Letter to Commissioners

Submitted in favor of reopening Towne Road

September 11th, 2023

Dear Clallam County Commissioners:

I am urging you to reopen the north end of Towne Road to vehicle traffic so it can once again connect Dungeness to Sequim, as it has for over 80 years.  The commissioners’ messaging has consistantly been that this vital link would reopen upon completion of the levee realignment. 

Some locals want to keep this as a vehicle-free footpath, but that option is not without environmental impacts.  Dog owners are treating this as a two mile off-leash dog park.  The levee is littered with dog feces (some bagged in plastic and abandoned) and some owners allow their dogs to leave the trail to enter the restored floodplain which disrupts the salmon and wildlife habitat.  If Towne Road were to reopen, much of the walking trail would remain vehicle-free… that’s at least 1.7 miles of beautiful, natural paths along the river without cars.

The temporary closure of this road has increased response time for emergency services, burdened surrounding roads with additional traffic, and has eliminated an important tsunami evacuation route. 

What troubles me most about the upcoming public meeting to consider permanently closing Towne Road, is that there shouldn’t be a public hearing at all.  For years the county’s outward messaging has been that Towne Road would reopen to traffic on September 30th of this year.  The sharp curves and blind corners of the old Towne Road have been eliminated by raising and straightening the roadbed.  That part of the levee’s width (38 feet) was constructed, at substantial additional cost, to accommodate an improved Towne Road with shoulders wide enough for recreational use — the other portions of the levy are half as wide.  The nearest arterial, Sequim-Dungeness Way, is only 32 feet wide (including the shoulders), so there’s plenty of room for vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians to share the new roadbed. 

Rumors began circulating this April after a meeting in which commissioners entertained the idea of permanently closing this newly constructed roadbed to vehicles.  I’m surprised that as the end of paving season approaches, and mere weeks before the scheduled completion, we are now finding out that Towne Road may never reopen.  Equally surprising is to have learned that the acquisition of funds for construction of the road will likely take an additional two to three years — the original budget included repaving the road but comments on an online forum suggest that those paving funds were reallocated to construct additional fish habitat.

I only learned the county was considering permanent road closure because I saw a small sign posted at the beginning of the trail.  This lack of transparency fails to honor the commissioner’s stated Vision/Mission statement of “putting the translated desires of our residents into actions through effective communication."

It shouldn’t be debatable whether a public road is reopened after a temporary closure.  I live on Jamestown Road, a 19 foot wide country lane popular to more walkers and cyclists than use the new levee.  If a group of residents petitioned the county to close my road so they didn’t have to tolerate vehicle traffic, would that upswell of support result in a public hearing?  I hope the commissioners would serve as an immediate backstop to such a notion before I had to launch a campaign to keep my public road open.

While making your decision on whether or not to reopen Towne Road, please think about an ambulance racing from Sequim to Dungeness when minutes, and sometimes seconds, are the difference between life and death.  If a tsunami siren were to sound, please consider public safety when entire communities may need to evacuate in minutes.  At a time when the Sequim area is growing, we shouldn’t be closing arterials — please think about the increased traffic on Sequim-Dungeness Way and the difficulty Sunland residents have when entering from Taylor Blvd.  More importantly, please remember your consistent messaging about the reopening of Towne Road… now is not the time to move the goalposts on this promise.

Sincerely,

Jeff Tozzer

Jamestown