Sims proposes pedestrian and traffic improvements in North Highline and West Hill

King County Executive Ron Sims today proposed earmarking $3.8 million over six years for pedestrian and traffic safety improvements in North Highline and West Hill, as part of a new funding commitment aimed at strengthening the county's older urban unincorporated communities.

"Many children walking to school in these neighborhoods have to walk partway in the street, because there are no proper sidewalks for them," says Sims. "North Highline and West Hill were built years before current road standards were put in place. We are making a significant commitment to step up and address the needs of these two older neighborhoods with a reliable funding source they can count on for years."

Sims sent the Council a motion proposing to earmark 20 percent of the funds appropriated for four sidewalk and traffic safety projects countywide for projects in North Highline and West Hill, with a commitment of $536,400 this year. The money will help build sidewalks, school pathways, and such traffic safety improvements as guardrails, medians, and bulb sidewalks at intersections, and are the first steps in a long term process of budgeting that will address infrastructure needs in older neighborhoods in unincorporated areas. These improvements will be in addition to other projects these communities may qualify for under other county programs.

"The areas this motion will help have been overlooked in recent years, and are in danger of becoming backwaters of urban decline," said King County Councilmember Brian Derdowski, who chairs the County's Growth Management Committee and the Committee for Unicorporated Areas. "As we focus on high growth areas of east and south King County, it is important we not ignore our established urban neighborhoods.

"Executive Sims has once again stepped up to provide our oldest neighborhoods in unincorporated King County with necessary infrastructure repairs, and I applaud him for this. These are neighborhoods where we are apt to see more pedestrians walking to stores and bus stops, and more children on bicycles, navigating narrow and dangerous streets that are often without sidewalks," said Councilmember Dwight Pelz.

"Parents in White Center expect and deserve to send their children to school knowing that they will be safe from cars barreling down the road," added Councilmember Greg Nickels. "Today, they don't have that assurance. This funding initiative is one step to providing our community with real pedestrian safety."