with prescriptive easements. 

With Council’s direction to assert a prescriptive easement, the City can continue to maintain the systems we have historically provided maintenance for. Asserting a prescriptive easement will allow the City to fully regulate the right of way, meaning that City permits would be required for work underneath the streets.  

The City recently identified this issue while reviewing a Right-of-Way permit. Unfortunately, due to state law prohibiting the gifting of public funds, we are unable to legally maintain private infrastructure. We believed we needed to present this information as soon as possible in order to notify the community. We recognize this is a complex situation, and we do not have access to the decisions or rationale of prior administrations, which makes it even more challenging. 

The City’s goal is to find a thoughtful and legal solution that allows us to continue to maintain the streets it has historically maintained, including snow and ice response, vegetation management, and street repairs. These services will continue moving forward under the proposed solution of a prescriptive easement. 

We expect the City Council may take action to legislatively assert prescriptive easement rights to historically City-maintained streets in a few weeks to provide greater clarity to this situation. As we work on this, we continue to do research regarding some of these very specific questions that do not have easy answers at this point in time.  

The community meeting on June 12 is planned to be an opportunity to directly engage with Inglewood residents, provide information, answer questions and to detail possible solutions. It is our hope people will be able to join us and learn more about this unique situation. 

We are currently working on this solution. We are hopeful we have found a solution that will allow us to continue to provide maintenance and other services to the streets we have historically maintained. Any Inglewood streets that were always known as private, or streets we did not historically maintain, would remain private and therefore not eligible for city services like snow plowing.  

Eminent domain is a legal tool that allows governments to acquire private property for public use, provided that fair compensation is given to the property owners. However, pursuing this option would come at a very high cost, making it financially infeasible for the City at this time. Given current budget constraints, we’re unable to consider this approach, and we are working hard to explore more practical and collaborative solutions.