SEQUIM — New residential developments should shoulder more of the costs associated with building, maintaining and improving nearby roads, city leaders say.
They’re concerned that rapid growth could soon bring more traffic than current roads were designed to handle.
The idea has a long way to go before it becomes a formal city policy.
But planning guidelines already allow the city to apportion road costs according to which properties benefit most from improvements, and the decision to find ways to fund needed road work marks a new direction for city planning, Sequim Mayor Walt Schubert said.
“If we don’t get some stuff done as far as our road infrastructure, we’re headed for some serious trouble here,” he said.
City Council discussion earlier this week focused on subdivisions planned along West Sequim Bay Road near Washington Harbor Road and Bell Bottom Road.
A 16-acre, 54-lot subdivision proposed by Colby Corp. was on Monday night’s meeting agenda for rezoning and provided a springboard into the topic.
West Sequim Bay traffic
City planning documents show more than 200 housing units planned for that area, and further, extensive development is expected there.
That could dump enough traffic on West Sequim Bay Road to make it unsafe.
Since it’s the new development that would be driving the need for road work, council members reasoned, those residents carry more responsibility to pay for it.
The option discussed Monday was a local improvement district, which would place a levy on property owners within a certain area to pay for improvements benefiting that area.