Adding golf carts to move people between the South Whidbey Harbor marina and Langley’s business district was the runaway people’s choice from a workshop meeting earlier this month.
Public input results compiled by a Langley woman and the information assembled by the city’s director of Community Planning both confirmed that electric golf carts were the preferred method.
Sharon Emerson, a critic of the proposed funicular, gathered copies of the charrette feedback forms about people’s preference for a way to improve access to the marina. On her site, langleyfunicular.com, she calculated that 48.33 forms favored the golf carts as the top choice.
Michael Davolio, Langley’s director of Community Planning, said 130 matrixes were filled out and handed to him at the end of the April 14 meeting. He didn’t give a specific number, but agreed that the top choice was golf carts.
In a distant second, the funicular ranked the top choice on 25.66 matrixes. Fractions were estimated based on matrixes that had more than one top choice, indicated by a number ranking system.
Emerson, in her online post, said she viewed the results being an overwhelming show of support for wheeled transportation and a rejection of fixed infrastructure.
Combined, about 70 percent of the matrix responses preferred either golf carts, wheeled trolley, bus, widening Wharf Street or doing nothing.
Davolio, however, said he viewed the responses as citizens being cautious and diligent.
“People want to tread carefully and not spend a lot of money until there’s a clear need,” he said in a phone interview Friday morning.
Comments on the golf cart-preferred forms ranged from those stating that grant money should not be spent at all to wanting more information about operations/maintenance costs of a funicular.
Some new ideas were presented from the responses. Davolio noted that a handful of people were interested in the city pursuing a combination of building an over-water boardwalk connecting the marina and Wharf Street to Seawall Park, then having an elevator or funicular to connect to First Street. Convincing Island Transit to expand its service to the marina was also offered as a possible solution.
“We’ll look at all that as well,” Davolio said. “That’s the beauty of having this kind of session. People come out and have their own ideas.”
“People are also saying, ‘Maybe there’s a short-term solution while we’re looking at a longer-term solution,’” he added.
Adding complexity to the projects is the need for the city to provide Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant service, should the city pay for any of the options. A business such as ZipCar could open, said Davolio, that would not need to be ADA-compliant and could connect boaters to the city.
The next step in the process is a report to the Planning Advisory Board at its next meeting, scheduled for 3 p.m. May 13. Davolio will relay his findings of the charrette, and the board could make decision about what projects to recommend to the city council. Davolio said he will likely update the council at its May 18 meeting on the board’s discussions, or possible decision.
