At its Sept. 11 study session meeting, the Airway Heights City Council was given a presentation on almost every detail about the Transportation Circulation Plan that involves improvements to Highway 2. The preparation for this plan was approved by the council on April 18, 2016.
The main purpose for this plan is to develop short and long-term improvements for vehicle movement along with pedestrians and bikers in Airway Heights.
If everything goes as anticipated, the planning department envisions the council adopting it this fall.
Bill White, a senior transportation planner from Morrison-Maierle, Inc. presented the facts to the council.
There was a plan that showed improvements that would work until the year 2024 and another plan that would help until 2040. He also showed what would happen if the council decided to do nothing about Highway 2 and the impacts it would have on the city.
One of the items at the top of the list of improvements would be repaving 12th and 21st Avenue. Another was the possibility of adding landscape in the median islands down Highway 2 to make it look more appealing.
There was some discussion from City Council opposing a roundabout that was put into the plan that would be at the intersection of Deer Heights Road and Highway 2. White said that the state doesn’t want to put another stop light on the highway, which is why there would need to be a roundabout.
The total cost for all the improvements to Airway heights would be around $43 million, not including traffic impact fees.
The next steps in the process will be to finalize the plan. Public works and planning would then finalize the review and advance distribution copy to the City Council. White also recommended there should be an open forum meeting for the residents to comment on it and then the council would vote on adopting it or not.
In other agenda items, the council approved a recommendation to obtain prosecutor services from Maurer Law for the city of Airway Heights.
The council also talked about the interlocal agreement with the city of Cheney for access system entry services, which Airway heights has been using since 2008. The contract rate has increased to $56,000 for the city, but City Manager Albert Tripp said that it is the best deal for Airway Heights after looking at other options.
The next item was to talk about code enforcement. Derrick Braaten, the development service director, told the council that he is actively trying to get a grip on this even though it is a new thing for him. The reason why code enforcement was brought up was because Councilman Doyle Inman requested information on how to add it as a city service.
Rounding off the agenda was a second reading of Ordinance C-895 that amended the budgets of various funds for 2017 and a resolution designation and authorizing individuals to act on behalf of the city in exercising banking activities. There was also a resolution to proclaim October 2017 as domestic violence awareness month.
Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].
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