EDITOR’S NOTE: This report failed to continue off the front page of today’s Clallam County print edition. It appears here in its entirety, and will appear in its entirety in Wednesday’s PDN.
DUNGENESS — A proposed restoration project intended to revitalize wetlands near 3 Crabs Road has angered residents living in the area.
“We will be severely impacted by the proposed realignment project,” Julie Smyth, who lives in the 400 block of 3 Crabs Road, said during a public hearing Wednesday night at the Clallam County Courthouse.
Smyth, 65, was nominated to speak for the 25 homeowners in her neighborhood, who have signed a letter opposing the project.
Residents are concerned that the proposed realignment of 3 Crabs Road will cause more traffic in their neighborhood.
“We do not support a configuration that funnels traffic to the public access area through our neighborhood,” Smyth said.
The project area is located north of Sequim and east of Dungeness Bay.
Construction, estimated to cost
$2.98 million, is scheduled to begin sometime in 2016 if permitting is completed by then.
Shoreline conditional use, substantial development and critical area variance permits are required because the proposed construction occurs within wetlands.
The project is intended to remove obsolete and abandoned infrastructure and relocate functioning infrastructure to restore wetlands, realign channelized Meadowbrook Creek and restore nearshore areas.
The project would require the realignment of 1,380 lineal feet of 3 Crabs Road, setting it farther away from the Dungeness Bay shoreline.
The current roadway would be left in place until the new road is constructed. Then it would be demolished.
The new road design incorporates a spur with parking, allowing public access to the beach and surrounding public property owned by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
An undersized creosote bridge over Meadowbrook Creek would be replaced with a 61-foot concrete arch bridge during the road relocation.
About 1,070 feet of the creek would be remeandered and connected to constructed and existing sloughs.
This includes the removal of 800 feet of dike on the creek’s left bank.
The project also calls for 89 large woody debris pieces to be placed in engineered log jams.
Building foundations for the old 3 Crabs Restaurant and a nearby horse barn, along with buried septic tanks, would be removed.
Additionally, 1,470 feet of overhead utility lines would be rerouted and placed underground.
In total, the project is intended to improve the ecological function of more than 40 acres of coastal wetlands and restore a half-mile of stream channel.
The restoration project is being championed by the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, based in Port Hadlock.
The mission of the nonprofit organization is to restore, enhance and protect the habitat of North Olympic Peninsula wild salmon stocks and to promote community volunteerism, understanding, cooperation and stewardship of those resources.
“During the preliminary meetings, there were three alternatives that accomplished . . . restoration of the wetlands,” Smyth said.
“The option that they selected is the most damaging to the wetlands. Creating a network of temporary roads while building a new road through the wetlands and then removing the existing road from the wetlands appears to us to do more harm than good.”
The residents believe “there would be significantly less harm to the environment to replace the bridge and do the wetland enhancements but leave the roads in their current location,” Smyth continued.
“That was the option that we supported.”
The road realignment “is a really critical part of the project,” Kevin Long, North Olympic Salmon Coalition project manager, said during the public meeting.
“The project really can’t take place without the road being relocated,” he continued.
“During the design process, we actually did consider multiple locations for the road, and this is the location that offers the most habitat benefits while minimizing impacts to area wetlands and also minimizing impacts to the area neighborhood.”
Smyth said that currently, a visitor who wants to access the public area of the beach does not drive into the 3 Crabs neighborhood.
“The noise and the traffic are kept to the west of our properties,” she said.
The proposed realignment “would direct all of that traffic into the heart of our neighborhood,” she said.
Smyth said the proposed parking lot would accommodate only three cars, with the remainder forced to park in the adjoining cul-de-sac.
On “July 1, crabbing season opened, and there were 40-plus cars and a semi-truck parked at the current lot and adjacent road,” she said.
The proposed parking lot isn’t large enough to accommodate that many vehicles and would lead to overflow parking inside the neighborhood, she said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
