Sammamish budget meeting turns into Parkway debate

The Nov. 18 Sammamish City Council meeting was slated to provide a chance for public discussion of the city’s 2009-2010 operating budget, but community members focused on what was really on their minds: the East Lake Sammamish Parkway project.

A handful of citizens used both the general public comment period, and the public comment portion intended for discussion of the budget, to voice their concerns with the transparency, necessity, and design of the project.

The $34 to $44 million project is intended to alleviate congestion and reduce the number of accidents on the road with the addition of bicycle lanes, median strips, sidewalks and left-turn lanes.

The council voted in January 2008 to approve initial design work for the first of three phases of the project. The first phase includes a segment from Northeast Inglewood Hill Road to Northeast 26th Street, and is estimated to cost about $13.5 million dollars, said Sammamish Public Works Director John Cunningham.

The council’s vote to approve the project, however, was not unanimous, and many citizens voiced their opposition at that meeting.

Much of the contention surrounding the project initially was due to feelings that it simply wouldn’t do what it was intended to. Residents cited concerns about the cost of the project, the loss of roadside parking, and stated beliefs that adding a turn-lane wouldn’t reduce congestion, or improve safety.

Residents reiterated these concerns at Tuesday’s meeting, along with a claim that the city hasn’t been transparent enough in its development process.

The last public comment meeting where citizens could voice concerns was the January meeting. But several informational meetings, all open to the public to ask questions, have been held since that point. The most recent was on Nov. 5.

Councilmember Michelle Petitti said the reason citizens may feel in the dark about the project is because the council hasn’t had a major discussion regarding it since January; the project has been in the design process for the past nine months, and in a “quiet phase.”

This reaction is typical of every construction project, she said, and it’s because the planning process can last so long.

“We had the same thing happen on 224th,” she said. “We approved design work to go forward and it was in a quiet phase because they were working on the design, and all of a sudden when it came time to talk about the roundabout ... people have changed hands, minds have changed and neighbors have changed. There were new people there who didn’t know about the project, or the impacts of it, and we were accused of not being transparent.”

After the impassioned public comment period, Cunningham gave an unscheduled presentation on the project at the request of the council, using a slideshow from the Nov. 5 meeting.

In the presentation, he highlighted the benefits of the improvements, and arguments for and against doing the project now.

Some of the mentioned benefits are: Improving safety on East Lake Sammamish Parkway, which is currently one of the most dangerous roads in the city; eliminating congestion by adding left-turn pockets; adding bicycle lanes and a sidewalk to improve pedestrian safety; and improving the water quality of Lake Sammamish by eliminating oil, grease and other pollutant run-off after construction is finished.

Cunningham said he thinks much of the worry that the project won’t alleviate congestion is because people may not understand the theory behind the center turn-lanes. Many are calling for a four-lane road, but Cunningham said traffic models have shown a three-lane road to be just as effective as a four-lane at reducing congestion, especially at intersections, because it eliminates the line of cars stuck behind someone turning left. Additionally, a four-lane road would cost more, would require widening, more retaining walls, and during peak hours would cause the same back-up behind left-turning drivers as now, he said.

“There are many reasons to choose three lanes versus four, and the biggest is that they tend to work just as well,” he said.

Four lanes could also cause a significant back-up near the Redmond city line, where the road will remain two lanes, Cunningham said.

City Council members launched into a discussion after the presentation, re-visiting differences they had in January, and arguing about whether the public had an appropriate amount of time to discuss the project. Opinion on this was split, and the council ended the discussion with a 4-2 vote stating the public can submit written comments about the East Lake Sammamish Parkway project until Dec. 2, and can have a final chance to speak about it at the Dec. 16 meeting, where they will be hearing bid proposals for construction on phase one of the project.

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