The Issaquah City Council voted 6-1 at the Oct. 3 meeting to change the Issaquah Municipal Code 10.36 to reroute truck traffic outside of town, despite pleas from residents of May Valley Road south of town at both that meeting and the Sept. 19 meeting not to send semi-trucks down their road.
The ordinance will remove East Sunset Way, West Sunset Way, Newport Way Northwest, Newport Way Southwest, Front Street South and Northwest Maple Street from the list of designated truck routes, due to the complaints the city has received from citizens about the trucks in downtown Issaquah causing traffic backups, noise and pollution.
With these streets ineligible for truck traffic, the agenda bill stated that “the alternate route for trucks to get from I-90 to Issaquah-Hobart Road would be to travel SR-900 through Issaquah to May Valley Road.”
At the Sept. 19 meeting, seven citizens living on or near May Valley Road made passionate appeals to the council during audience comments, pointing out that an upsurge in semi-trucks on their road would cause increased traffic congestion and danger for users of the road, especially bicyclists and students waiting for school buses.
The subject came up again during audience comments at the Oct. 3 meeting, when four citizens asked the council to rethink the agenda bill. They reminded the council members that although May Valley Road is not in Issaquah city limits, the road’s residents still call Issaquah their home.
“We can’t vote [in city elections], but Issaquah is where we do business, it’s where our children went to school, we consider this whole area very important and a great part of our life,” Mary Jo Tornberg told the council.
Benjamin Scott, a cyclist who said he has seen “very close calls” between bicycles and the semi-trucks that already drive down May Valley Road, brought a petition signed by 250 residents asking the council to “really consider their actions.”
“No one wants it in front of their house and in front of their school children, but I’d ask that we partner with the county to figure out a reasonable way to make this better for everyone,” Marina Subbaiah said.
Council members sympathized with the plight of the out-of-city homeowners, but stressed that keeping trucks out of the historic downtown was of utmost importance, and ultimately told the May Valley residents that their battle was with King County.
Councilmember Bill Ramos promised to personally help the city’s May Valley neighbors in their endeavors to speak with King County.
“I’m really sorry that it may make your problem worse, but … I’m willing to help in any way I can, personally, to work with you on that, but I have to take care of this situation I think in our historic downtown and Olde Town neighborhood to remedy what I think is a situation that should have never occurred in the first place,” he said.
Councilmember Paul Winterstein did not vote for the bill because he said the council had not been given enough data of how removing the truck routes would affect traffic in practice. He pointed out that if the majority of trucks driving through downtown now are making deliveries to businesses in the city center — which would still be allowed under the bill — rather than just passing through, then the bill would not do much to fix the problem.
“We really don’t know if this is going to make a material difference for the area we’re trying to make a difference in,” he said.
Councilmember Mary Lou Pauly agreed with Winterstein, but said that she would vote for the bill because the downtown streets never should have been truck routes in the first place.
“I can’t even imagine that another city would have a historical district and then slap a truck route on it,” she said.
Council President Stacy Goodman voted for the bill, but said that she struggled with the decision, having herself lived south of Issaquah in the past.
“It’s tough … but we are charged with making decisions that are in the best interests of the city of Issaquah,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we want to inflict harm on our neighbors.”
