Postpone Development of NW Newport Way

The City of Issaquah has just released the private project list with three large new developments in the immediate future and two more in the next five years to be constructed off of Newport Way NW. These projects need to be put on hold until a traffic study is conducted and a redesign project is complete for the Newport Way NW corridor.

The proposed projects will result in over 600 new residences, which will double the number of residences in the area, significantly adding to the amount of traffic along Newport Way NW, and increase the number of bicyclists, pedestrians, and children waiting off of Newport Way NW for school buses during the school months. The City of Issaquah has identified the need to improve Newport Way NW, but has not allocated any funds for a project in its TIP 20 Year Plan.

The City of Issaquah has already been told by area residents over the years that Newport Way NW is a dangerous roadway because of the high volume of traffic and 40 mph speed limit. In the last six months, there has been one life-threatening injury and one crosswalk fatality on Newport Way NW (6/26/2015). There have been two rear-end accidents in the last two months alone. Three years ago, two dogs were killed and their owner injured while crossing at a crosswalk at NW Oakcrest Drive (3/12/2012).

During the City of Issaquah’s Community Open House: Safe Access for Pedestrians on July 27, employees of the City of Issaquah focused heavily on “Rock and Roll Issaquah”, developed in September, 2014, which states that Issaquah is “preparing to be one of the greatest walkable, bikeble, livable cities on the planet“, in response to these concerns. The City may have a general plan on paper, but the public has not been shown a schedule for implementation, proof of funding, a written policy for reviewing related city-wide projects, information on how community stakeholders will be included in the ongoing planning process, or a viable and measurable implementation plan. In the recent three weeks since the open house, in two separate instances, two residents of the Oakcrest Dr NW and Newport Way NW area were nearly hit by non-stopping motorists while in the Crosswalk during daylight hours when the Crosswalk flashing lights were operating. Therefore, even if Rock and Roll Issaquah is effectively implemented, more must be done on a more urgent timeline.

A comprehensive traffic study and subsequent improvements are necessary because NW Newport Way has numerous safety issues, including marked crosswalks on blind curves, an unsafe walking path on the north side of the road, no walking path on the south side of the road, and no pedestrian crosswalks at the entrances for some existing developments. The City has ignored repeated Citizen’s Action Requests to lower the speed limit of Newport Way NW and to make safety improvements such as safe crosswalks and continuous pedestrian/ bike paths or sidewalks from Issaquah's western boundary into the city.

The City of Issaquah did commit to a road resign study and reconstruction project for Newport Way NW in 1987 (City of Issaquah, 1987). It was then the City of Issaquah made the decision to rezone the land as residential and committed to building Newport Way into a three-lane neighborhood street with sidewalks on both side of the street. The City has failed to fund this much needed project year after year while continuing to approve surrounding developments that directly impacts this corridor’s safety.

The traffic study and subsequent improvements are necessary to better show how unsafe the current driving speed is for this area. Newport Way NW corridor’s topography, blind S-curve, existing local population density, numerous poorly designed street entrances and existing high volume traffic loads do not safely support a 40mph speed limit, nor do they support additional development with only one entrance onto Newport Way NW, as proposed in the Gateway Apartment Project (Issaquah Development Commission, 2015). The City of Issaquah has not produced any studies that argue otherwise, as requested at the July 6, 2015 City Council Meeting (City of Issaquah, 2015).

As it stands, no thorough traffic study has been conducted by the City of Issaquah in over 30 years. The recent 2012 traffic study was conducted by a developer and did not account for:
a. traffic concerns outside of the capacity of the road and b. all of NW Newport Way from SR 900 to Lakemont Boulevard (Issaquah Development Commission, 2015). The traffic study done for the Central Area Plan only looked at the traffic volume turning onto Newport Way from S-900 (City of Issaquah, 2010). The amount of thru traffic verses local traffic that uses Newport Way NW, the impacts of population growth on road use, or the number of accidents along the Newport Way NW corridor were not studied. The traffic study did identify the need for 3 lane road with sidewalks on both sides.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has committed to a Target Zero goal, to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero by the year 2030 (WSDOT, 2015). To achieve this goal, WSDOT will be utilizing Safe Corridor Planning Advanced Analysis Studies. Following these studies, newly improved corridors will include automated red light cameras, safer engineering of roads, bus stops closer to safety improvements, and corridor-wide safety campaigns. This is especially necessary on City streets like Newport Way NW because the WSDOT (2013) notes that, in 2011, 22.2% of fatalities and 40.7% of serious injuries happened on neighborhood roads like Newport Way NW. We call on the City of Issaquah to put safety first and work toward this statewide goal prior to it being required.

Therefore, the City of Issaquah must conduct a Safe Corridor Study for Newport Way NW, allocate funding for the recommended improvements, and improve the roadway to meet any and all areas of safety deficiency, including, but not limited to, lowering the speed limit and improving the pedestrian crosswalks before these proposed developments move forward.

The City must also update the Tibbetts – East Cougar Subarea Plan (published December 1, 1988) for the area south of the area covered by the new Central Area Plan Project to support these five new development and public works projects. This plan needs to be completed before the new development moves forward so that the roads, circulation, streams, storm water and wildlife corridors can be studied for their potential impact on the existing area.

References

City of Issaquah City Council meeting minutes (2015, July 6). Retrieved from Issaquah.civicweb.net.

City of Issaquah. (1987). Issaquah T.I.P 1987-1992, Ordinance No. 1670 Terra Highlands Division I: Summerhill site intersection concerns.

City of Issaquah (2010). Issaquah Central Area Plan. Appendix F: Transportation technical report.

Issaquah Development Commission (2015). Gateway Traffic Study: Gateway Apartments (Mull). Retrieved from http://products.issaquahwa.gov/ActiveProjects/SDP15- 00002/Development%20Commission%20Packet-%2005%20Aug%202.pdf

Washington State Department of Transportation (2013). Washington State strategic highway safety plan 2013: Zero deaths & zero serious injuries by 2030. Retrieved from http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/partners/targetzero/PDF2/overview.pdf

Washington State Department of Transportation (2015). Target Zero: Strategic highway safety plan. Retrieved from http://wsdot.wa.gov/planning/SHSP.htm