“I (Heart) Issaquah!” Do you remember that bumper sticker? Or remember “A Special Place Where People Care.” Now our slogan should be “Pave, Pave, Everywhere!” Having lived in Issaquah over 70 years, I recall both slogans and I still love Issaquah. However, our quality of life has been severely diminished due to traffic congestion and unbridled development.
Both Newport Way improvements should be covered by mitigation from development fees and not borne by the taxpayer. The developer mitigation fees for the Gateway 400 units, Atlas 343 units, proposed Inneswood Apartments 93 units, proposed Issaquah Apartments 7th/Juniper 110 units, should shoulder those two road projects.
While the Providence Point signaling (should be a roundabout in my honest opinion) is necessary — it was promised with annexation in 2002. It’s reasonable to assume that the tax revenues collected for 14 years from the annexation residents would be adequate to complete that project without a bond ask.
The Sunset Way project is vague — so not enough detail to support a bond of this magnitude and length.
As a lifelong resident living on the south city limits, the pass-through commuter impacts on our streets are immense so I was happy to see the recent study with King County take place. Sometimes I hear the Southeast Bypass proposed as an option.
The Hobart Road cannot accommodate the current merge from Newport Way, Front Street and 2nd Avenue so how would one or two more feeder lanes benefit the flow? Ten years ago, the construction cost estimates for the bypass (1.4 miles) were around $40 million without any funding sources. WSDOT and King County resources are budgeted for Highway 18 widening/I-90 intersection construction to be completed in 2023.
Yes, we are fortunate to live in a beautiful fragile valley surrounded by the Issaquah Alps. The geography and the Issaquah Creek both complicate transportation options.
Harken back to Ruth Kees, a local environmental activist — now deceased, who continuously warned that the diminishing pervious surface was threatening the aquifer. We were proud of our bountiful water aquifer, once sole-source and saddened to learn of the current PFOS contamination of our wells.
I appreciate that the mayor and council have acknowledged our complaints and have attempted to arrive at solutions with the traffic bond and a temporary building permit moratorium. But the current bond projects do nothing to alleviate congestion and the temporary moratorium doesn’t fully address our concerns about over-development.
Marilyn Batura
Issaquah
