Shoreline Planning Commission recommends category change for Richmond Beach Drive

Richmond Beach Drive looking north to Point Wells and Brightwater cranes.  

Hillside drops sharply to railroad tracks and homes line the road on the right.  

Photo by Diane Hettrick, 2010.

At its meeting on January 20, the Shoreline Planning Commission had only one agenda item: to consider the proposal from the City Planning department to change the designation of Richmond Beach Drive from an "arterial" to a "local access" street from NW 199th to the county line.

During the public comments, Commissioners heard from Shoreline citizens, the Town of Woodway, and BSRE (the developer), and did a considerable amount of changes to the original Policy statement.

At the end, they voted 7-0 to recommend the changes to the City Comprehensive Plan to the Shoreline City Council.

The City Council is scheduled to receive the Planning Commission recommendation at its meeting on February 14, for action.

Courtesy City of Shoreline.

The new wording of the key paragraph in the Comp Plan as recommended by the Planning Commission:

"Policy PW-12 In view of the fact that Richmond Beach Drive between NW 199th St. and NW 205th St. is a dead-end local access road with no opportunities for alternative access to dozens of homes in Shoreline and Woodway, the City designates this as a local access street with a maximum capacity of 4,000 vehicle trips per day. Unless and until 1) either Snohomish County and/or the owner of the Point Wells Urban Center can provide to the City the Transportation Corridor Study and Mitigation Plan called for in Policy PW-9, as well as financial and legal guarantees that the necessary mitigations will be provided and 2) sources of financing for necessary mitigation are committed, the City should not consider reclassifying this road segment."

The citizen's organization, Save Richmond Beach, had this comment:

"The members of Save Richmond Beach are pleased with the outcome of the planning commission hearing. The City of Shoreline values public safety and quality of life of its residents and is willing to stand up and take the important steps required to ensure that those values are maintained."