King County Executive Ron Sims called on the county to spend $11.6 million next year to preserve nearly 700 acres of open space, stretching from Seattle's Discovery Park to the Issaquah Precipice along Interstate 90.

He recommended an additional $8.8 million to extend county trails and connect missing links, including the final chunk of the popular Burke-Gilman Trail between Seattle and Bothell and a connection between the Sammamish River Trail and the future East Lake Sammamish Trail in Redmond.

"I know that trails are integral to a community's quality of life," Sims said.

Improving the network will encourage more residents to head outside, he said, and help retain the attributes that drew many people to the Seattle area in the first place.

Some of the highlights:

• $2.7 million to help Seattle buy 23.9 acres of historic buildings and housing from the Navy and incorporate that land into Discovery Park in the Magnolia neighborhood.

• $3.2 million to extend the Soos Creek Trail north through Renton and $106,423 to stretch it east around Lake Youngs.

• $885,000 to help Bellevue expand a greenway through the Wilburton, Kelsey Creek and Richards Valley neighborhoods by purchasing a 20-acre wooded parcel adjacent to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.

• $575,000 for 11 acres of wooded uplands and riverside habitat along Massey Creek in Des Moines, which has fewer acres of parks than other urban areas in the county.

King County already has 175 miles of paved and unpaved trails in its system and is building a world-class trail system on par with those in Chicago and Pittsburgh, said Kevin Brown, director of the county's Parks and Recreation Division.

"It makes sense to make the investment now because the land will not be cheaper," said Roger Hoesterey, northwest regional director for the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit land-conservation group.

Funding for trails and open space comes from a pair of real-estate excise taxes and a component of property taxes called the conservation-futures tax, Brown said. Support from private groups would enable the county to buy the land at less than fair market value.

The proposal does not include money for the purchase of a 47-mile BNSF Railway corridor from Renton to Snohomish County that Sims has advocated turning into a major regional trail. Sims said money has been set aside for the potential purchase, and that the county is still negotiating with the railroad.

The proposal would be the largest single-year investment toward parks and trails in county history, Sims said, when combined with a $70 million settlement the county has proposed to opponents of the future Brightwater sewage-treatment plant north of Woodinville. That money would go toward building parks and preserving open space, among other projects.

Sims is scheduled to present his full 2006 budget proposal to the County Council on Monday. Earlier this week, he proposed spending $6 million to prepare for a flu epidemic. The county will adopt a new budget by year's end.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com