The Burien Planning Commission meeting room was packed Sept. 23 as residents of Lake Burien came to protest the proposed rezoning of two portions of the Ruth Dykeman Children's Center property.

The children's center, which is currently designated as one of five special planning areas, petitioned the city to rezone approximately two acres of its property for potential residential development.

Nearly an acre of land bordering 10th Avenue South and Saint Elizabeth's Episcopal Church, if approved, would be designated high density. With that zoning designation, condominiums or apartments could potentially be built there.

The other piece of land that is up for rezoning is nearly an acre of land that borders Lake Burien. If approved, it would be rezoned for single-family homes.

The planning commission on Tuesday listened to a proposal on the rezone request from Jennifer Lee, an associate of R.W. Thorpe- an urban planning firm that is representing the children's center, and to testimony from many upset residents of Lake Burien speaking out against the rezone request.

Many Lake residents were worried about what more development would mean for the health of the lake.

Bob Perry, who has lived on the lake for almost 48 years, said that he is afraid of what will happen if more people are pressed into the area around the lake.

"The lake is very small, when you look at it, it is not a large lake, and to add more people and to add contamination from several sources to that delicate body of water I think that would be very foolish. And if we increase the density of the population there it would be very foolish," Perry said.

He, like many other residents, is afraid of the impact apartments and more housing would have on the lake.

Don Warren, who has been the lake steward for six years, questioned whether the city's assessment that the utilities could handle the growth was accurate. He said that the lake has seen an increase of excess nutrients in the lake and suspects that leaky sewer lines are the cause.

"As lake steward I have worked with all the people who live on the lake to make sure that they use sensible, low levels of fertilizers, so it isn't coming off of people's yards," Warren said.

"It's not easy living on the lake," said Steve Armstrong, a Lake Burien resident. "It's a very delicate environment and I think that we are all kind of custodians, we try to be custodians of the lake. The lake itself is a very delicate environment and we have to be very cognizant of that."

Another major concern of lake residents was the potential for more apartments.

"Just in my little pocket on 154th where it dead ends we are just hammered with apartments in there, and how in the world it ever got to be that way is beyond me, but many in this room on the lake have not had to experience this amount of apartment density right at their front door on a private beautiful wonderful lake," said lake resident David Brown. "It is very very close right now to the tipping point and if you decide to do this it could really impact this neighborhood and this area in a very tragic way. I really caution you to think of this very carefully,"