Thank you for contacting the City of Kent Public Works department. Your request has been received and dispatched to the appropriate Operations section for review.

(3) Vehicles have been illegally camped here for a LONG time and have discarded a lot of trash in the Old Fishing Hole Park parking area. There is a new Camping Ban ordinance in effect now in Kent. These campers should be moved along.

In Kent City Park, longtime illegal campers here making/leaving a big mess. There is a new Camping Ban ordinance in effect now in Kent. These campers should be moved along.

In Kent City Park, longtime illegal campers here making/leaving a big mess. There is a new Camping Ban ordinance in effect now in Kent. These campers should be moved along.

12/16/2022: The original 3 vehicles first reported in this Request are still there camped in this Kent Park. They have been there for over a month and continue to leave a big mess.

This issue was recategorized from Dumping/Litter (garbage on public property) to Dumping/Litter (garbage on Park property).

Public Works Admin- Kara assigned this issue to Parks- Shayla

Good morning,

For the part of this complaint that is related to parking enforcement, I have followed up with our parking enforcement officer to have him visit the location.

Thanks for your patience,
Christy

12/30/2022: The 3 vehicles are still camped here and there is a huge pile of trash bags just south of them in the Old Fishing Hole Park. There is supposed to be a new camping ordinance in effect in Kent now to protect our Parks and Wetlands. Why has that not been enforced at this location???

Good morning,

Our Code Enforcement officer is the only one in his unit at this time, and he's backlogged. You can call non-emergency dispatch at 253-852-2121 if you would like our Parking Enforcement officer to swing by the area; if you do this, please call when you have confirmed that the vehicles are at the location, and hopefully he'll be able to take a look. He, too, is the only one in the unit at this time, and he's also making his way through parking complaints.

Thanks for your patience,
Christy

Parks has and continues to deal with the garbage created and generated by this group of homeless vehicles. We cannot remove the garbage and debris associated next to the vehicles. When we do our staff are harassed and told by the people owning the vehicles they don't have to leave because they can park where ever they want. There is a camping ordinance and we have relayed to Kent PD that they are violating this. Kent PD has graciously worked to resolve this and this group just moves to different locations. This group of homeless vehicles are the same ones that parked at lake Fenwick and created the same mess there as well. At this point I will close this out. We have cleaned up other spots around this mess and we have dealt with other areas where they continue to dump their messes around the park. We actively clean this park weekly do to his group - Q

the request is closed. Parks continues to deal with cleanup generated by this group. Will continue to work with Kent PD to resolve the issue here. All areas around the park have been cleaned up by staff except that garbage laying around these homeless vehicles.

Why has this KentWorks request been closed out? The Illegal campers still in this spot making a big mess in the Old Fishing Hole Park. What happened to the new Illegal Camping Ordinance that was supposed to be in effect now?

Why has this KentWorks request been closed out? The Illegal campers still in this spot making a big mess in the Old Fishing Hole Park. What happened to the new Illegal Camping Ordinance that was supposed to be in effect now?

1/14/2023. View from Hwy 516. Why has this KentWorks request been closed out? The Illegal campers still in this spot making a big mess in the Old Fishing Hole Park. What happened to the new Illegal Camping Ordinance that was supposed to be in effect now?

The revised illegal camping ordinance that the Kent City Council passed last October 18th was supposed to take care of illegal camping situations like this in our Kent parks. Perhaps that whole effort of proposing the changes to the ordinance and the passing of it was just "window dressing" for the tax paying residents of Kent?

I believe these campers are also contributing to the other mess in the Old Fishing Hole Park reported in KentWorks Request #13937495,

https://seeclickfix.com/web_portal/6oLyjUe16WAMDRz9dq2ubDaH/issues/13937495

Parks and Kent PD are fully aware of the issue along the gravel parking area at Old Fishing Hole. Also aware of past request pointing out what the parked vehicles are creating. Kent PD and Kent social services are currently working on the issue together and with the new city ordinance to remove the issue. Parks continues to clean up the area as best we can with the resources we have. This request is being closed as parks and Kent PD are aware of the issue and working together to have the vehicles removed. This is not the only place this is occurring in our park system. Parks will continue to work with Kent PD and the current laws and ordinances that have been established.

request closed. PD and parks are working to have vehicles removed.