An old debate recently resurfaced in the dispute over Fairgrounds Road.

City officials and a group of Langley neighbors are stressing that Langley explored every alternative before picking the proposed Fairgrounds Road for a connector road.

The issue of alternate routes to serve development at the south end of town resurfaced in recent weeks after members of the Island County Fair Association circulated a letter blasting “lies and misinformation” in newspaper coverage of fair issues.

In the letter, fair officials criticized the city for not pursuing other routes for the new connector road, including one that would connect Al Anderson Road with Maxwelton Road.

The letter also said County Commissioner Mike Shelton had offered to help the city reacquire easements for the extension of Al Anderson Road.

Langley residents and city officials, however, are saying the fair association got its facts wrong.

Both sides agree the city came up with four potential routes for the new road. City leaders have said three were ruled out due to the potential impact on nearby neighbors, as well as engineering or traffic issues.

Langley residents say the idea to extend Al Anderson Road to Maxwelton Road was a no-go from the start.

Homeowners in the Talking Circle neighborhood recently sent out a letter to counter the claims made in the association’s letter.

“It was time to set the record straight,” said Kathleen Landel, a board member for the Talking Circle Community Association. She said the group was aware that fair officials are still pushing for the Al Anderson Road extension route. Members of the fair board and fair association have been pressing the case for another route for the connector road because they oppose the city’s preferred route — one that would cut across the southern tip of the county fairgrounds. The city has repeatedly said it prefers the route across the fairgrounds because it limits impacts to private properties and neighbors.

Neighborhood responds

In response to the fair’s letter, the Talking Circle community sent a letter to the fair association that was signed by 16 residents. Talking Circle also sent the letter to the media and county officials, and posted it to the Langley Community Forum Website.

The letter asked the fair association to correct their statements. And it said Talking Circle landowners object to the idea of extending Al Anderson Avenue to Maxwelton Road by reacquiring a county-vacated road easement.

“We are the property owners that would need to agree to such a road easement,” the group wrote.

City officials said the information reported by the neighborhood association was correct.

City Administrator Walt Blackford said the city did its homework and explored four routes before deciding it would need a corridor across the county fairgrounds.

Those options were:

• Route 1, extending Anderson Road to Maxwelton.

• Route 2, connecting the Highlands project to Langley Road through private property to the east, then behind the fairgrounds and exiting on the existing gravel roadway between the north boundary of the fairgrounds and the school district’s playing field.

“This option was rejected for numerous reasons, including the need to condemn private property and because the right of way of the existing gravel roadway is not wide enough for a proper road,” Blackford said.

Also, the route would have required all other traffic heading to or from Anderson Road to pass through the Highlands neighborhood. That would have caused safety issues with the additional volume of vehicles traveling through the area, he added.

• Route 3, connecting Anderson Road over an easement obtained from the Anderson family and the easement from the county across the publicly-owned fairgrounds property. The path for the new street would follow an existing roadway.

“This option was preferred on all levels, including cost, engineering, traffic safety and circulation, and how it would best serve current and future needs for development along Al Anderson Road, and not just the residents of the Highlands project,” Blackford said.

• Route 4, connecting Anderson Road to Langley Road over an easement along the north side of the cemetery, and then across the Anderson property. This route was rejected for numerous reasons, including safety issues because it would intersect with Langley Road at a spot too close to the Maxwelton intersection.

Blackford added that the city of Langley had looked at the Talking Circle route as an option months ago, and approached the property owners about whether the residents would be interested in granting a road easement.

“The information in the Talking Circle letter agrees with our understanding of what happened when the county vacated the easement between the end of Al Anderson Road and Maxwelton Road,” Blackford said.

History of easement

The Al Anderson extension came up because of an existing but abandoned easement on the property.

County commissioners voted to give up the easement in 1982 in exchange for land that the Anderson family owned at the intersection of Maxwelton and Langley roads. The county benefited by being able to improve the safety of the Maxwelton/Langley Road intersection; the intention was that Al Anderson Avenue would remain a dead end.

Bob Arndt, also a property owner in the Talking Circle area, said the county could face legal challenges if it tried to get the easement back.

If Al Anderson Road ceased being a dead-end street, ownership of the land at Maxwelton would go back to the grantor, according to the 1982 agreement, Arndt said.

“The county can’t unvacate without giving Maxwelton back,” he explained.

Arndt added he had bought his property because he wanted to live on a secluded, dead-end road.

Trail cherished

Al Anderson Road, and the trail that extends across the neighborhood to Maxwelton Road, is a community asset and is used for recreation by people of all ages, residents said.

Talking Circle neighbor Peter Bennett said the area is used as a trail.

“All the kids use it to catch the school bus,” he said.

The families living at the end of Al Anderson Road want to keep their neighborhood a pedestrian-friendly road, which includes keeping the trail over the property open to walkers, runners, bicyclists and horseback riders, Bennett said.

Bennett added that the terrain is very steep and building a city street would involve major engineering and construction obstacles. As such, it would be more costly than the other routes studied by the city.

Arndt said the link between Al Anderson and Maxwelton roads would require construction of a 1,228-foot-long road, not the 250-foot extension mentioned in the fair association letter.

Michaela Marx Wheatley can be reached at 221-5300 or mmarxwhealey@southwhidbeyrecord.com.