YarrowBay cleared another traffic hurdle as 2010 came to a close by completing a traffic mitigation agreement with Covington.
The Covington City Council approved a traffic mitigation agreement on a 4-2 vote at the Dec. 14 meeting, the final City Council meeting of the year. The agreement is based on the traffic impact from the two Black Diamond Master Planned Developments, the Villages and Lawson Hills.
Voting to approve were Mayor Margaret Harto, Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Wagner, councillors Marlla Mhoon, and Jim Scott. Dissenting were Mark Lanza and David Lucavish. Councilman Wayne Snoey was not present at the meeting.
The details of the agreement are YarrowBay will pay $800,000 to the city in four installments.
The funds will be spent on the state Route 516 corridor, known as Southeast 272nd Street in Covington.
City Manager Derek Matheson said the Black Diamond environmental impact statement showed four intersections would fail in Covington on SR 516 with the construction of the developments.
Matheson said YarrowBay accepted the city’s cost analysis for improving the interesections, about $660,000.
The other part of the agreement involves the YarrowBay Maple Hills development in Covington. The 300 home project could move forward in phase one with 150 homes, but phase two was hung up because of the impacts on the Jenkins Creek Bridge.
YarrowBay agreed to kick in about $140,000 for the Jenkins Creek Bridge to 185th Avenue Southeast project. The corridor project will include widening the road to five lanes with underground power, curb and gutter and streetlights. The cost of the entire project is $13.6 million.
Matheson said the completion of the agreement will not only bring in the $800,000, but the “permit fees, traffic impact fees and school impact fees.”
YarrowBay will also construct 204th north through the subdivision and improve the road south to Kent Kangley.
At the council meeting Wagner said the money would help SR 516 and stated he thought the staff and YarrowBay had done a good job of negotiating the deal.
Lanza said he did not think it was a bad deal, but noted, “I think it behooves us to do a little more research to see how the extra cars will affect traffic flows.”
Councilman Jim Scott said he didn’t agree with paying for more traffic consultants to “reconfirm the EIS.”
