We bought a house in (then) Bothell, and (now) Kenmore in 1994 on Finn Hill, and on what was a quiet, dead-end street, a large lot next to forests, with deer year-round, quail, owls and what sounded like whip-poor-will coming through every year.

We had lots of privacy in our large back yard where we loved to garden. It was just what we were looking for on this quiet one-lane street. Since then, development has exploded in this area. We understand that development needs to happen, but does it need to be so crass and so disrespectful of current residents? So interested in the greed of developers that longtime residents suffer?

First, we experienced the construction of water drainage collector pipes and then sewer pipes down our one-lane street, in two different construction time frames. They ripped it all up once, installed, patched it up and then within a few years, ripped it up again, installed and patched it up. After enduring weeks of construction and the ripping up of our streets, the large machines required to pound and compact the soil on top of the pipe placement shook our house on a regular basis. Not fun for us, but we tried to be understanding and patient, thinking it was to protect those downhill, closer to the slough, from flooding. We even baked cookies for the construction workers.

Then we experienced the breakdown of our septic system due to tile failure, and also the failure of many of our double-paned windows that faced the street. Only the stationary panes failed, not the sliding panes. We came to believe this was due to the vibrating of the house during placement of the sewer and drainage lines. We paid more than $14,000 in damages from this — more than $12,000 to place a sewer line because Kenmore would not issue us a permit to repair, because a sewer line was now available! They would, however, allow us to hook up to sewer for a mere $10,000. And the placing of the sewer line probably contributed to the breakdown! We could have sued, but the prospect of trying to prove it in a court of law was daunting and we did not pursue. We were extremely busy with jobs and three little kids at the time.

Then the city of Kenmore allowed the building of townhouse-style houses 6 feet from the property line, practically in our back yard. Also, a huge development has been going in down the street for years now with huge trucks trundling up and down the street 10 hours a day for years now. The land has been cleared, but no houses built. We can see them trying to mitigate surface water and land erosion effects.

We have experienced the following:

• The developer directly next door to us was supposed to retain 10 percent of trees, but instead completely clear-cut the land leaving no trees at all. The developer also did not put in any form of retaining wall, while cutting roots on one side of our trees on the lot line. We have lost a total of five 80-100-foot trees. One of our compromised trees fell on one of these new homes during a wind storm taking out most of the second floor. Another new neighbor, fearing the same fate, wanted us to cut down more of our trees AT OUR EXPENSE or shared expense. We declined to participate in the expense of it, but allowed them to take down two more of our precious and valuable trees. Now they are mad at us because we would not pay for it.

• Other trees are at risk and the neighbors are still wanting us to remove trees. We won’t. It is not our fault their developer cut the roots of our trees and did not install a retaining wall in order to pack more houses onto this small 1-acre lot.

• Increase in traffic/speeding on our one-lane road. We don’t even qualify for a stripe.

• Our walls are cracking and nails are popping out. Our house was built in the early 1960s and is solid. This did not happen to our walls until this development occurred downhill. We can hardly wait to see evidence that our foundation is cracking!

So fight it for all you are worth, PERK! Why can people not go and refurbish existing homes?

Kathy and Mike Hutcheson, Kenmore