PORT ANGELES — The city and Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County are leaving it up to a third party to resolve a dispute between them over an unpaved portion of West 16th Street.
Under the agreement reached last month, Habitat for Humanity will pay for a city-selected engineer to do a traffic study to determine if it needs to pave and widen a 580-foot stretch of the street unusable for cars as part of its Maloney Heights housing project.
The city of Port Angeles will select the contractor early next week for the job after it reviews bids for the job. The deadline for submitting proposals is Friday.
City Manager Kent Myers said the city will pick the engineer based on their experience and ability to get the study done as soon as possible.
He said the city will not interfere with the study and added that it’s the “typical arrangement” for a developer to cover the cost.
Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Dick Chambers said the nonprofit organization agreed to pay for it because it wants to avoid further legal costs connected with a land use petition it filed in Clallam County Superior Court against the city last October.
“If you look at it versus this [legal] expense, this is probably the more cost effective thing to do,” he said.
Chambers said the traffic study may cost less than $5,000.
He said paving and widening the contested 580 feet of road would cost between $100,000 and $200,000.
Improvements
The city has maintained that Habitat for Humanity needs to improve that stretch of road which is essentially a walking path along with another 580-foot portion that is gravel and dirt — for a total of 1,160 feet — in order for the housing development in the 2300 block of West 18th Street to be built.
It says that the additional traffic from the housing project — which will include 14 single-family homes for people now living in substandard housing and 28 apartment units for people who are considered to be chronically homeless — requires 16th Street to be connected not only to the property but to South O Street as well.
Habitat for Humanity has agreed to improve the gravel and dirt half that connects with its property but says that paving the other portion is unnecessary and too costly.
It filed the lawsuit to challenge the city’s requirement.
“At this moment we are optimistic that this is going to work out,” Chambers said.
Habitat for Humanity — which builds new, affordable homes for people in need in Clallam County — is working with Serenity House of Clallam County on the $3.5 million project.
Habitat’s homes, built by volunteers and with “sweat equity” from those who will live in them, are sold to the new owners at no profit and with no interest charged.
The 4.3-acre development adjacent to Serenity House’s single adult shelter will be accessed by both West 18th and West 16th streets.
Chambers and Myers both said they would accept the findings of the traffic study, which is expected to be completed in early January.
“We are very pleased that it’s going in this direction,” Myers said. “We’re just ready to get this resolved.”
Construction is still planned to begin in the spring, Chambers said, and to be completed by fall 2011.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
