Sidewalks are ‘sensitive’ in this Thurston Co. city. Can sales tax funding help?
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- Council provided direction to schedule a February special election to renew the tax.
- The sales tax generates about $4 million annually to maintain the city’s streets.
- Council left ballot language unchanged but asked staff to develop a sidewalk plan.
About 10 years ago, Lacey voters approved a Transportation Benefit District, which charged a .02% sales tax to raise money to maintain the city’s existing streets and sidewalks.
And now voters will be asked to renew the district early next year before it expires, according to action taken by Lacey City Council during a Tuesday work session.
An official council vote will come later, but on Tuesday they provided the city with this much direction: to schedule a ballot measure for a February special election with the same language, stating that the sales tax revenue, which generates about $4 million a year, will be used to maintain streets and sidewalks.
There was some debate about the timing of the ballot measure – whether the November general election would be better than February – and they also discussed expanding the language of it, so that in addition to maintaining streets and sidewalks, a portion of the money could be used for new sidewalk construction.
One reason not to run the measure in November is to avoid competing with Lacey Fire District 3 which reportedly is eyeing the same month for its own ballot measure, according to staff comments at the meeting.
“My preference is certainly that we go with the same language,” said council member Lenny Greenstein. “You know, when you change the language, and you’re asking for something new and different than you were before, it’s much more difficult to get it passed. I just think, if you stay with the same language, we’re not asking for any new money. This is something we were already paying. ... I think that’s our best chance for success in passing.”
Although Mayor Andy Ryder agreed to leave the ballot measure language unchanged, he was adamant the city needs to come up with a plan to fund and build new sidewalks.
When new subdivisions and roads are constructed in the city, they come with new sidewalks. But there are older areas of the city that do not have sidewalks because development standards were different. During Tuesday’s presentation about the Transportation Benefit District, city staff revisited some of those areas, including 37th Avenue between College Street and the Chehalis Western Trail, an area with sidewalk gaps.
Residents in the area have long desired an uninterrupted stretch of sidewalk for children to use to get to nearby Komachin Middle School.
“You know I’m a little sensitive on this whole sidewalk conversation,” said Ryder. “I’ve made perfectly clear over the years that we have a broken transportation system, and how we’ve paid for it over the years, where, you know, for the most part, government covers the cost of roads, but doesn’t cover sidewalks or anything else, and that can be another essential transportation network for a lot of people who desperately need it.”
He then put his foot down.
“I want to see a plan. I want to see a commitment, and I want to see it done, period,” he said. “And if it’s not with these (Transportation Benefit District) dollars, it’s with some other dedicated funding going forward. That’s what I want.”
Council member Maren Turner acknowledged she was torn on the issue.
“The reason I’m torn is because our community is more diverse than it was 10 years ago, and I think there’s more of a demand for having walkable communities, less tolerance for congestion,” she said. “There are a lot of reasons that I’m sort of torn, but let’s just go with February and leave the language as it is, and I am committed to continuing with the conversation.”
Council member Carolyn Cox asked whether the city manager and staff could come back to them in four to six months with the beginnings of a sidewalk strategy. Or perhaps a mini-retreat could be scheduled so they could really tear into the topic, she said.
City Manager Rick Walk couldn’t guarantee that timeline, but the sidewalk conversation will be coming back to the council as part of a future bicycle pedestrian plan update, he said.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 10:41 AM.
