Who should pay to fix the Eastside traffic?
Jan 17, 2017, 3:02 PM | Updated: 3:40 pm
Issaquah traffic gets rough at times. (KIRO Radio)
(KIRO Radio)
“Why don’t the home builders pay to fix Eastside traffic?” Jennifer in Issaquah wants to know. “They are the ones creating it by bringing in new people. Doesn’t that make sense?”
The recent ballot measure to raise $49.5 million was a big request for the Issaquah community. It was aimed at remedying Eastside traffic but was denied. There are many reasons why people voted yes or no. In a nutshell, the no camp said the city neglected to charge home developers their fair share for traffic impacts. The yes camp said, “we need to fix what’s wrong right now.”
Related: Should, or could, WSDOT raise the toll limit on I-405?
“We are moving forward in much smaller steps a lot of the city’s transportation goals,” said Autumn Monahan with the City of Issaquah.
One chokepoint among Eastside traffic that has residents especially worried is on Newport Way Northwest. At a recent meeting, drivers called the two-lane road a “transportation failure.”
“Our city council did, however, approve $250,000 for this section of Newport so that the city can conduct some outreach and this will help us better determine the cost of the project,” Monahan said. “A lot of the development that is going in — the front edge of those developments will be improved, not that the whole area will be fixed at once but those developers will pay their fair share of impact.”
This area is growing. It’s estimated that over 700 new homes will be built along Newport Way Northwest in the next few years. Some of those new homes will come with multiple drivers. Critics fear Eastside traffic will just get worse if the road isn’t fixed now, before the newcomers hit the road.
Eastside traffic and development
Let’s look at housing on the Eastside. The median home price for a three bedroom home in Issaquah is about $650,000, according to Zillow, and in Maple Valley it’s about $400,000. So if you want more for your buck, you go further east or south. That means Issaquah bears a lot of that Eastside traffic from drivers who don’t necessarily live there.
“There’s not one solution for Issaquah’s traffic issues so we’ve taken on several steps, including bringing a lot more technical staff from each city together to really take on a regional approach for areas that we’re seeing a lot of pass thru traffic,” said Monahan.
So Jennifer, when it comes to who should pay to fix traffic in a growing community like the Eastside, the answer is…complicated.
