U.S. 2 proposal tabled over roundabouts

AIRWAY HEIGHTS — At their Aug. 16 meeting, City Council members elected to postpone consideration of a request by the state Department of Transportation for concurrence with their U.S. Highway 2/West Plains Subarea Transportation Management Plan.

WSDOT staff presented a draft of the plan, which included some draft strategies for development, during a study session on Aug. 9. The department was requesting the council provide a letter of concurrence expressing support for those strategies.

But at the Aug. 16 regular session, several council members expressed concerns about some of the proposals for controlling traffic through the city on its main thoroughfare. The main sticking point was the use of roundabouts, several of which are proposed for intersections that council members were not aware required one, such as at Lundstrom, Lawson and Lyons streets.

Council was already aware of proposed roundabouts at the Spoko Fuel entrance west of the city and at the Hayford Road intersection. Both councilmen Arthur Bubb and Doyle Inman questioned the need for other roundabouts.

“If we’re going to put a roundabout at every block in the city, I’m against that,” Inman said.

Councilman Larry Bowman said he understood the safety reasons for installing roundabouts, which WSDOT officials have said lead to big reductions in speed limits in communities and neighborhoods where they are installed. Bowman added that installing as many roundabout as proposed would challenge the aesthetics of the city’s downtown, and plans for its enhancement, and felt redirecting traffic away from U.S. 2 onto other proposed high transit routes, such as the 6th/10th/12th Avenue corridor, would be a better solution.

WSDOT engineer Greg Figg said all plans for the subarea recognized the proposed corridor, and that the amount of future development proposed for U.S. 2 was more than the highway can handle.

“There’s a lot of spokes to the wheel to make this work,” he added.

Councilman and Mayor Sonny Weathers, acknowledging the validity of points made by Bowman, Bubb and Inman, said the actual corridor design could only take place with the adoption of effective strategies, “and that’s what we’re dealing with tonight.” Once the strategies were agreed to, design aspects such as roundabouts, signalization and other considerations could be addressed.

Bubb said he could support a concept-only approach. But if the department was looking for a letter of support for the strategies presented, he felt that was different than a concept and not something he could support.

In the end, City Manage Albert Tripp suggested consideration on the letter of concurrence be tabled until city staff could bring back a more comprehensive review of the issue – one that also incorporated the city’s own ideas and plans for its downtown core. Council agree to the proposal.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the council received the first reading of an ordinance creating new chapters in the city’s municipal code for public art. The ordinance would create two new chapters detailing how public art is to be approved, creation of a public art committee and a municipal public art fund.

City planner Heather Trautman said once the ordinance is adopted, selection of members for the committee can begin as well as grant applications for funding.

The council also received the city’s updated Parks and Recreation Master Plan, a document several years in the making and one that will also help determine funding requests.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.