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Residents question trolley use of TBD funds, urge road repairs; Yakima Valley Trolleys offers fundraising help
Summary
Public commenters urged the council to prioritize ground-up street repairs over spending TBD funds on a proposed trolley, while Yakima Valley Trolleys pledged outside fundraising and grants.
Public comment at the Yakima City Council meeting focused on two linked themes: street maintenance needs in neighborhoods and debate over Transportation Benefit District (TBD) money for a proposed trolley element of the Sixth Avenue Rehabilitation Project.
Resident Randall Levsky told the council: "When you're $8,000,000, in the red, they can TBD money for something as frivolous as the trolley." Levsky said streets in his neighborhood are "asphalt over dirt, not road base" and that recurring sinking and cracking has safety implications, particularly for bicyclists.
Ann Knapp, another resident who spoke during public comment, asked what caused the roughly $9 million deficit and urged the council to consider impact fees for future development. Knapp suggested the Municipal Research and Services Center could assist with drafting impact-fee ordinances and said impact fees would help pay for neighborhood access improvements such as crosswalks to the Nob Hill development.
Ken Johnson, president of Yakima Valley Trolleys, told the council the trolley group is "committed to working with you to find as many sources of outside money to add to the TBD fund that you already have." Johnson said the group has begun compiling grant lists, hired a fundraiser and recommended phasing the Sixth Avenue project to spread costs and avoid overruns. Clayton Bussey, a member of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, echoed that commission’s support for preserving the trolley and said the commission will continue grant-writing and funding searches.
Other public commenters raised several separate concerns: one thanked public works staff for alley repairs; another urged the council to resist becoming a "mini Seattle or mini California" on immigration policy; and a few speakers raised procedural complaints about public-comment time limits and meeting rules. Tony Sandoval asked the council to consider forming an economic-development committee, citing several past community projects that had succeeded through coordinated volunteer efforts.
Why this matters: the comments tie into the council’s study-session discussion of the 2026 budget and the city’s recommendation to reserve TBD funds for transportation capital. If the council or voters choose to divert TBD funds, or to change TBD fee or sales-tax levels, that decision will intersect with competing priorities for street maintenance, other capital repairs and the trolley preservation effort.
Next steps: the staff recommended reserving TBD revenue for capital transportation needs; the Yakima Valley Trolleys group said it will continue fundraising and grant-seeking to reduce pressure on city capital funds.
Public-comment provenance: remarks by Levsky, Knapp, Lopez, Johnson and Bussey appear in the transcript’s public-comment block and the early portion of the study-session discussion.
