Op-Ed: City Council has chance to limit neighborhood traffic - will they do the right thing?

SaveRichmondBeach.org is a community-driven non-profit organization dedicated to preserving our communities and Puget Sound through responsible and sustainable planning.

From Save Richmond Beach

On Monday evening, June 15th, the Shoreline City Council is considering which Comprehensive Plan amendments to send to staff for further study and which to reject. This year there were nine potential amendments submitted. Of particular interest to those wanting to preserve the character of their local neighborhoods is the first amendment, submitted by Richmond Beach resident Tom McCormick. This proposed amendment adds a limit to the amount of traffic allowed on neighborhood collector arterials.

Quick Lesson on street classification

Shoreline assigns each street in the City to one of four classifications; on a general level, the classification denotes the level of traffic expected on the street.

1. The busiest streets are classified as principal arterials (like Aurora Ave. or NW 175th St.)
2. Streets that are a little less busy but still carry considerable traffic are classified as minor arterials (like Meridian Ave. N or Dayton Ave. N).
3. Below minor arterials are collector arterials (like 20th Ave. NW or NW 195th St.); collector arterials are located in neighborhoods and are used to connect local streets to minor or principal arterials.
4. The lowest level streets with the least amount of traffic are local streets.

Why do we need a traffic limit on collector arterials?

Every street has a calculated capacity based on the number and width of lanes and other factors. To ensure smooth traffic flow, Shoreline already sets a limit for principal and minor arterials: traffic on these streets should be less than 90% of their capacity. The Shoreline Development Code refers to this as a volume / capacity (v/c) ratio of 0.90. But Shoreline does not have any limit set for collector arterials. That means a neighborhood collector arterial could end up with more traffic than a supposedly busier minor arterial.

The Development Code states the v/c limit on principle and minor arterials is designed to maintain an adequate level of service on city streets as new development occurs. It prevents a large new development from being placed in a location where the resulting additional traffic from the development overloads a street that is already almost at capacity. The City has that protection in place for proposed developments located on principal and minor arterials, but not on collector arterials; this could actually encourage developers to place their developments further inside neighborhoods instead of along the larger arterials where they belong.

Save Richmond Beach has never been anti-development, we have always been for responsible development. This proposal to put a v/c limit on collector arterials is exactly that - a way to encourage responsible development at locations where the street infrastructure is able to handle the traffic.

What you can do

The vote Monday is not to set a v/c ratio limit on collector arterials, it's simply to direct staff to study the proposal and report back to Council. A final vote to set the limit would occur later this year. Comprehensive Plan updates are only considered once a year, so Monday's vote is important because if we lose, we'll have to wait another year before we can propose this change again. We encourage you to contact the City Council (you can email them at council@shorelinewa.gov) and ask them to approve Comprehensive Plan Docket item 1, directing City staff to investigate setting a v/c ratio limit on collector arterials.