SEQUIM — The Sequim City Council has unanimously approved $140,000 in the 2016 budget to support the development of 60 to 70 additional parking stalls at the Water Reuse Demonstration Site north of Carrie Blake Park.
Construction is expected to begin in the spring after the project was approved Monday.
“This concept is consistent with the proposed master site plan for Carrie Blake Park and the Water Reuse Site, and will support the growth of the park in the future,” said Joe Irvin, assistant to the city manager.
The parking is designed to improve vehicle circulation and to increase the safety of park users and visitors using the Albert Haller Playfields, he said.
The approved concept includes a new connector road that would provide access to the parking from the existing parking lot off of Blake Avenue in front of the Interpretive Center.
Traffic will flow one way from the new road on the west and move east to exit on Rhodefer Road.
Plan development came after months of public comments saying the parking areas now servicing the playfields are unsafe and disorganized during public events.
“The current parking is chaotic and unsafe and this is a great solution, especially the one way access,” Councilwoman Laura DuBois said during the meeting.
The project is estimated to cost a total of $318,000, Irvin said.
In addition to the funding approved by the Sequim City Council, Sequim Family Advocates in coordination with the city of Sequim, will work to secure additional funds from the Haller Foundation and other sources in the amount of $164,000.
That would leave another $14,000 needed for the project.
If the additional funding is not available, the project “would have to be designed to meet our budget,” Irvin said.
Build what we can
“We are going to build what we can with the funding we have.”
If no outside funding can be secured, construction could still proceed, but the city “would have to look at how far [$140,000] would take us,” Irvin said.
“We could definitely look at doing the driveway to connect the two to improve access and at a later phase add parking, but I don’t anticipate that being the case. I am optimistic we can find that funding with our partnership.”
The city will participate in negotiations to secure outside funding through January, and also will begin the process of engineering construction plans during that time, Irvin said.
An environmental assessment is expected to be completed by the end of February, he said.
“The city will handle the permitting and environmental review of the project, issue the permits and take charge of being the leader of project construction,” he said.
Construction is tentatively expected to be completed by August, he said.
The proposal “makes a lot of sense and probably is a better solution than anything we had previously entertained,” said Dave Shreffler, Sequim Family Advocates president, said during the meeting.
“SFA is truly excited about working in partnership with the city to see this project through the completion.
“The project will dramatically improve safety, traffic flow and emergency vehicle response times.”
As such, the project has “the full support of the SFA, and multiple user groups,” Shreffler said.
Additional parking “has always been part of the plan,” Michael McAleer, Sequim Family Advocates board member, said during the meeting.
“Expanding parking is essential. On a busy day when the parking overflows out into the streets and into other parts you have an unsafe condition.
“It is scary and it just seems like an inevitable accident is going to happen. I am excited about the opportunity for us to solve that problem.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsula
dailynews.com.
