Lacey mayor pushes back on Lebanon Street process. ‘Don’t feel it’s a good policy’
Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder was in a feisty mood at a recent City Council meeting, asking question after question of city staff to get the answers he was seeking.
Those questions also focused on Lebanon Street, a city road not far from the Lacey post office that has been the focus of a multiyear traffic-calming process after neighbors complained about traffic and speeds on the street.
That process recently ended after property owners on the corridor voted against making the current traffic-calming devices on the street permanent. They are now set to be removed.
If the property owners along the street had achieved a super-majority vote to permanently slow traffic those costs would have been shared with the city. Property owners faced a cost of about $200 each, according to city estimates.
But if cost was the deterrent in the end, Ryder was concerned.
“If 60 percent of our population wants it, but can’t afford it, it doesn’t feel like a very good policy,” he said Thursday. “I’m feeling a little weird about that circumstance.”
He also added that the Lebanon Street extension, which connected the street to Pacific Avenue and was one of the reasons neighbors were unhappy, was a city land-use decision, Ryder said.
Why should those Lebanon Street residents have to pay for something we did? he asked.
City staff defended the process.
City Manager Scott Spence pointed out the city allowed property owners along the street to vote twice, and had it been approved, the city would have split those costs 50/50.
Public Works Director Scott Egger added that the Lebanon Street extension had little to do with the traffic-calming process, but was more about accommodating a few vocal people.
“In my humble opinion the process worked,” he said.
Still, Ryder called for the topic to be discussed again at a work session.
Councilman Lenny Greenstein agreed.
“I’m with you we should have a deeper discussion,” he said.
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 5:15 AM.
