MUKILTEO — About 1,000 homes are within walking distance of Mukilteo’s 92nd Street Park.
But because there are no sidewalks, it’s difficult and potentially unsafe for children, parents with strollers and other pedestrians to walk to the park.
"Most neighbors don’t allow their kids on 92nd because it’s too dangerous," said Jon Boyce, who lives in nearby Mukilteo Woods.
That’s why 140 neighbors in the Mukilteo Woods community signed petitions to have the city build sidewalks on 92nd, said Boyce, co-chairman of the Mukilteo Woods Neighborhood Group.
The city has plans to give them full sidewalks, curbs and gutters — eventually.
"The city plans to build curbs, gutters and sidewalks in this and many other areas in the city," city manager Rich Leahy said. But the council’s policy is to phase it in over 10 to 15 years.
The first phase is to pave ditches and shoulders on 92nd and install bumps to separate traffic from pedestrians.
Later, when the city has more money, it will consider adding curbs, gutters and sidewalks, Leahy said. But that could take many years, he added.
That won’t cut it, some neighbors said. They want full sidewalks now.
Wendy Heiman, who lives on 53rd Avenue W., said walking and riding a bike with her 4-year-old son isn’t feel safe, and widening the road and putting asphalt down won’t be enough.
"At a minimum, I want to see sidewalks," she said.
"And we don’t want to wait 10 years," Boyce added.
Mayor Don Doran said the City Council’s policy to phase in sidewalk projects by first paving the shoulders and ditches was made years ago.
"Because we have so many miles of nonpedestrian-friendly streets, we determined the easiest way to cover the most miles is rather than do curb, gutter and sidewalk, to do asphalt paving to divide vehicular and pedestrian traffic," Doran said.
Paving the ditches on 92nd Street SW was to happen last summer. The city designed the project, and the council awarded the project to a contractor for $598,048.
Three weeks later, the council tossed out the bids and told staff to go back to the drawing board.
The reversal was in direct response to the neighbors, council president John Sullivan said, adding that the council wanted to look at speeding up the phases.
This past month, city staff have come up with six designs that range in price from $676,000 to $1.6 million. Concepts range from paving ditches to putting a sidewalk on one side of the street, to full sidewalks, curbs and gutters on both sides of the street.
The city sent out a survey to gauge which proposal neighbors would prefer and held a public open house. Results of the survey will be announced at Monday’s council meeting.
Members of the Mukilteo Woods Neighborhood group say they have been ignored.
They drafted a plan that includes a "meandering" sidewalk on the north side of the street separated from the street by a planting strip and including crosswalks to the park. Boyce said that type of sidewalk would affect vegetation the least, and he believes it could be done for about the same amount of money.
"People don’t want just a sidewalk by the side of the road, they want character," Boyce said.
Leahy said since the park is on the south side of the street, a meandering sidewalk on the north side may not make sense.
Also, the city said that according to the survey, not everyone wants the extravagant plan the neighbors have in mind.
"If you count one response per household, the results show (the city’s original option to pave asphalt) received the most votes," Leahy said.
Right now, the project is funded for up to $800,000. If it goes over that amount, Doran said other projects will take a hit.
"If we drop all our resources into one very narrow area of the community and go with curb, gutter and sidewalk, we will be eliminating the ability to do any project like this elsewhere for several years into the future," he said.
Reporter Pam Brice: 425-339-3439 or brice@heraldnet.com.
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