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Planning commission debates reclassifying roads, ADT targets and multimodal standards
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Summary
At its Nov. 12 meeting, the Liberty Lake Planning Commission reviewed proposed transportation-element edits including functional classification changes, ADT targets and multimodal level-of-service requirements; staff will return with a draft of revised goals and policies at the next meeting.
At the Nov. 12 meeting of the Liberty Lake Planning Commission, staff presented proposed updates to the transportation element of the comprehensive plan and asked commissioners to weigh changes to roadway functional classifications and level-of-service metrics.
The presentation, delivered by Lisa (city staff), outlined Growth Management Act requirements to project travel demand over a 20-year planning period, inventory transportation facilities and show funding capacity through a fiscally constrained capital plan. "We do have to look at projected travel demand over the 20 year planning period," Lisa said, noting the element must align land-use assumptions with transportation projections.
Why it matters: functional-classification labels determine which roads are eligible for certain grant funds and influence design and access-control requirements. Staff described WSDOT's hierarchy — interstate/principal arterial, minor arterial, collector and local — and gave typical average daily trip (ADT) ranges used to justify classifications: principal arterial roughly 7,000–27,000, minor arterial 3,000–14,000, collector 1,100–6,300 and local generally under 1,000. Lisa said the city will need to file classification changes with WSDOT for corridors where traffic volumes and function no longer match the existing classification.
Commissioners raised grant-eligibility and policy tradeoffs. One commissioner noted that meeting county level-of-service standards can make the city less competitive for grants; staff acknowledged the "yin and yang" between maintaining service standards and attracting funding. Staff also reminded the commission that county standards currently applied by the city set vehicular LOS D for signalized intersections and LOS E for unsignalized intersections.
Multimodal obligations and regional coordination: staff pointed to RCW 36.78.07 as the statutory basis for developing multimodal level-of-service standards for locally owned arterials and active-transportation facilities and said the city will coordinate with SRTC, STA and WSDOT on transit and multimodal measures. "We will reflect their level of service standard in this document," Lisa said regarding STA and WSDOT inputs.
What's next: Lisa said she will bring a draft of the transportation chapter, including proposed goals and active-voice policy language, to the commission at the next meeting for more detailed edits and a segment-by-segment review of classification changes. The commission also scheduled a joint session with Parks and Arts on Dec. 10 to discuss implementation and level-of-service tradeoffs.
The commission did not take a formal vote on policy language during the Nov. 12 meeting; staff direction was to refine the draft and return it for further review.
