Notes from Shoreline City Council Meeting February 11, 2013

Devon Vose Rickabaugh
Photo by Jerry Pickard

Notes from Shoreline City Council Meeting February 11, 2013

By Devon Vose Rickabaugh

The entire city council meeting addressed the options and concerns of Shoreline citizens around the Point Wells Development, which will impact traffic onto Richmond Beach Road in a major way. 

Public Works Director Mark Relph said “We don’t want anywhere near the estimated 17,000 cars per day that the proposed 3,000 unit Urban Center could generate.” In order to prevent that, Shoreline citizens must become involved now in giving their opinion to the city at open forums.  Individual property owners along Richmond Beach Road need to make their voices heard as well. Director Relph said the Transportation Corridor Study will seek, with citizen input, to provide a traffic cap on the amount of traffic going up and down the road.

Since the recent court case brought by Woodway and Save Richmond Beach to stop the development has failed, Snohomish County has gotten the go-ahead  to begin permitting for building. Shoreline wants to negotiate a traffic cap, restrictions on driving through the neighborhoods, protections for pedestrians and parks, and to hold Snohomish County responsible for some of the cost. This could mean trying to annex Point Wells at some point in the future.

Mayor McGlashan said he hated the word “negotiate” since Snohomish County, which owns the Point Wells Property, doesn’t have to work with Shoreline if they choose not to.

Councilmember Winstead said, ”We have no chips to bargain with.” Councilmember Salomon said, “Since we have a limited set of options we have to make sure to reduce the horrible impact to preserve our quality of life.”

“Why don’t we just close the road?” an audience member asked. It’s a public road so we can’t close it. Dennis Casper suggested a metered ramp at the entrance to Shoreline from Point Wells. Zack Hyatt, an attorney, suggested the city participate in the final case at the State Supreme Court brought by Save Richmond Beach and Woodway to outlaw the development. City Attorney Ian Sievers said by participating, the city would be put in a adversarial role and could hurt its chances for success in the ongoing negotiations with Point Wells.

Mayor McGlashan said, “We are as concerned as all of you. We are doing the best we can to get a binding document to protect the community with our limited options.”

Discussion and information about Point Wells will continue tonight with some of the council members at 7pm at the Richmond Beach Congregational Church.