An emergency ordinance unexpectedly introduced by Republican Councilor David Madore seeking to address safety issues at the intersection of Northeast 182nd Avenue and state Highway 500 consumed much of Tuesday’s Clark County council meeting.
During the three-hour meeting, Madore tried to insert his ordinance into the council’s agenda saying it was a matter of “public life and health.” His move drew strong rebukes from other councilors, with Republican Councilor Jeanne Stewart accusing Madore, at one point, of attempting to extract a “quid pro quo.”
The intersection in question is a T-shaped intersection of two curving roads in the Proebstel area east of Vancouver.
The emergency ordinance proposed by Madore would place a temporary moratorium on any new development in the Fifth Plain Creek basin near the intersection unless developers meet county requirements to improve nearby infrastructure. Declaring that a “public health hazard will materialize,” Madore’s ordinance states that the development was approved without honoring a developer’s agreement and it now presents a dangerous traffic situation.
Madore attached letters from the Washington State Department of Transportation that raise safety issues concerning the intersection. The letters list low visibility and a narrow, two-lane bridge over Lacamas Creek as problems that need mitigating.
“Now, whether or not this results in the stopping or halting of development, or whether it just says that the county needs to get ahead of it and correct the unsafe situation that will unfold according to (the department,) whatever that remedy is, that’s up to us,” Madore said.
In 2010, the county passed an ordinance intended to allow smaller developers to build without having to pay for infrastructure improvements. But Republican Councilor Julie Olson said that it’s been flawed and has allowed larger developers to escape having to pay for infrastructure costs.
During the meeting, Stewart said that the council was working on updating its ordinance to resolve the issues with the intersection. Olson also noted that the council passed a temporary emergency ordinance in August that sought to close a loophole that allowed developers to avoid paying for road improvements near busy intersections.
“I firmly believe you can’t just dump something on the agenda today,” said Olson. “It needs to be properly, carefully considered.”
Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Horne told the council that under state law the county can’t apply a new ordinance to projects that have been approved and are moving forward. Council Chair Marc Boldt, no party preference, said he expected that if the council enacted Madore’s moratorium, developers would sue the county for “big bucks.”
The motion to consider Madore’s ordinance failed 2-2 (Republican Councilor Tom Mielke supported it; Boldt abstained from voting because his brother, Gary, owns nearby Velvet Acres Gardens).
However, Madore brought it up again when the council considered adopting its 2016 Amended Annual Construction Program.
Public Works supervisor Susan Wilson told the council that adopting the amended construction program was “basic housekeeping” to make the document reflect a few public safety-oriented projects that had been added. Adopting the program, she said, required a unanimous vote of the council. When it was time for the vote, Madore told that council that he couldn’t “in good conscience” vote to approve the agreement unless councilors agreed to consider his emergency ordinance.
“I have exhausted all of the means that I know to address a number of public safety issues to provide safe and efficient transportation,” said Madore, whose term expires at the end of December.
Olson responded that it was “deplorable” for Madore to try to “strong-arm” the council.
“I won’t have a trade extorted from me,” Stewart said. “And I’m not going to change my mind about it.”
Wilson explained that if the amended program wasn’t approved by the council, the county couldn’t legally spend money on projects and could draw scrutiny from the state auditor.
The stalemate was broken after the public comment period, when Bill Wright, a retired Clark County transportation manager, said that the council could delay approving the amended program. In response, the council voted to delay a vote on the amended program for three weeks.
But Madore wasn’t giving up. Later, during a hearing on the county’s six-year Transportation Improvement Program, a list of projects prioritized by the county for funding, he introduced an amendment to include the intersection.
“The net effect would be some project that is worse from a safety perspective would not get built to build this one,” Horne said when asked about the implications of including the intersection.
The council, however, voted against adding the intersection to the list.
