Towne Road closure decided in February

Public is just learning of decision made six months ago

Opposition to reopening Towne Road has been active for at least 7 months, so proponents of reopening the road have some catching up to do.

I watched the recording of the County Commissioners’ February 27th Work Session where the decision was made to delay finishing Towne Road. This meeting was open to the public but you would have needed to find the posted agenda 7 months ago and read item 6: "Discussion on Dungeness Floodplain Restoration and Levee Setback Project.”

To summarize, Commissioner Mark Ozias received over 200 signatures advocating for the permanent closure of Towne Road. He only received 1 phone call supporting the reopening. I would argue that people didn’t feel the need to campaign for the reopening of Towne Road because they trusted the county's consistent messaging that it would reopen. In 2015, 1/3 of those publicly surveyed wanted Towne Road to close permanently but a 2/3 majority wanted it to remain open -- this survey was mentioned several times but Ozias resoned the 200+ petitioners showed a change in public opinion.

Initially, Towne Road wasn’t supposed to be closed for even one day but an unforeseen circumstance was encountered (I’m unsure what it was, possibly the discovery of contaminated soil) and the road was temporarily closed, due to reopen this September.

A spokesman from the county roads department said the new roadbed was constructed as designed: it can accommodate two 10-foot lanes with 4 foot shoulders. The posted speed would be 25mph. To address petitioners’ concerns of speeding, other areas of the county found success by installing “radar signs”. These signs had never been used on Towne Road, but the County has them as an available resource to discourage excessive speeds.

As for the costs of the project, funds came from two grants. The grant from the Department of Ecology would expire June 30th, 2023. The “RCO” grant might be extended, but the spokesman cautioned "don’t count on it.” He also advised that county leaders should assume those grants wouldn't be available if the project were to exceed the deadline. This would cause the county to "reach deep" into the roads budget — barring that scenario, the cost side of the equation had looked really good.

The Eberle Farm, the sole driveway off the unopened Towne Road section, is on record as wanting to permanently close Towne Road allowing for only their own, private access. I'm unsure why they are advocating for private use of a public road, especially since they accessed their driveway via Towne Road up until the closure, but Ozias repeatedly voiced his desire to honor this single landowner’s wishes to close the public right-of-way.

The question was asked whether the new levee had been designated as a tsunami evacuation route and the roads department replied that no, it hadn’t, because it was still closed. Others raised concerns that not completing the project as originally intended could expose the county to liability including revocation and repossession of grant funding. Many emphasized that if the expiring grant money wasn’t used before the deadline, the county would have to fund the completion. One county employee stated that if a tsunami were coming to the 3 Crabs area, heading up the new Towne Road would be the best option.

Despite all these concerns, Commissioner Ozias continued to cite that over 200 petitioners wanted the road closed — he even said the raised elevation of the new roadbed might shine cars’ headlights into nearby homes. One solution he offered, which had evidently been used in Tacoma’s Point Defiance Park, was to close the road entirely to traffic on weekends so people could bicycle and walk the half-mile public right of way.

When someone raised concern that grant funding may be revoked because the deliverable of creating a road hadn’t been met, Ozias joined County Habitat Biologist Cathy Lear in creatively reasoning that the road had been “completed” and paving it to reopen it to traffic would only be an “improvement". There was no discussion from Ozias or Lear indicating that this interpretation of finishing the project may be considered deceptive to citizens who believed "finishing" the road meant reopening it to traffic.

Cheryl Baumann, a County Department of Community Development employee who also is the manager for "North Olympic Lead Entity for Salmon", stated that floodplain funding is all about fish, farms, and people so if we don’t need to complete resurfacing the road, and money can go back to other critical restoration needs, this could be an opportunity to avoid having the road at all -- keeping it closed is a way to connect people with nature.

Baumann reported that many citizens had told her Towne Road was not an evacuation route and was definitely not a route to consider during emergencies… someone asked if she was talking about the “old" Towne Road before it was raised, widened, and straightened, and she admitted "yes". Baumann sat in the "public" area of the Commissioners' meeting room but did not wait for public comment before interjecting her opinion -- she is a County employee working with County Biologist Cathy Lear and helps write grants. She clearly has an agenda against any form of road.

Funds for resurfacing were available from the Department of Ecology, Commissioner Ozias delayed the decision to resurface Towne Road and reallocated the funds for additional habitat restoration, the funds expired and the County now must pay out of the Roads budget which will take 2-3 years. I’m really surprised how, 7 months later, Commissioner Ozias' dissent has been able to pause, and possibly terminate, the promised reopening of a public road while he caters to vocal special interests and one landowner — Especially in the face of so much common sense reasoning and possible negative outcomes for the county.