Everyone has seen the work going on at the corner of 122nd St. E. and Shaw Rd. Most have wondered as I have about just what was happening as there were no signs that I remember seeing posted to tell about the project. Well, Carol Silvernail has done some digging and has a few facts about the project to share with us.
First the Good News: There is none.
Second the Bad News: In Carol’s words.
Sunrise Terrace has seen the work currently going on at the corner of 122nd and Shaw Road. Many of you have wondered what was happening as we did not see any signs posted to tell us about the project. Carol Silvernail and Kirk Hall dug into the Pierce County website this weekend for information. If you want to read about the project look up documents for parcel number 0419114042. Click on external links to see the correspondence and permit numbers, starting in 2018. The most recent permit number appears to be 911959. While we didn’t receive notification apparently according to the County web site a yellow sign was posted on Shaw Road in July 2019 and neighbors in the immediate adjacent lots were notified. Since we didn’t know about the project however there were no public comments on record.
The permit has been approved for 20 single family units on the west end of the plot and 100 attached townhouses within the 6.08 net developable acres. In a hearing examiner’s report dated 11/05/2020 it was stated the homes would be priced “fee simple for entry level purchasers” with a total of 372 parking stalls and 952 average new daily trips. The report also stated traffic will be of “no significant adverse impact on local roads” and no left turn lane into the development is necessary. The main entrance will be across from the Shell station on 122nd and an emergency entrance will be on Shaw Road. The name of the development is Shaw Heights.
At this point there’s probably not much we can do to express our concern about the high density and impact on traffic but the name that appears as the county contact is Associate Planner Donna Rhea. Her email is donna.rhea@piercecountywa.gov and her phone number is 253-798-3288. Mitch Brells and Paul Barber, from the Pierce County Engineering Dept, have also reviewed the project. Mitch and Paul know our neighborhood well from past issues.
Kirk’s commentary: Well Pierce County has done it again. First, they shut down Shaw Rd for months and ended up with a section of road with a large planter box down the middle and a double wide sidewalk on the east side, effectively blocking expansion of the road to another lane without major expense, leaving us with essentially the same two-lane road we had before. Then because Shaw was closed for so long people sought another way to get to South Hill, and found it in 122nd, which greatly increased traffic up 122nd. Pierce County has made no provisions for the increased traffic which causes real problems at certain times of the day.
Second, Pierce County has approved a road from the huge subdivision of Tehaleh to go straight down into the valley, where many of the vehicles will then go up 122nd. Because no provisions have been made to find an alternate route (perhaps extending 128th St. into the valley) or widen and control traffic on 122nd St. things are going to get much worse for the people who live along or must enter 122nd St. E., when this project is completed.
And this brings me to the Third point. 952 average trips daily (does that mean that we must double that number to 1,904 to get the number of cars on the road because to me a trip is one in and one out) will be put on the road daily at a place where there is already congestion. To me this doesn’t seem like “no adverse impact on local roads”, especially considering the already bad traffic situation.
I have to wonder what Pierce County is thinking. To me the logical steps would have been to start at Meridian and connect either 120th St or 122nd St as directly as possible to Meridian as these streets have short sections that could be completed for the connection. The roads (and all of 122nd) would have to be widened to at least three lanes and appropriate traffic lights installed. Then we could talk about putting more traffic on 122nd. The way it is now traffic will eventually become truly horrible, then years later County will recognize the problem and finally do something about it (hopefully before the year 2051).