MN Opinion

Cement Pumper Site – Comment by June 29, 2009

2009-06-24T14:09:00Z

In a recent meeting, County Council member Dave Somers told us that the County was a complaint driven organization. In order for Maltby citizens to get issues addressed, they must send complaints (or praises) to the County. Currently, there is an open permit on the cement pumper truck site for the grading they completed earlier.

This is a great opportunity for Maltby citizens to be heard. If you care about the impact of the cement pumper trucks, their oil, their fuel, their traffic, the look of their installation on Maltby, this is the time to write. Take five minutes and send an E-mail to the County Planner and cc her boss, Dave Somers, and the County Executive.

The County Planner (Roxanne Pilkenton) and her boss (Tom Rowe) email can be accessed through this site.

http://web5.co.snohomish.wa.us/PDS/StaffDir/Default.aspx

(Probably Roxanne.Pilkenton@co.snohomish.wa.us & Tom.Rowe@co.snohomish.wa.us)

Dave Somers is at Dave.Somers@co.snohomish.wa.us

The County Executive (Aaron Reardon) is at county.executive@co.snohomish.wa.us

Maltby has until 29 June to get email in. Do it today!

Below is a copy of the permit data on the County website.

All Quiet?

2009-02-15T03:05:58Z

The news out of Maltby seems rather quiet of late. Does the recession equate to a relaxation of the commercial interests in Maltby? Maybe. In MaltbyNow’s opinion yes it does. Maltby was attractive while land values where going up and business were looking to expand. With the contraction, commercial development will be quiet for awhile.

But we shouldn’t let ourselves get too relaxed. The zoning has not changed. The developers will be back. Now is the time to make sure the county and the state know that Maltby’s Urban Growth Area designation was, and is, inappropriate for a place with no local representation.

Waste Management Math

2008-09-26T17:51:12Z

In the recent community meeting held at the Maltby Community Club, Waste Management spokesperson Susan Robinson stated that Waste Management plans to park about 200 collection trucks at the site they are developing in Maltby when it becomes operational in 2012. She further stated that those collection trucks would stagger their departure time from the Maltby site between the hours of 4 am to 7 am so to impact traffic as little as possible.

So what kind of impact can we expect? Well, simple math tells us that between 4 am and 7 am is 3 hours or 180 minutes. First cut math tells us that on average a collection truck will leave the Maltby site every 50 seconds or so. If we use Waste Management's assumption that 70% of the collection trucks will go South to enter SR 522 via the Broadway/Yew Way/Paradise Lake Road route, that calculates to about 140 trucks over 180 minutes. That roughly comes out about one truck headed South out of the Waste Management site to go down to SR 522 every 1 minute 15 seconds.

And that assumes a even distribution.

Every minute or so for three hours, a large collection truck will leave Waste Management and join with the semi-trailers from the warehouses just up Broadway a pace and with the lawn service pick-up trucks from 206th to cue up at the Yew/SR 524 intersection. At that corner they will merge with the pumper trucks from 86th and from 87th the cement mixers, the long-bed semi-trailers with all sorts of construction materials, and the dump trucks, many with a towed trailer. All those will line up for a left turn onto Paradise Lake Road from Yew Way to get to SR 522.

Oh, and lets not forget the commuters and school buses. And, of course if the November 4th election goes their way, Community Transit.

Let's further assume that about an average of 10 vehicles can get onto SR 522 every light cycle of 5 minutes. That means that for the hours from 4 am to 7 am, Waste Management trucks will constitute about 50% of the vehicles that access SR 522.

That is if they can get there.

Traffic backs up in Maltby right now without the Waste Management trucks. Rush hour seems to start around 5:45 am and go to about 7:30 am in our neighborhood. The backups are typically past the Maltby Cafe on SR 524 and the railroad tracks on Yew.

The best hope for commuters to get out of Maltby in the morning may be to take Highway 9. This has many residents of Ponderosa Acers and Highland Vista areas upset as commuters may cut through those residential neighborhoods along 206th/78th/201st. The left turn onto Highway 9 from there can be faster than taking turns at the LONG red light from SR 524/Maltby Road to Highway 9.

The only other hope is the completion of the Paradise Lake Road/SR 522 interchange that is currently un-funded and on hold. That would streamline access to SR 522 a bit. With the budget deficit the State is currently facing, funding the estimated $58 million for that interchange doesn't appear to be coming soon.

Oh, and lets not forget all the potholes created by those large vehicles on the rural roads. At least commuters will stay awake as we bounce our way through Maltby.

No matter how you do the math, it looks like commuting from Maltby is adding up to be quite a headache.

Waste Management Permit Comments

2008-07-15T20:20:27Z

Written Comments on Permit 08-106048-CP

Topic: Construction of five industrial use buildings on previously approved site.

Comments:

According to Waste Management, they propose to place on the former Calvert Industries site administrative offices, a truck depot/maintenance facility, and a greenwaste reload facility.

The permit request listed a potential impact to existing county roads. I ask you to consider this area very carefully. The Maltby area, with its recent zoning change from Rural Industrial to Urban Industrial, has seen a surge in industrial use. The number of large commercial vehicles using the existing county roads has rapidly increased. Just North on Broadway from the Waste Management site is a new warehouse facility that will continue to increase the number of large commercial vehicles on the road. Just West, Ralph’s cement pumper trucks, numerous dump trucks, and many yard maintenance trucks have arrived.

While Waste Management has not confirmed the number of large commercial vehicles that will be housed at the depot or needed to service the greenwaste reload facility, one can assume it is not trivial. Congestion trying to access State Highway 522 at peak commuter times is already quite intense. The intersection of Yew/W Bostian Rd and 524 is confused and, frankly, dangerous without the added increase expected in the Waste Management request. The State’s plans for building an interchange between 524 and 522 that may aid this situation appear to be on hold.

At a minimum, the County must widen the road in that area to provide turning lanes for all the commercial vehicles that plan to use that short stretch of Broadway. I also ask that the County get clearer plans from Waste Management on the number and type of vehicles they plan to put on the road. It is my opinion that the current county roads are not well designed for the type of traffic that the current zoning allows and must be upgraded for the planned growth to continue.

Regards

Earl

Malt-1/2 Docket XIII Removal a Mixed Blessing

2008-06-29T02:35:00Z

Several Maltby residents recently participated in a public hearing reviewing requests of zoning changes to be included in Docket XIII before the Snohomish County Council in June. While there were statement both for and against the proposed zoning changes for parts of Maltby, the against carried the day. While this may seem as a victory for many Maltby residents, it is bittersweet at best.

Our hearts must go out to those who asked to have their current RUTA zoning designation changed to Urban Industrial in Malt-1. Currently their property has, in many cases, a grass blade separation between them and "urban" Maltby. A ball hit a little to hard can sail past the razor wire and under the cement pumper trucks. Don't even think of letting the children walk down to the ice cream parlor.

Then there are those in Malt-2 who have seen their home values plummet as million dollar vista turn into warehouse eyesores. Many are awaking way to early as the dump trucks that find the "urban" land to be cheap parking start up to their jobs many miles away.

Yes, the mistake which is the Maltby Urban Area didn't expand . . . for now.

However, we must see this as only the beginning. The residents who favored Malt-1 and Malt-2 want out. Some will wait hoping for the change to Urban zoning and the recovery of the value, not of their homes, but of the land. Others will take what little of the value of their homes are left and sell. Note, however, that those buying their home will most likely not be interested in raising families but speculators who have the money and time to wait while allowing the property to deteriorate.

Maltby will change. There is little doubt to that. Those who came here for a rural setting are probably already considering their options. Those who looked for a combination of land and acceptable commuting distance may hand on a bit longer.

The only question remaining is how will it change. Will we, the residents of Maltby, have a say or will we just be bystanders? The time is now.