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By Doug Petrowski
The Mountlake Terrace City Councilmembers, serving in their role as the Mountlake Terrace Transportation Benefit District Board, voted this week to move ahead with the design of a new street through the Freeway/Tourist District on the east side of I-5 between 236th and 244th Streets Southwest.
The roadway, most likely to be called Gateway Boulevard, will extend north from the now-private street that enters the Gateway Place development off of 244th Street Southwest at the Mazatlan Restaurant, would continue through undeveloped property just north of the four-story Sterling Savings Bank office building, and through Edmonds School District property that was once site of the Evergreen Elementary School. The roadway will connect with 236th Street Southwest near the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center.
Design work on the roadway is expected to cost $120,000, paid for by a loan from the state’s Public Works Trust Fund. Payments on the loan will be made from revenue collected by the city’s Transportation Benefit District. The design is expected to take six to nine months to complete.
Revenue for Mountlake Terrace’s Transportation Benefit District (TBD) comes primarily from the $20 added fee to the annual licensing of vehicles registered in the city. TBD income for August-December 2012 totaled $104,039.
As this variety of through street with the volume of traffic which will ensue, I wonder if there was a public hearing to solicit input from citizens living in what will be the affected areas?
Instead of wondering, Mr French should inquire as to the scope of work. I doubt that anyone is trying to put one over on anyone.
With all due respect to the writer whom I presume to be our former city manager, this is not our father’s city council much less city government. This bunch doesn’t so much try to put one over on folks as run over them if they get in the way.
As always, what the city has done and is doing has all the proper paperwork and legal pedigree. Maybe Mr. White doesn’t find it fascinating, but I do that despite all this properness, no less than 4 homeowners living within 2 blocks of where all this is slated to happen had no idea that this through street is in their immediate future, at least until I shared this story with them. One of them noted that now that the school is demolished and the city is talking seriously about funding a study for the street would be when they would expect public input to be solicited.
It probably also won’t surprise him that all 4 also had no clue what the $20 car tab tax could apply. Familiarity with the latitudes of obscure State law is less important than just being kept in the loop about what’s about to happen.
The city’s community outreach program for such matters is somehow failing those it is supposed to serve.
It was on page 2 of the Feb 2013 City Happenings printed newsletter. P.S. don’t want to argue whether that’s adequate or not, just passing along the factoid.
THX, Vince. I don’t consider sharing information to be argumentative. So, did you read the February article or just the header? It refers to TDRs, which is yet another subject that most folks don’t understand, but not the one I was referring to in my reply.
The “loop” in which the immediately affected residents feel they are not being kept is the one having to do with the through street and its triffic impacts. I haven’t seen that discussed yet in Happenings. BTW, I’m pretty sure Happenings is not considered an official (read, legal) notification anyway.