Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver not BC, Washington not DC. This story starts in 2007. I live on a street that is basically a one lane country road. It started out as a dirt county road and then someone threw some asphalt on it and called it a road. The north end of the street was barricaded off to prevent people from racing down this road because the road is too narrow for cars to pass each other. There were a grand total of 2 lights on the road, kind of like street lights but not illuminating the street. And no sidewalks so pedestrians are forced to walk on the roadway with the cars.

 I bought my house in 2003 and one of the reasons that we bought our house was that there was very little traffic and it was a dead end road. At the time the road was a private road that we paid a bit extra in property taxes to have a private company repair the road. We thought that it would be fairly safe. Probably sometime in 2007, hard to say exactly when because the city never notified the residence, some pencil pusher decided that some developer could ruin the neighborhood by shoving a bunch of houses in at the north end of the street. So, during the winter of 2007-2008 these idiots came in and tore up the road and the whole thing. Again, remember that the city never told us what was happening down there. If they had notified us we might have protested or something so the city decided to sneak around and not allow us the privilege of speaking up and defending our neighborhood.

So, in April 2007 I emailed the city and requested that they do something about the situation.

"From: xxx
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 2:50 PM
To: ?, ?

Subject: Road condition

To whom it may concern;

                Since the city has turned our private road (NE xx Ave between xx^th and xx^th streets) into a public thoroughfare, the condition of the road has not been improved and is totally unacceptable for the traffic that is now allowed to race through our neighborhood. I would request that the road be widened from the one lane road that it is now to a width that is able to accommodate the increased traffic as well as the drivers that are now allowed to race through our neighborhood well in excess of the posted speed limit."

Here is their most unhelpful answer:

Thank you for your e-mail. NE ^xx Avenue is a public roadway which is currently experiencing redevelopment. There are presently four separate projects being planned for properties along NE ^xx Avenue, and each devolvement has been conditioned by the City to make road improvements. With the new development, the barrier near ^xx Street was removed to make a complete connection of the street. As this area develops further, the road will be improved so that it is not so narrow.

We also understand your concern for traffic safety in your neighborhood. The City of Vancouver has several recommendations for pursing “traffic calming” measures that can help decrease speeding. Please read through the following suggestions and visit the corresponding Web sites listed.

Neighborhood Associations

We first suggest working with your Neighborhood Association, as there are many opportunities to apply for grant money for neighborhood improvements that can include traffic calming. You are located in the Parkside Neighborhood Association. Please contact George Guise, Neighborhood Association President, for more information.

Neighborhood Consolidated Funding Request

The City of Vancouver’s Consolidated Funding Request Packet provides for neighborhood associations to apply for the following grants and/or programs:

·         Neighborhood Traffic Safety Grant (NTS REET Program) – Neighborhood Associations can apply for Neighborhood Traffic Safety program grants for traffic calming and pedestrian and multi-modal safety enhancements within Vancouver neighborhoods. Examples of possible grants include installing or repairing sidewalks, new or repair curb ramps, pedestrian flashing warning lights, school zone flashers and others. These grants will be selected in partnership with the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Alliance and administered by the City of Vancouver staff. 

·         Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) – Neighborhood Associations can apply for CDBG grant funding for Parks and Recreation and Transportation projects. Examples of possible grants include installing sidewalks, adding handicapped accessible curb ramps to existing sidewalks, and upgrading playground equipment. These grants will be managed by City of Vancouver staff. Projects cannot result in the increase in maintenance and operation costs. To qualify and be eligible for CDBG grants, neighborhoods have to meet specific low to moderate income level requirements based on US Census data.

·         Neighborhood Action Plan Grant Program – Grant money is available annually to all recognized city neighborhood associations with Action Plans that have been accepted by City Council. These grants are for neighborhood projects to be managed by either the neighborhood association or by city departments such as Transportation or Parks. These funds may be used as a match to fund other grant projects.

Although the deadline for the current year grant application is past, all grant funds are awarded based on an annual, competitive application process. Details can also be found online at the Office of Neighborhood’s website www.cityofvancouver.us/NhoodGrants/.

Speed Trailer

A speed trailer is a great awareness tool for surveying local neighborhood traffic speeds. The speed trailer is equipped with a radar unit, much like a radar gun, which detects the speed of passing vehicles and displays the speed on a reader board. City of Vancouver residents can reserve the trailer by calling (360) 696-8290, x8867. Scheduling the trailer is a great step in helping motorists become more aware of their speeds as they drive in your neighborhood. A brochure is attached and you can also visit Transportation’s Web site for more details: www.cityofvancouver.us/transportation

Vancouver Police Department Traffic Complaint Hotline: (360) 619-4101

The Traffic Complaint Hotline (619-4101) is another good tool to address speeding concerns. The Traffic Complaint Hotline is maintained by the Vancouver Police Department and allows citizens to leave a recorded message on specific traffic concerns 24 hours a day and provides the traffic unit a centralized location for all traffic complaints. These complaints can then be assigned, tracked, logged and followed-up on in an efficient manner. www.vanpolice.org

Neighborhood Traffic Safety Alliance (NTSA)

The Neighborhood Traffic Safety Alliance is a group of citizen volunteers from Vancouver’s neighborhoods who advocate for neighborhood traffic safety and advise the City’s Transportation Services department in the administration of two street improvement funding programs. City of Vancouver residents are encouraged to participate in the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Alliance to learn more about traffic safety in their neighborhoods and to become more involved in making the city a safer place to live. For more information about this group, see the NTSA Web site at: www.cityofvancouver.us/NTSA

Other Traffic Calming Resources

Research traffic calming information on the Internet or at your local library, where a copy of Dan Burden’s Streets and Sidewalks, People and Cars (The Citizens’ Guide to Traffic Calming) can be found. Also, visit Transportation's traffic calming website to obtain ideas about things you and your neighbors can do to help slow traffic.

1) Okay... first thing is that they refer us to a "neighborhood association". Well to tell the truth, there might be an association but they are very secretive. They hold no meetings that we are aware of, have no voting for issues or anything like that, no published members, nothing.

2) Sure apply for grants. Grants for what? For money to improve the roads that we are already paying for? Excuse me but isn't that what we pay taxes for??? How about you use the tax money for what it is supposed to be used for?

3) As a matter of fact, calling the police does absolutely no good at all. They do nothing about the problem. They won't investigate car thefts so what makes you think that they will do anything about speeding?

4) Uh huh.... volunteer.... volunteer to do what? Advise the traffic department on how to ruin neighborhoods? Sorry they already do that well enough on their own.

5) Since when is it the citizens responsibility to clean up after the city?

So fast forward a few months. Of course nothing was done. There was no "four projects" that was improving the road or neighborhood. So after a bit of looking I found some office called the "Citizen Advocate" and I thought, "Perfect. There is someone who actually advocates for citizens!" So I tried that route.

"12/19/2008 to the Citizen Advocate

Sometime in 2006 or perhaps 2007 someone made an arbitrary decision to turn our private one lane country road (NE xx Ave between xx St and xx St) into a public thoroughfare without concern for the safety of the resident on this road and without notifying the resident of the intention of removing the barricade at the end of our street. I was assured via email in March of 2007 that the road was under development and the road would be widened and made safer. Since that time nothing has been done to the road to make the road an acceptable width for the traffic or provide for the safety of the residents. Let me reiterate that our road is a one lane country road without sidewalks for most of the distance and there are no street lights for most of the road. As a consequence, it is extremely dangerous to walk the road at night not to mention driving on the road especially when the traffic does not obey the posted speed limit of 25 mph. In addition to the regular Indianapolis 500 on our street, heavy construction vehicles race down our road all of the time damaging the road, a road that is not being repaired, by the way.  So, what I would like is to invite the city government, Mayor, City Council, anyone else to take the walk with me that I take every  night to see for themselves that this situation is totally unacceptable. Members of the city government would not stand to live on a road that is in this unacceptable condition and I do not understand why you expect me and my neighbors to."

The reply, 12/22/2008:

"Dear ? –  

Thank you for your email, I have contacted the City’s Transportation and Development Review Services Departments and asked them to look into your questions about NE ^xx Ave.  I will let you know when I have more information and in the meantime, please let me know if you have any additional questions. 

Regards,

?
Citizen Advocate
City Manager's Office
360.487.xxxx

"

Oh no.... color me surprised passing the buck. So after 3 months of no action I decided to take to the next level. I emailed my state representatives. I foolishly thought that maybe the state would actually do something or at least make the city of Vancouver to enforce the standards and laws that govern the civilized world. Also note that the Mayor nor anyone else took me up on the offer to take a walk with me so they could see for themselves.

First my email. I left their names in because their name and position is a matter of public record:

"From: ?
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 2:07 PM
To: Benton, Sen. Don
Cc: Probst, Rep. Tim; Wallace, Rep. Deb
Subject: Substandard road condition and safety

HOUSE INTERNET E-MAIL DELIVERY SERVICE
SENATE INTERNET E-MAIL DELIVERY SERVICE

TO:  Senator Don Benton

CC:  Representative Tim Probst
     Representative Deb Wallace

FROM: ?

SUBJECT:  Substandard road condition and safety

MESSAGE:

Dear Honorable Representative,
I live on NE xx Avenue between xx Street and xx Street in Vancouver Washington. At the time that we moved onto this street 5 years ago, the north end of the street was barricaded off making the street a dead end road. One of the main reasons that we bought this house was that it was a one way road with very little traffic. Once a year a privately contract company would come through and patch the road subsidized by extra money that the residents paid into the property tax fund. Sometime in 2007, apparently, the City of Vancouver decided that the barricade at the end of the street needed to be removed and more housing needed to be built down there. As well as more houses being shoehorned onto single house lots along the road. This has presented several problems that the City refuses to address despite several of the residents making several complaints to the City.
1. The removal of barricade at the north end of 141st Avenue was done without the knowledge or consent of the residents of 141st Avenue. Granted, the City did not need our permission to remove the barricade at the end of the road but you would think that the City would have some sort of fiduciary duty to notify the residents that their neighborhood was about to be ruined. If I had known that the city was planning on ruining my neighborhood, I might have been able to organize some sort of resistance to that plan.
2.  The removal of the barricade has allowed the traffic along our road to become extraordinarily dangerous to anyone that travels along it. Let me attempt to describe the road to you. To begin with, the road is only approximately 12 feet wide. Yes, 12 feet. Barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other. Most places in the road cars cannot pass each other without going off the roadway and onto the mud.  Most of the road has no drainage, curbs, sidewalks or street lights. For the length of the road, we have a total of 5 street lights. In short, the condition and state of the road is totally substandard for a residential roadway.
3. Being that the road is only 12 feet wide; the safety of the residents is seriously compromised. Traffic is allowed to travel along the road at whatever speed the vehicles can get up to. I have personally witnessed automobiles traveling along this road at 50 – 60 miles per hour.  Rarely do you ever see any vehicle traveling on this road at the posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour. I have almost been hit by speeding cars on several occasions as I walked along the roadside.
4. That the housing developers are allowed to shoehorn 4 houses into a space where there is only room for one house with an access road only 8 feet wide should be criminal. A house under construction burned to the ground here not too long ago. The fire department was not able to get to the house on fire due to the fact that the emergency vehicles cold not fit onto the access road to get to the emergency. The fire department had to string a series of water hoses from the main road down the access road. Guess it was a good thing that there weren’t people in that house that needed emergency personnel to get to them instead of running around trying to get water hoses strung together.

Thank you for your attention"

"Thank you for your e-mail.  As you know, these are city issues so aren't typically handled by the state government. 

I did want to let you know that I did speak with the manager of the City of Vancouver's Transportation Department on your behalf.  I also forwarded your concerns to her and she assured me that they would address them in a timely manner.  Her name and contact information are below:

?
360-487-xxxx

Thanks for contacting our office.  If there is anything we can do to help you, please don't hesitate to call or write anytime."

So in other words we can't be bothered to care about anything the cities do that we oversee. As a matter of fact, we never heard from the transportation department. I did hear from the Advocate however:

"3/16/2009

The City’s Transportation Department received your most recent email from Representative Probst’s office, as your questions pertain to city issues.  I would like to provide you some information as well as steps we will be taking to address the additional concerns you raised.   

It is true that the width of xx Ave. is not consistent and our Transportation department recently visited the site and measured a minimum width of 16 feet at one point along this stretch.  If this road were built today it would be required to be wider, but as it is an older road, it is only required to be widened and improved as new development goes in along the road.  Regarding the Springhill Estates development, at NE xx Ave. and NE xx St., the developer made the required improvements along the frontage of the development, including widening the road and adding curbs and sidewalks.  Although it can be frustrating for the road to be different widths in different locations, the roadway itself is capable of handling the increased traffic load that is a result of the new homes and the removal of the barricade.  However, based on your email, our Transportation Department will be conducting a traffic and speed count on xx to determine the precise number of cars using the road and at what speeds. The traffic and speed count should happen soon and will last a couple of days. Based on the resulting information, we may be able to ask for targeted police enforcement.   

It appears from the plans on file that xx Ave. and the private road within the Springhill Estates development are sufficient for emergency access; however, I have asked the Fire Marshal’s office to confirm the emergency access is sufficient and to verify that the proper NO PARKING – FIRE LANE signs are posted. "

A minimum of 16 feet? Where? Maybe a MAXIMUM of 16 feet. The sink holes on the road definitely cut into that "16 feet". Check out the pictures and see what the city considers the road to be an acceptable condition. But the important thing here is that the city admits that the road is substandard. As mentioned in my next email, I have no idea where this "Springhill Estates" came into the picture. That is the place that they shoved in at the end of the road where they tore down the barricade and started this whole thing. No where did I mention that housing development nor did I complain about it.

My reply to them, 3/23/2009

"

Thank you for your reply. I do not know what the "Springhill estates" have to do with anything about the safety of xx Avenue so I cannot respond to your comments. The subdivision only symbolizes that the City of Vancouver allowed those houses to be built without providing for the safety and welfare of the rest of the residents of xx Ave. I am at a total loss to understand what seems to me ( and the 100% of the other residents of xx Ave that I have talked to) a very simple problem with a very simple solution. Not a single one of us understand how the City of Vancouver can insist that the road is adequate for the traffic and safe for automobiles and pedestrian traffic when clearly it is not to anyone that just comes over here and looks at the situation. Especially when the school district transportation department do not allow the school buses to come this road because they know that it is inadequate for the traffic. At least that is what they told us.

This has been a very educational experience for me. To recap, this is what we have learned from this experience so far:

    1. The City of Vancouver does not have any concern about the safety of its residents

    2. The legislators that oversee the City of Vancouver do not care about the safety of their districts residents

    3. The City of Vancouver is not required to enforce code compliance with respect to city roads

    4. The City of Vancouver takes zero responsibility for it's actions

    5. The City of Vancouver relies on fictional "developers' to maintain and improve city roads instead of using tax money for the purpose for which it was intended.

Which leads us to several conclusions:

    Legislation should be enacted that prohibits city governments from compromising the safety of its residents.

    Legislation should be enacted that requires city governments to notify residents of planned improvements and hold public forums concerning such "improvements" that we have been suffering from.

    Legislation should be enacted to compel city governments to bring residential roads into compliance with acceptable standards or suspend property tax payments for those residents until such time as the city government comes into compliance.

    If the City of Vancouver is unwilling or unable to accept the responsibility of its actions, the City of Vancouver should replace the barricade at the north end of xx Avenue until such time as the City of Vancouver is willing and/or able to comply with its own city codes instead of relying on phantom entities. At least that will partially restore some of the safety back to the residents of xx Avenue.

"

Notice that at no time does the city address the real issues at play here. Their responses are merely a deflection from the real issues. The real issue is that the city deliberately and knowingly endangered the safety of the residents of this road that they refuse to deal with.

"4/13/2009

This is a follow-up to concerns you have raised about NE xx Avenue, between NE xx and NE xx streets.  Transportation Services recently conducted a traffic volume and speed count on NE xx Ave to determine the precise number of cars using the road and at what speeds.  Please see the attached reports for daily traffic speeds and volume along NE xx Ave, near NE xx St.  The survey was conducted mid-week, over a two-day period, which is typical for surveys taken throughout the City.  To summarize, the data shows an average speed of 25 MPH, which is the standard speed limit for residential streets. The survey also showed that a daily average of about 400 vehicles travel along NE xx Ave. The current speed and volume is within the City’s residential street standards and does not indicate a speeding problem along your street.   

The topic of the Springhill Estates development, at NE xx Ave. and NE xx St., was raised because it is the new development nearest where you live which had recently made frontage improvements to NE xx Ave., which I believe sparked the question of why these improvements were not made along the entire length of NE xx Ave.  As was mentioned previously, the developer made the required improvements along the frontage of the development, including widening the road and adding curbs and sidewalks.  It’s true that the width of NE xx Ave is not consistent, and if this road were built today it would be required to be wider, but as it is an older road, it is only required to be widened and improved as new development goes in along the road.  Although it can be frustrating for the road to be different widths in different locations, the roadway itself is capable of handling the current traffic load and in reality, the fact that this street is narrow in spots can actually be a way to help slow motorists.  The narrow roadway creates natural traffic calming as vehicles tend to slow down to pass in these areas.

 I would also like to address another part of your message regarding a different housing development:

 4. ”That the housing developers are allowed to shoehorn 4 houses into a space where there is only room for one house with an access road only 8 feet wide should be criminal. A house under construction burned to the ground here not too long ago. The fire department was not able to get to the house on fire due to the fact that the emergency vehicles cold not fit onto the access road to get to the emergency. The fire department had to string a series of water hoses from the main road down the access road. Guess it was a good thing that there weren’t people in that house that needed emergency personnel to get to them instead of running around trying to get water hoses strung together.”

 I have contacted the fire department and was informed that the fire in a house under construction that you mention occurred in a new subdivision on NE xx Court.  According to the fire department, the width of the access to the flag lots was not an issue and they were able to get to the house on fire.  The fire department was dispatched to the address of one of the callers who reported the fire, and the callers live in the nearest occupied homes to where the fire was.  There is a six foot fence between their properties and the subdivision where the house was on fire.  As additional information came in some units responded to NE xx CT and others went to the caller’s address to protect those houses from the radiant heat.  However, the building was fully involved by the time the fire was discovered.  Situations such as this underscore the fact that emergency access to this area is improved by the removal of the barricade. 

I understand that this may not be the response you were looking for, but I hope this information is helpful."

The last and final email that I sent to the city is: