City council adopts new transportation plan
July 23, 2008
By Kendra Abernathy
Program would spend $65.2 million over six years
Transportation in Sammamish may become more efficient for motorists and pedestrians thanks to a new improvement plan to be implemented in 2009.
The Sammamish City Council adopted an updated six-year Transportation Improvement Plan for 2009-2014 during the City Council meeting July 15.
The Transportation Improvement Plan is reviewed annually in accordance with state law.
The 2009-2014 plan includes $65.2 million in transportation improvements, a 6.8 percent increase over the last plan.
Fifteen different projects are listed in the plan, but four planned items do not have a source of funding.
The plan has set aside $6.75 million for sidewalks, trails, bikeways and paths.
The plan passed on a 4-1 vote, with one abstention. Councilman Mark Cross was not present.
Councilwoman Kathleen Huckabay voted no, and Nancy Whitten abstained. Both said they have concerns about the plan.
“My biggest problem that I have with this transportation improvement plan is the fact that the environment is changing around us,” Huckabay stated. “I would like to see more focus on how we can give people the opportunity to ride, walk or motor around.”
Huck-abay noted that a greater emphasis should be placed on making Sammamish more conducive to alternative modes of transportation. She also explained the need to give public transportation more priority, with a specific focus on implementing changes to allow busses to run more efficiently.
Whitten was concerned that the new plans do not explain how they will effect the East Lake Sammamish Parkway Project.
Sammamish residents Tom Melling, president of Friends of Beaver Lake, and John Galvin both agreed with Huckabay that more action should be taken to make Sammamish more eco-friendly when it comes to transportation.
“As a society we are now reaching a time when the era of cheap gasoline is gone,” Galvin stated. “Young kids do not have a consciousness of the gas crisis we are faced with.”
Melling proposed that Sammamish begin by building more sidewalks, bike lanes and routes less crowded with cars for people who chose to walk, bike or motor scooter.
According to the project website, the goal of the East Lake Sammamish Parkway Project is to improve safety, traffic flow and improve public amenities on East Lake Sammamish Parkway NE between Inglewood Hill Road and 187th Avenue NE.
Consultant Jeff Brauns said that the East Lake Sammamish Parkway Project is separate from the Transportation Improvement Plan.
Some possible funding, however, may be drawn from a $25,790,000 fund dedicated to anticipated construction costs for such projects.
Construction on the parkway is not anticipated to begin until 2014.
Intern Kendra Abernathy can be reached at samrev@isspress.com.
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The city’s budget reports are designed to confuse as much as to illuminate. Cut your way through this blackberry patch of data, one thing becomes clear, the city has no ability to finance more than one major road improvement project. The six year transportation is a planning exercise divorced from economic reality.
Since completion of 228th Avenue with considerable help from funds transfered to the city from King County, the city of Sammamish has not completed one significant road project. With only revenues from impact fees and REET (real estate excise tax) the city has tackled sidewalk and intersection projects that cost less than three million.
224th Avenue has been in planning since 2002, six years. The city manager has predicted the start of construction every year since 2005. Scheduled to start this year, it is again postponed until Spring 2009. This project will all but bankrupt the transportation improvement fund. The city will need years to replenish this fund before undertaking and completing another major road project. There are sufficient funds to plan but not execute projects. Meanwhile these projects increase in cost.
Sammamish is a city slipping toward insolvency. The only response from our city council is to cut staff, delay projects, create the illusion of progress, and avoid making the difficult decisions necessary to develop a sustainable city. Failure to address the inherent weakness of our city’s financial foundation will result in a major crisis sooner rather than latter.