Smokey Point split over new traffic hub

Published 10:37 pm Tuesday, August 14, 2007

SMOKEY POINT – Community Transit is planning a large park-and-ride lot and transit center in congested Smokey Point, and some businesspeople oppose it for the traffic they believe it will bring.

The center – which could accompany retail shops – would be built on an 11-acre parcel behind the Safeway store on 172nd Street NE, with an entrance off Smokey Point Boulevard at 169th Street NE.

The $7.8 million center would have room for about 400 cars and would serve as a central connection point for buses from seven routes that serve 172nd Street NE or Smokey Point Boulevard.

“We saw we really have a need for extra parking capacity in the north county area,” said Martin Munguia, spokesman for Community Transit.

The Arlington-Smokey Point Chamber of Commerce has written a letter to Community Transit opposing the plan.

“It’s just going to paralyze traffic at rush hour,” said Bill Binford, who owns property in the area.

“It’s going to be a mess,” he said, noting the short distance between the center’s planned outlet and 172nd.

Some businesspeople aren’t opposed to a park-and-ride lot in the area, but believe it should be farther south along Smokey Point Boulevard, on land near 160th Street NE. A $13 million bridge across I-5 at 156th Street NE is expected to be built in the next two years.

Having the park-and-ride lot there, they say, would get more of the traffic away from busy 172nd Street NE, would connect with the outlet over the freeway and could dovetail with city plans for softball fields and trails on 35 acres right next to it.

“We just think that’s a better site,” said Becky Foster, co-owner of Bruce and Becky’s Interiors at 156th and Smokey Point Boulevard.

Munguia said Community Transit had a traffic study done that showed no significant increase on 172nd from the transit center, and only a small increase at 169th and Smokey Point Boulevard.

According to the most recent vehicle count on record with the city of Marysville, in 2005, about 1,450 vehicles per hour used 172nd Street NE at Smokey Point Boulevard in the afternoon commute.

A lot of bus riders already park somewhere in the area and catch one of the seven routes, Munguia said.

“It’s not the safest thing,” he said.

A small, 50-vehicle park-and-ride lot operated north of 172nd until it was recently closed by the state in preparation for additions to the I-5 interchange, Munguia said.

Marysville already has three parking lots and Community Transit is planning a fourth, for 200 cars, at Cedar Avenue and Grove Street.

If the Smokey Point transit center is built, Community Transit plans to start a new express route to downtown Seattle from Smokey Point. Riders in the north end currently must go to Marysville to catch a bus to Seattle.

Munguia said Community Transit looked at 37 pieces of property in the area, including a 24-acre piece of property owned by Binford at about 160th and Smokey Point Boulevard.

Binford, who offered his property for consideration, said he wouldn’t benefit from selling his property to Community Transit any more than he would selling it to someone else.

“I’m trying to improve a bad situation,” he said.

His parcel was deemed too far away from bus routes on 172nd and from I-5 access, Munguia said. The bridge across the freeway at 156th will not have onramps or offramps when it is built.

Still, “we’re not saying we’re ruling that out,” Munguia said of the 160th site.

The property behind Safeway is in the city of Arlington. Sally Lien, an Arlington City Councilwoman, said she’s reserving judgment until after a City Council workshop on the subject either Aug. 27 or Sept. 10, she said.

“There needs to be a lot more discussion on this,” she said.

Some business owners also are not enamored with Community Transit’s plans to set aside about half of the 11 acres for retail development – a first for the agency, Munguia said.

“What’s CT doing competing with small business?” said Mary Ann Monty, owner of the Hawthorne Inn, who heads the chamber’s government affairs committee.

Munguia said if Community Transit develops the property, it keeps it on the tax rolls and reduces costs for the public agency, which receives sales tax dollars.

Community Transit does not yet own the land. The agency only recently began talking with the property owner, Munguia said.

“It’s not a done deal by any stretch,” he said. “If the community’s against this, we may have to look at another site. “We want to make sure we have community support.”

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.