At the Sept. 19 Issaquah City Council meeting, the council voted 5-1 to approve the project concept for the East Sunset Way improvements, one of the four projects included in the $50 million traffic bond on the ballots of Issaquah residents this November.

However, a presentation on the chosen concept prompted questions from some council members, especially in regards to a third lane that would be a combination turn lane and median.

“If I don’t have to make a decision right now and I know more information is coming, I don’t want to force myself into a decision,” said Councilmember Bill Ramos, who was the nay vote. “I want to wait for that more information.”

“I have real concerns about this center lane and how it’s configured and whether, going forward, it has the benefit that we want it to have,” Councilmember Tola Marts said.

The preferred design concept features 60 feet of right-of-way, with two 11-foot travel lanes in each direction, 8 feet of parking on each side and 5.5 feet of sidewalks on each side, as well as off-corridor bike routes. Between the two travel lanes is a third 11-foot lane that functions as a center median or a two-way left turn lane.

The preferred concept is nearly identical to Concept B, shown at the city’s Sunset Way Open House on Aug. 10; residents had named this concept as their preferred option. Citizens appreciated the fact that Concept B featured parking on both sides of the street, in contrast to Concept A, which had parking on only the south side of the street in favor of a larger shared-use sidewalk and a section for planters and street lights.

Currently, East Sunset Way is a two-lane road with gravel shoulders. Issaquah Transportation Manager Kurt Seemann said that the road does not meet stormwater standards or ADA requirements.

Many of the council members’ questions centered around whether or not the suggested changes would actually contribute to improving the traffic flow along the busy street.

The council has presented the traffic bond as an answer to the city’s issues with clogged roads.According to its description on King County’s website, the bond would “finance capital projects designed to reduce congestion, enhance safety and improve local streets and related amenities.”

However, Seemann told the Reporter that “the primary purpose [of the Sunset Way project] is not congestion relief.”

Citizens have been loudly voicing the viewpoint that the traffic bond projects, which also include improvements to Newport Way and a signal at Providence Point, do little to nothing for congestion relief.

“We’ve determined that these projects will not fix traffic or solve congestion,” Issaquah resident Bryan Weinstein stated during audience comments at the meeting. Weinstein, who is the spokesperson traffic bond’s con committee, went on to call the bond “an expensive slush fund for the city.”

“It is a beautification project with perhaps a little safety built in depending on final design. But congestion relief, nope. Ain’t happening,” Issaquah resident Bob Brock wrote to the Reporter on Facebook. “And if they [the city] try to say there is congestion relief, make them prove it. I am not worried because they can’t.”

In a slide show Seemann presented at the meeting, “ease frustration with travel on East Sunset Way” was at the top of the list of goals for the project, along with safety for drivers and pedestrians, stormwater improvements, transit and non-motorized mobility support, and beautification of an entryway into town.

During the meeting, though, it became increasingly apparent that while the Sunset Way project would include many changes for the street, it may not actually have much effect on traffic relief.

Seemann told the council that “at no time was a goal for this corridor … finding ways to maximize roadway capacity.”

Ramos drew attention to the the middle lane, wondering if making it a turn lane and median was the best use of space.

“That real estate, that 60 feet [in total], is really valuable and I don’t think I can commit to a center turn lane as the concept alternative,” Ramos said.

Marts questioned how exactly the center turn lane would improve traffic flow.

“My question is, have we looked at what the actual difference in traffic capability or traffic flow would be having that center lane versus not having that center lane?” Marts asked.

“The third lane has other functions than to move a bunch of cars,” Seemann said.

Marts also voiced doubts because Seemann had said in his presentation that three lanes work best for streets that see in general around 20,000 vehicles per day. East Sunset Way already has about 15,000 cars per day.

“I have a concern from what you’re telling me today that we’re at the threshold of not having this turn lane be the right choice,” Marts said. “If we’re already at 15,000 and make improvements, then we’re going to quickly get to 20,000.”

Seemann said that the roadway would still function with 25,000 or more vehicles per day, but just wouldn’t “work as well” and would “see more congestion.”

“We’re trying to look at a corridor that provides some improvement down the corridor, but is maybe not the maximum improvement you could get if all you were trying to do was increase capacity or move a lot of cars down the corridor,” he said.

The purpose of the medians, as Seemann explained, is to provide more opportunities for pedestrians to cross the street and to have a refuge while doing so. Additionally, medians are shown to act as a calming force, encouraging speedy drivers to slow down.

There is no set design for exactly how much of the center lane would be median and how much would be turn lane. Deputy City Administrator Emily Moon said that the “possibilities are fairly numerous.”

Seemann admitted that a restricted turn lane would actually not be quite as efficient as a long center turn lane.

“If the only goal of the project was to make the corridor function better from a vehicle standpoint, probably lifting turn restrictions … with a center turn lane down the length of the corridor, you would see decreases in travel time,” Seemann said.

However, he said that the traffic light that the Issaquah School District is putting in at East Sunset Way and Second Street will have a “great benefit” for people making turns towards the schools on that street.

Councilmember Mary Lou Pauly told the Reporter that leaving congestion on East Sunset somewhat unimproved was intentional, as a way of fixing traffic problems and making life easier for locals who turn onto the side streets, but making the road as a whole a less attractive option for pass-through traffic.

“It separates the local traffic from the pass-through traffic,” she said. “We have to make local traffic a priority. We don’t want to move pass-through traffic through too quickly.”

“It makes [Sunset] pleasant for locals and unpleasant for pass-through traffic,” she went on.

“I think this preferred concept, which got a lot of input from the community, acknowledges that we don’t want to make this a more efficient pass-through corridor. We want to make it safer for the people who live here and use this,” Councilmember Paul Winterstein said.

The city has been actively working with the public to seek input for the design both online and in person, and has promised to continue doing so.

“It is our intent to keep the community involved,” Seemann said. “We’ve heard your concern and will continue to engage you in this process.”