July 24, 2006
REMINDER - YELM LOOP HEARING WEDNESDAY AT 4PM
1. “WSDOT will host an open house [for the SR510 Yelm Loop Project] directly followed by an access hearing at the Yelm Middle School Commons at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 26, 2006. The access hearing will start at 6 p.m. ("An access hearing is a legal procedure to allow abutting property owners and others the opportunity to provide testimony related to property access. A Hearings Examiner will conduct this formal process. Comments will be recorded and included in the project record.") Yelm Middle School Commons is located at 402 Yelm Avenue West. The 2005 Transportation Partnership Project program allocated $33 million to fund the design and right of way for this project."
Key questions to ask at this hearing:
A. The
B. The report shows an unfunded amount of $35 million. With continued delays on the start of this project, has the costs of acquiring land, interest on borrowing money, construction costs & fuel, plus inflation made this balance inaccurate? Are we looking at a project total closer to $100 million?
C. Although this is a State hearing, the question this writer continues to have is how City of Yelm traffic studies
for local developments still base their figures on a completed Loop to mitigate traffic, when the State DOT website says the Yelm Loop will not be open until 2015 subject to funding, which is tenuous at best.
Do you think that is very wise - saying that traffic from current and new developments will be handled by a road 10 years from opening?
This is a report on Yelm-WSDOT hearing. City says they have $33 million federal funds and will proceed as if they have $35 million from WSDOT They are good partners. The planned street sounds like Pacific Street in Lacey with 6-7 round abouts. There were 7-8 speakers who finally got to say something. Road is stressful in their lives. There is a strange division of property benefiting those who enjoy financial gain. No speaker has been paid. This can drag on for 5-6 more years. People can't sell property. There was applause for class action lawsuit. About l20 parcels, or about l0% of Yelm's voting population are affected, but no elected official was present. In talking to people I heard two comments from residents on leaving Yelm. WSDOT will take consideration of comments and hearing was adjourned.