Mountlake Terrace planning commission backs 2025–29 commute trip reduction plan

The Mountlake Terrace Planning Commission voted June 9 to recommend the city's 2025—2029 Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) plan to the City Council for public hearing and final adoption. The commission's endorsement advances an update intended to align the city with Washington state requirements and new baseline commuting data.

The CTR plan, prepared with support from Community Transit, updates employer requirements, outreach and measures intended to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips, reduce congestion and cut emissions. City staff said the plan must be adopted by ordinance to be incorporated into Mountlake Terrace municipal code.

John Merrick, traffic engineer for Mountlake Terrace Public Works, told the commission the plan replaces the existing CTR plan and was delayed after 2020 because commute patterns changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Merrick said the state's overall target for affected employers is a 60% drive-alone rate by June 2029; Mountlake Terrace's current target in the draft is a 63% drive-alone rate for affected sites, a target established from the 2019 survey. Merrick said the 2023—2025 CTR survey will establish a new baseline and jurisdictions will measure progress against results from the 2025—2027 survey.

Under the draft, "affected employers" are those with 100 or more full-time employees arriving between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.; those employers must prepare CTR programs, designate employer transportation coordinators,…