Couty roads can’t handle proposed retreat center

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 16, 2022

In unincorporated Snohomish County, developers are proposing a commercial complex called the MA Center PNW. They purchased a property zoned R-5 rural residential. The only access to the property is 75th Avenue SE, a rural two-lane road with rolling hills, no shoulders, no turn lanes. Despite this, they want to host events for 150 people on weekends and multiple events of 30 people on weekdays.

We depend on 75th Avenue SE to get to school, work and essential errands. Emergency services depend on 75th to reach us with lifesaving help. This international organization isn’t offering any details about schedules or enforceable guarantees about the traffic they expect, just vague estimates.

Our roads are too dangerous already. Recently we had two flipped vehicles within a mile on the same day! Commuters use 75th and 240th to avoid traffic on Paradise Lake Road and Highway 522. Highway 9 is at ultimate capacity.

Eighteen cars waiting to turn left into this site for a 30-person event would completely block access to a 232nd St SE, a key intersection for residents in the surrounding cul de sacs. The traffic volume would create big problems for everyone using this road; increasing delays and risks for school buses, pedestrians, and bicycles. A weekend 150 person event would likely need flaggers.

The MA Center claims they practice love, and don’t annoy neighbors at their other locations. Yet here, they are ignoring the limited infrastructure and the dangers their intensive use would pose for the community.

Tina Stewart

Woodinville