Fairgrounds Road needed, residents say
Published 9:00 am Saturday, July 15, 2006
Neighbors on Al Anderson Road stress that the controversial new Fairgrounds Road is vital for traffic relief once the Highlands subdivision is built.
They also say the city gave plenty of opportunities for the public to review plans for the new road that the city wants to run across the fairgrounds.
For most neighbors, talk about Fairgrounds Road began more than a year ago, when the developer of the Highlands project first started to get community input on the proposed 53-home development.
“I went to the very first Highlands meeting. Right away the issue of traffic came up and that the city had to find some other way to get people out of the development,†said Kathleen Landel, a neighbor to the Highlands project on Al Anderson Road.
As someone who lives at the end of Al Anderson Road and has attended most of the public meetings about the project, Landel said the need for an additional outlet for traffic was repeatedly raised by neighbors.
Al Anderson Road is widely used by walkers, runners, bikers and horseback riders, Landel said. And residents said a connector road would keep the relatively narrow, rural street safe and accessible for everyone.
The proposed connector road has spurred intense debate. City of Langley officials have been negotiating since last year with organizers of the county fair for an easement for the new roadway. But city officials announced earlier this month that talks had reached an impasse with the fair board and the city would start the condemnation process to take the easement through eminent domain. Members of the fair board have raised concerns that the new road will isolate a portion of the campgrounds from the rest of the fairgrounds, and will cause a drop in camping receipts.
Landel said the connector road is needed by the community and was talked about early on.
Alternative routes were also discussed and ruled out.
Extending Al Anderson Road out to Maxwelton Road raised concerns due to geographical challenges and because the area where the street would have entered Maxwelton was busy and fast.
“The Fairgrounds Road was a lot safer,†she said.
City officials say that they studied several routes for a potential street and even presented four alternatives to Island County commissioners. Fairgrounds Road was chosen over other routes because it was the best choice after considering engineering and geographical challenges, and its impact on traffic. The other routes would have crossed too closely to other intersections, or emptied onto roads where the speed of merging traffic was too fast.
Site distance was also an issue, and planners ran into trouble with ownership issues, as well.
City administrator Walt Blackford said Fairgrounds Road was the alternative that best serves the community.
Because of the development potential in the area, he added, the need for a connector road between Al Anderson Road and Langley Road was anticipated by the city when approximately 88 acres along Langley Road were annexed in 2003.
In previous meetings, neighbors on Al Anderson Road said they were worried about traffic from the roughly 100 additional daily vehicle trips coming from residents of the new development.
Ross Chapin, who represents the developer of the Highlands, said a traffic study revealed that no major change in traffic is expected, and travel times on nearby roads will not be increased because of the Highlands project.
Mira Steinbrecher, another neighbor to the Highlands project who has followed the development from the start, said the new road is much needed.
“It creates a good deal of public good,†she said.
Steinbrecher also noted the public owns the fairgrounds, and that the public will benefit from the new road.
Paul Mathews said he watched the Fairgrounds Road controversy from the sidelines for some time, and believes that the city officials are being unfairly criticized.
He said he is not a direct neighbor, but is still interested in how Langley develops and grows.
“There have been many public meetings leading up to the decision to make approval of the housing project contingent on the developer building an additional access road, and much consideration has been given to where to locate such a road to minimize impacts and to maximize public benefits,†he said.
“The city is required to absorb population growth by the state’s Growth Management Act, so the question is how, not whether, to accommodate newcomers. I suggest that those taking issue with the city in these matters get involved with the process and provide constructive comments,†Mathews said.
Frederick Van Riper, another resident on Al Anderson Road, said he has concerns about the rate of growth that will occur through the addition of the Highlands.
But the Highlands are coming and a connector road will be absolutely necessary, he added. Providing another exit for neighbors is very important.
Even so, he questions the way the city is going about acquiring the property.
“There is something about taking property away from somebody else. Eminent domain – I am not sure if that’s the way to go,†he said.
The city council authorized Mayor Neil Colburn to initiate the eminent domain process to acquire property crossing the fairgrounds to build a new road stretching from Al Anderson Road to Langley Road after negotiations with the Island County Fair Association Board failed.
The fair board is concerned about:
• Loss of property value and usability if the fairgrounds is cut in two parts by the road (the property would be separated into the main fairgrounds property and another portion, smaller than one acre, that currently houses the tent camping area);
• Fencing and security for the split property;
• That the resulting intersection would not accommodate the turning radius of large trucks and access to the property;
• Lighting and signage issues;
• The impact the new road would have on the existing bluff;
• How the proposed road may impede access and use of the campground, and the possible loss of revenue.
The city addressed many of these issues in a letter to the fair board in March, however, and offered $138,000 in site improvements, including changes to stormwater drainage in the area, a sewer line extension along Langley Road, and the installation of a dump station for recreational vehicles.
Dan Ollis, fair board chairman, did not return calls for comment. But in an e-mail to the Record, he said the fair board has decided to focus on the upcoming fair in August.
“The board really wishes to keep its focus on the fair. We are concerned with all of the time that this topic has taken, something is going suffer,†Ollis wrote.
He also said the board has yet to see an official letter from the city or the county concerning the eminent domain process.
Michaela Marx Wheatley can be reached at 221-5300 or e-mail mmarxwheatley@southwhidbeyrecord.com
Fairgrounds Road:
• The road is designed to relieve the traffic impact from the Highlands subdivision on Al Anderson Road.
• It will connect Al Anderson Road with Langley Road, and will follow the existing access road from Anderson Road to the city’s water tank. It will connect to an easement across a portion of Linda Anderson’s property immediately south of the Highlands development to where her property meets the county’s fairgrounds property. The final section of the new connector road will intersect Langley Road at the same place where the current gated entry is located near the southern end of the fairgrounds.
• The entire road would stretch approximately one-quarter mile between Al Anderson Road and Langley Road; about 400 feet of the road would cross the fairgrounds property.
• The road would be 18 to 22 feet wide, and the city has asked for a 40- to 60-foot-wide easement across the fairgrounds.
• For a short stretch, the road would follow the route of an existing road on the fairgrounds property. The proposed easement would start at the south gate of the fairgrounds — a piece of property shaped like a piece of pie — and cut across a sliver of property at the narrow end of the fairgrounds parcel.
