MONROE — Building a Walmart store will more than double traffic in Monroe’s North Kelsey Street area, according to the city’s traffic analysis for the project.
The report estimates about 500 more vehicle trips will result on roads near the proposed big-box store during evening peak times. The area has about 200 vehicle trips during those times now.
Changes to roads and traffic signals the city has been making and others to come should keep things moving in the area, city officials said.
People can discuss the traffic analysis, which is part of the development agreement with the Seattle-based real estate company Sabey Corp., at this week’s City Council meeting. A public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall chambers, 806 W. Main St.
Sabey Corp. bought 24 acres on the north side of the North Kelsey territory on Dec. 14 for $7.5 million, $2 million less than a previous offer. There are plans to sell this land to Wal-Mart, which seeks to build on the site.
The council can vote Tuesday whether to accept the development agreement. The public hearing also can be extended to two more meetings but that will depend on how many people speak Tuesday, city planner Russ Wright said.
Wal-Mart has been one of the major topics at council meetings since the company announced on Dec. 22 it was planning to open a store.
Possible traffic congestion caused by the store was one reason the Monroe Preservation Action Committee, a local group formed by residents and business owners, want to limit the store’s size. The group held a rally Saturday at the corner of Kelsey and U.S. 2.
The issue is not North Kelsey, said Sam Wirsching, committee president. It is the other streets that are not equipped to deal with additional traffic.
“The question is what about the other routes that guide you out of North Kelsey?” Wirsching said.
The group plans to give a presentation at the hearing using data from public records and the state Department of Transportation.
The arrival of a Walmart store will cause the commute to slow, increase time for emergency service responses and increase congestion.
“Those intersections cannot handle it,” Wirsching said.
City officials disagree.
According to city officials, a Walmart store could generate about the same amount of traffic seen at the Fred Meyer store at 18805 State Route 2.
That store is not far from where the Walmart is proposed. The city has been preparing for development in the North Kelsey area for a few years, Wright said.
“With retail growth, there’s an obvious growth in traffic. We planned to increase capacity along with that growth,” Wright said.
The city started in 2006 to make changes in the area, such as creating an east-west connecting route at Tjerney Place and two additional turn lanes at the intersections of U.S. 2 with Chain Lake Road and North Kelsey Street.
With that work done, the new Walmart is projected to sustain 835 evening peak trips to the store. This is about 100 more than what the developer presented in January.
The city has invested at least $6.27 million for eight projects in the area, with two more still to start. The two projects are a traffic light at North Kelsey Street and West Main Street and a roundabout at Chain Lake Road. They are scheduled to be completed by 2013.
Wal-Mart will pay for a share of the traffic mitigation work but it is unknown how much, operations director Brad Feilberg said.
The proposed design for the store will have four driveways. There would be one on North Kelsey Street and three on Galaxy Way, one of them being used for deliveries.
The development is planned to be occupied by 2014.
The 11-page traffic study was done by Transpo Group, a traffic analysis company based in Kirkland.
Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.
Public hearing
A public hearing about the city’s development agreement with Sabey Corp. is scheduled for Tuesday’s City Council meeting at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall, 806 W. Main St.
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