LacamasLife.com    

Click to close window

Lacamas Life Magazine

Letter From Executive Director, Sean Guard

The Business Development Association of East Clark County (BDA) is heartened to see the safety improvements that are planned for Highway 14 in the Camas-Washougal area. This stretch of highway has long been the scene of too many accidents, most with tragic results.

The BDA is also interested in making sure that the needs of our area businesses, present and future, are also taken into consideration. The reason the BDA formed is to help advance the economic development, or creation of family wage jobs, in the East County area.

The current plan includes a major interchange at Union Street which is wonderful for downtown Camas and businesses that are near that intersection. The access at 2nd Street (the current entry to the Parker House, Westlie Motors, etc.) would be closed completely and the access at 6th Street (One-Stop) would be restricted to right turns only on and off the highway or possibly closed completely.

Can you imagine if you live along the river near 15th & A Streets, in order to get home from downtown Washougal you would need to drive all the way to Union Street in Camas to come back east to your home. Likewise, if you want to drive to a business at the One-Stop, you would need to drive from home to Union to take 8th (C Street) to get to the One-Stop. Add the potential for new development along the river and the NE 3rd Avenue / E Street corridor and the problem only gets compounded. In addition, if 6th is indeed restricted or closed, the number of vehicles a day that would be on the two arterial roads to the North and South of the highway will see dramatic increases in traffic past homes, all trying to access one single point of entry/exit to the highway. This isn’t residential street traffic, it is thousands of vehicles per day, each direction.

With our historic ties to the Columbia River, one of the more meaningful losses without additional access points is that downtown Washougal would be effectively cut off from the river, requiring anyone wishing to visit the river to use the longer, circuitous route through the Union Street intersection.

The BDA has recently petitioned both cities, the Port, WSDOT and our state legislators to continue to look at options of increasing the access at 6th Street. In our quest to increase the number of jobs in the area and to keep current businesses viable, it is in our best interest to be sure that this project is as comprehensive as it can be, not only for current needs but those in the future as well.

We understand that the Port of Camas-Washougal is continuing to study the issue of a more comprehensive access at 6th Street. While we absolutely want the safety improvements for Highway 14 to continue to move forward, we would urge all parties to withhold final project plans as they relate to the 6th Street interchange until further study and discussions can take place. It is our opinion that such additional study can only pay great economic dividends to our whole community.

Furthermore, we encourage all businesses and residents to be involved in this process. Once the final plans are put into motion and construction is underway, it is too late to make a difference.

Sincerely,

Sean Guard
Executive Director