Dozens of Talus residents and concerned citizens filled Issaquah City Council chambers Tuesday night for a meeting of the Urban Village Development Commission regarding three parcels in the mountainside village.

Perhaps with the tragedy in Oso fresh on their minds, they are concerned about the number of retaining walls necessary to develop the steep slope, which is one of the last undeveloped pieces of the Talus urban village.

Lisa Milkowski, who lives in Talus, suggested the commission take a look on YouTube at Issaquah/Talus mudslide from three years ago. It is a scary video.

“There is risk,” Milkowski said.

Milkowski said as a homeowner she does not want to be responsible for a wall of the magnitude of the one proposed on the east side of Parcel 7. That proposed retaining wall is almost 800-feet long and 48-feet high at its highest point. Ryan Kohlman, speaking on behalf of the applicant, Triad Associates, said  the homeowner’s association in Talus would own and maintain all the retaining walls unless a sub-HOA is created.

Geo-technical engineer Carolyn Decker acknowledged the very steep slopes of the project, but said they can build a very stable, safe wall.

The catch is these walls have a 50-year life span. She said the big wall proposed for Parcel 7 would be founded on bedrock.

The question remained, who is going to maintain these walls and put money aside to replace it in 50 years? Talus does have a master homeowner’s association, but it’s not unheard of for subdivisions within the village to have their own HOA.

But the residents of Talus aren’t buying it.

Karen Porterfield said the wall on Parcel 7 is half the height of the retaining wall that is failing behind the Issaquah Home Depot. She wanted to know why the city isn’t willing to take ownership of the Parcel 7 wall if they’re so confident it won’t fail.

“Please understand that the homeowner’s are not ready to assume the wall,” she said.

Toni Letendre echoed her thoughts. He said the new walls represent a significant departure from the walls they have now.

Lucy Sloman, land development manager for the city, said the city usually only owns walls associated with rights-of-way. She added that homeowner’s associations are out of the city’s purview.

Darren Peugh of Talus Management Services said it’s inaccurate that the homeowner’s have no control over the village.

“The master developer is not the puppet-master for the HOA,” Peugh said.

He said they’ve put $350,000 into the HOA over the years.

But at a cost of $2.5 million for all these new walls – exclusive of engineering fees, the homeowner’s weren’t buying it.

“The number and size of the walls are of concern to a lot of people and me,” said UDVC chair Geoffrey Walker. “This is inconsistent with the plan. Parcel 7 makes me very uncomfortable.”

Walker asked the applicant how many units they would have to take the project down to, to avoid some of the walls. He said the height and length of the one wall in particular, and the fact that this is being “thrust” on the community is what bothered him.

Also of concern was encroachment into a 50-foot buffer on Cougar Mountain parkland which was written into the original Talus master plan. Ken Koningsmark, who was involved with Talus from the start said encroaching into the buffer would be a direct violation of the agreement. The developer wanted to put two water tanks into the buffer. Sloman said a precedent was set when another water tank was allowed in the buffer further south. But they backed off and agreed not to set the new water tanks in the buffer.

By the end of the three and one-half hour meeting, the commission agreed to approve development on Parcels 8 and 9, but they tabled 7 until the next meeting, May 6.

There might be a way the developer can modify the homes to have steeper daylight basements and less of a backyard to avoid the steep wall. Sloman said the architectural review committee would be dealing with home design, and thought that discussion was premature.

Connie Marsh of Issaquah talked about the character of a mountain village, so commenting about design — not coming until the architectural review — was not premature.

“I want better for my town, not just what the market will bear,” Marsh said. “We’re building to the lowest common denominator. I want Talus great. I’m tired of things being not so hot.”

If the entire plan can be approved, site construction could start this year, with total build-out by 2017. As it stands now, 153 lots on 34.75 acres are planned including single family attached and detached homes and 16 tracts for critical areas, trails, utility, access, recreation, and open space.