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FOOTHILLS FRIENDS UPDATE - June 27, 2007

We added two letters to our documents section.
The first is from Claudia Newman - partner in the Seattle Law Firm of Bricklin, Newman, Dold, LLP
This one is addressed to Hal Hart and talks about the issues with the MDNS and the Traffic Study.

The second is from David Bricklin (also of the same Law Firm) and is addressed to Martin Blackman.
It talks about Mr. Blackman's SEPA determinations and why an EIS wwould be a good thing.

FOOTHILLS FRIENDS UPDATE - May 1, 2007

An update on Aiki Homes' Traffic Impact Analysis for Balfour Village:

On March 19, 2007, Aiki Homes submitted its most recent traffic impact analysis to Whatcom County Planning and to WADOT for their review and approval. This analysis is meant to identify projected, future traffic impact from the proposed Balfour Village.

Thanks to letters and phone calls from members of Foothills Friends about traffic safety issues on Reese Hill Road and South Pass Road, the County got our message that there were issues with Aiki Homes' methods for its traffic impact analysis. Both Reese Hill Road and South Pass Road had been left out of the March 19 analysis. Foothills Friends also submitted to Planning and WADOT a great deal of traffic information from the 1973 Environmental Impact Study for Peaceful Valley which supports that Reese Hill Road and Kendall Road are a primary traffic corridor from Canada to the North Cascades recreation area.

In addition, Foothills Friends hired a traffic expert who prepared a very good critical analysis of Aiki Homes' traffic report. Foothills Friends submitted our expert's report to Whatcom County Planning and to WADOT, and several of his points were included in the letter which Planning issued on April 18, 2007 to Aiki Homes.

The April 18 letter requires that Aiki Homes do a completely new traffic impact analysis including the following:

  1. Trip generation counts by the WADOT ITE Trip Generation procedures;

  2. Analysis of traffic safety in high accident locations and corridors;

  3. Expanded study area including major portions of SRs 547, 542, 539, 546, 544 and 9;

  4. Most critically, the letter requires including an impact analysis for the entire project scope. Previously, the study had only included the residential development but had not included the commercial and retail shopping mall and had not included the 100 multi-family homes. Our traffic expert pointed out that Washington law under the State Environmental Protection Act prohibits phasing, which is what Aiki Homes had incorrectly utilized!

  5. In addition, based on new requirements from the County and WADOT and in large part due to your letters and phone calls, we know that Reese Hill Road will be included in the next analysis, and the intersection with South Pass Road will be counted for traffic counts.

Whatcom County Planning has told us that Aiki Homes agreed, at long last, with the County and State requirements for the preparation of the traffic impact analysis; what remains is to analyze the results, identify the impacts and an agreement as to the mitigation cost.

In terms of time frame, Planning anticipates a new report by mid June, so we will have an active summer. When the report is issued, Foothills Friends again will be on watch to scrutinize the report and make sure it is done right to protect the residents of the Foothills and to protect the environment. We know that there are still issues with the traffic count methods, as the WADOT has not yet adopted the weekend counts so critical for this recreational nature of the North Cascades, nor is it clear that the required seasonal adjustments (to mathematically adjust for the fact that the counts will be done in the Spring, before the summer high traffic but too late for the winter high traffic) will be done. We will be following up on those continuing issues.

Additional May 1, 2007 Update:

On March 1, 2007, Foothills Friends incorporated as a Washington nonprofit corporation, with voting and nonvoting members. Voting members are people who have either contributed time to the Foothills Friends' mission (by writing letters, phone calls, research, flyers, newsletters, mailings and the like) or have made financial contributions to Foothills Friends.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!