Laurelhurst Community Club                                                     

Serving 2800 Households and Businesses in Seattle’s Laurelhurst Neighborhood

 

November 9, 2003

 

 

 

Mayor Greg Nickels

Councilmember Richard Conlin, Chair

City Council Transportation Committee

Members of the Seattle City Council

600 Fourth Avenue, Floor 2

P.O. Box 34025

Seattle, Washington  98124-4025

 

RE:  SR 520 Study Committee

 

Dear Mayor Nickels, Transportation Chair Conlin and Members of the Seattle City Council,

 

The Laurelhurst Community Club Board of Trustees urges you to designate representatives north of the Ship Canal Bridge to serve on the SR 520 Arterial and Street Impact Study Committee as a condition of the $250,000 City match to the $250,000 appropriated in the state 2003-2005 biennium transportation budget for the study. 

 

The purpose of the funding, as specified in the state budget, is to undertake “an analysis of the impacts than an expansion of the SR 520 Evergreen floating bridge will have on the streets of North Capitol Hill, Roanoke Park and Montlake.”  The state budget also calls for the creation of a committee consisting of two representatives each from these communities along with the secretary of transportation.  The committee’s role is to oversee the work of a transportation consultant who will analyze the impacts and design a traffic and circulation plan to mitigate the adverse consequences of the impacts of an expanded bridge on the communities mentioned. 

 

We are not asking that the scope of the study be changed as that would require further action by the Legislature.  What we are asking is that representatives north of the Canal be included on the committee as part of the City’s contribution to the study. 

 

Since 1997, our communities have all worked together on the TransLake Washington Study Committee, the TransLake Washington Project and now the SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV Project, as well as on other transportation issues affecting northeast Seattle.  The SR 520 Arterial and Street Impact Study will lay the groundwork for preparation of the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the SR 520 bridge replacement by developing design solutions for impacted communities south of the Canal.  The study represents another opportunity for our communities both north and south of the Canal to work together.

 

Although communities north of the Canal are not specifically a part of the study area, we are impacted and have a great deal of expertise and familiarity with the issues that will be addressed, SR 520 on and off-ramps, the streets targeted for study, and traffic patterns north of the canal that affect streets south of the Canal.  For these reasons, we believe that at least two representatives north of the Canal would be an asset to the committee.

 

Community members south of the Canal who are a part of the committee and have told us that we are welcome to attend the committee meetings.  It’s not the same, however, if communities north of the Canal do not have an official role.  We want our views to count and to continue working in a positive manner with our neighbors to the south as we have for so many years on transportation and other issues.

 

            We believe that the SR 520 Arterial and Street Impact Study Committee should have broader representation to ensure that key issues will be addressed and to involve all impacted communities.  We urge you to designate at least two representatives north of the Canal to serve on the Committee as a condition of the City’s $250,000 contribution to the study effort.

 

Sincerely,

Jeannie Hale, President

3425 West Laurelhurst Drive NE

Seattle, Washington  98105

206-525-5135 / fax 206-525-9631

jeannieh@serv.net

 

cc:  Maureen J. Sullivan, WSDOT; Senator Pat Thibaudeau, Senator Ken Jacobsen, Representatives Ed Murray, Frank Chopp, Phyllis Kenney and Jim McIntire; Tim Ceis