Street projects in Kent: Whose ox gets gored first? Editor’s Note

Our City Council is discussing something that will continue to dog every Puget Sound city for years to come:

Street projects and how to pay for them.

While I have to give them credit for putting everything on the table, in terms of which ox to gore for the required funds, it’s distressing to see where they’re looking first.

You and I. The people with the smaller pockets who call Kent home.

If you’ve read our latest transportation story, there is an interesting factoid that presents itself.

Last year the city considered traffic-impact fees for developers, based on the square footage of new developments coming into town. Apparently it wasn’t popular in the business community.

This year, though, it looks like everyday people who own a car may be getting hit first with the fees. From the discussions so far (nothing has been approved yet) the Council could vote to tack another $10 to $20 onto our vehicle-license fees. That would raise anywhere from $1-$2 million a year for street projects.

I say, whoa, Hoss. Put on the brakes.

Why aren’t they looking at developers first? These are people with bigger pockets who create far more traffic impacts with new developments than your average Joe who drives around town in a beat-up Topaz.

Developers may make a city more viable by bringing in more homes and businesses, but when they’ve cleared their profit, they are gone, and they’ve created something that will impact Kent traffic for years to come.

Of course they’re not going to want to pay for traffic impacts.

Nobody does.

It’s up to our Council to say who should jump first, in terms of new fees.

I say let it be the developers.

Even in the little logging town of Sedro-Woolley, where I worked for a number of years, developers were expected to pay traffic-impact fees. They were hit first – nobody even discussed bringing small-potatoes residents into the picture.

If I am wrong on this one, then tell me where.