The Clark County council paved the way for new commercial development in the north Salmon Creek area on Tuesday after unanimously voting to lift trip caps at the intersection of Northeast 139th Street and 10th Avenue.
Members of the local neighborhood association, however, fear the additional development and related traffic changes could strain what they say is an already crowded intersection.
MAJ Development, which specializes in retail projects, plans to develop 20.8 acres of land northeast of the intersection.
It’s unclear what MAJ Development envisions for the five parcels of land, which were all approved to be rezoned from light industrial and apartments to general commercial in 2008. A call to MAJ was not returned Tuesday afternoon.
MAJ representative Randy Printz, however, said in January that the site eventually could create 200,000 square feet of commercial space, about 376 jobs and $128 million in annual sales tax revenue.
At the time, rezoning included conditions that would cap how many cars could travel through the intersection during rush hour. The council’s resolution, which the planning commission unanimously voted to support in January, will lift those caps and require new turn lanes and traffic control devices to mitigate the additional traffic.
The Washington State Department of Transportation, however, weighed in on the project in a letter sent to Clark County Community Planning on Jan. 14, the day before the planning commission vote. According to the letter, Clark County’s Transportation Impact Analysis used outdated methodology and several trip distributions in the analysis “seem low.”
At its Feb. 24 meeting, the council held a public hearing to discuss the changes, and several more people urged the council to consider not approving the rezoning changes at Tuesday’s meeting.
Jennifer Hickel, president of the North Salmon Creek Neighborhood Association, said the intersection does not have the infrastructure to support additional development.
“I drove there last week running a quick errand at 5:30 p.m. and it was a mistake,” she said.
