LFP City Council adopts legislative priorities

The Lake Forest Park City Council will meet jointly with Kenmore City Council on Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 6pm in Kenmore in a legislative send off for 46th District Legislators.

The 2017 legislative session begins in Olympia on Monday, January 9, 2017.

The Council adopted its top priorities for the session on October 13, 2016

1. Secure culvert funding
2. Corridor study

Secure Culvert Funding
Lake Forest Park is the ideal suburban environment on Lake Washington for salmon to return and spawn. We have a healthy canopy and two stream systems that have historically supported significant populations of salmon. Unfortunately, aging culverts, and one collapsed culvert, restrict the ability of salmon to spawn in Lake Forest Park. The City is committed to restoring its creeks. To accomplish this goal, each creek will need a series of culvert replacements. Lake Forest Park respectfully requests that the state be a key funding partner in this multi-year project. Of particular interest is a series of culverts around SR 104 on Lyon Creek. WSDOT has given high priority to replacement of the SR 104 culvert, but for there to be true creek restoration, a downstream private culvert that collapsed in 1997 and undersized public culvert also need to be replaced. The City seeks a partnership with the State to package the three culverts into one project with multiple funding partners so that this key project can be underway in the next 2 years.

Corridor Study
A corridor study of SR 522 and SR 104 is underway in Lake Forest Park with the help of state funding. Concurrently, the City is funding a safe streets study to improve arterials and neighborhood streets including their connections to the state highways. The City has also begun to build relationships with the neighboring jurisdictions of Kenmore and Shoreline and has aggressively pursued Sound Transit 3 project elements for Lake Forest Park, including a parking structure, sidewalks and bus rapid transit. The City is also committed to contributing to future complete transportation projects over the next decade.

Other Legislative Priorities

1. State-Shared Revenues -The City requests that as the Legislature develops its 17-19 budgets that it fully fund local-state shared revenues, and further asks that the legislature restore full funding to the liquor revolving account. The City supports legislation that restores liquor profit revenues to pre-2012 levels by removing the 2011 cap, and restoring the 50/50 revenue sharing relationship over multiple biennia and dedicating the revenue to public safety.
2. Police Body Cameras -The City will monitor legislation emerging from the Task Force on Use of Body Worn Cameras.
3. Transit-Oriented Development - The City supports legislation and funding programs that support transit-oriented development in urban areas.
4. Infrastructure Funding - Lake Forest Park supports developing a statewide solution to local infrastructure funding needs to fill the void created with the ending of the Public Works Assistance Account.