Public Works urges stronger transportation section in comp plan to guide long-range road corridors

Savannah Clement, public works director, told commissioners the county’s comprehensive plan update offers an opportunity to make the county’s transportation section more robust and guide long-term corridor decisions.

Clement said current transportation language is limited and that a stronger transportation element would help the county and developers avoid decisions that make future corridors infeasible. She suggested the plan could identify general corridor concepts — for example, a parallel route to I‑5 from Woodland to Kalama and an east–west connector north of SR 4 — without mandating exact alignments. “If you’re developing… I would say, one of your roads shall be a public road that we will expand in the future,” she said, emphasizing she did not want to “handcuff developers” but sought broad guidance so growth does not block future options.

Commissioners discussed scale and cost. Several said they supported a more robust, but not King- or Snohomish‑level, transportation element and suggested county staff could prepare a higher-level document that lays out corridors and policy goals. Clement said the county has two senior engineers with local knowledge and could do some work in‑house, but obtaining consultant support through the county’s as‑needed contract is an option if staff capacity is insufficient.

Clement framed the question for the board as one of staff time versus consultant expense: should staff prepare a conceptual, broad-based transportation element or pursue a more detailed plan with outside consultants that would identify specific corridor alignments and improvement needs. Commissioners asked staff to return with examples and cost/level-of-effort estimates.

Ending

Public Works will compile sample transportation sections from peer counties and return with recommendations on scope, staffing and potential consultant costs before advancing major expenditures.