Sidewalks near schools

 
YAKIMA, Wash. -- If you’re curious what happens when local officials can’t agree on who should foot the bill for sidewalks and street lights, check out the traffic jam twice a day at Apple Valley Elementary.

Like most schools these days, the parking lot of the West Valley school is flooded with cars and buses as parents arrive to drop off or pick up students. The street out front, 88th Avenue, threatens to become a parking lot due to the congestion.

Amidst the controlled chaos, there are no sidewalks on 88th, not even in front of the school, forcing students to take their chances on foot or venture out to get a ride while cars and trucks pass by.

The lack of sidewalks appalls Carole Skolrud, a plucky empty nester and newly certified Pacific Power meter reader who lives nearby and regularly exercise-walks along 88th. The narrow but busy two-lane country road provides motorists a straight shot between Summitview and Tieton Drive.

Skolrud recently took her concerns to the Yakima City Council, putting elected officials on the spot for student safety. Built in 1969, Apple Valley Elementary was annexed into the city in 2002.

“Nobody has ever stepped in in all these years to make it right,” she said of the lack of sidewalks. “Even without a school, (88th Avenue) should have a sidewalk. There’s no shoulder in places, and kids have to walk in the street or in someone’s front yard or the ditch.

“I mean, how crazy is that?”

To some extent, the situation at 88th Avenue illustrates the real-world consequences of a simmering dispute between city and county officials over annexation. But officials say it’s also a reflection of the fact that neither the city nor the county — nor the school districts — have the money to pay for the infrastructure that should accompany suburban development.

Going back to at least the 1970s, county and city officials have been quibbling over who should pay for roads and sidewalks and other infrastructure in the rapidly urbanizing West Valley.

On one side is Yakima County, which has less-stringent standards for developers on sidewalks, streetlights and other improvements for areas likely to be annexed by the city of Yakima. For example, in new subdivisions the county requires sidewalks on only one side of the street while the city requires them on both sides of the street.

On the other is the city of Yakima, which continues to stretch city boundaries west — taking in schools and thousands of new homes — even though it can’t afford suburban improvements.

Privately, county officials see Yakima as an annexation-hungry municipality that regularly overextends itself. The result, they say, are entire neighborhoods near Fruitvale Boulevard that still rely on septic tanks and narrow traffic-busy streets without sidewalks like Englewood Avenue that have been part of the city for decades.

City officials admit Yakima is woefully short on sidewalks — with just 198 miles of sidewalk for 500 miles of road.

But they say it isn’t fair to force city taxpayers to pay for infrastructure upgrades resulting from new subdivisions that were developed under county standards.

In recent interviews, County Commissioner Mike Leita and City Manager Dick Zais agreed that 88th Avenue is a worst-case scenario-come-true of the development-standards dispute.

Leita said county and city officials are working hard to hammer out their policy differences.

“What’s done has been done,” he said, adding, “We both live in glass houses. Let’s not throw rocks.”

Leita sounded a contrite note, describing the lack of sidewalks in a school zone as “poor governance” and “historical ineptitude” arising from a failure to communicate.

Zais pointed to a recent City Council decision to slow down annexations and concentrate on getting sidewalks, lights and other infrastructure built in neighborhoods that lack them. However, he also indicated the city won’t back down on its belief that new development should pay for itself. Curbs, gutters, sidewalks and streetlights can cost $1 million per mile.

Zais suggested the city and county should bring in West Valley school officials for discussion about impact fees.

“These discussions often involve terms and concepts that are hard for the public to grasp,” he said.  “But at the end of the day, getting to and from school (Apple Valley Elementary) is at times a risk.”

Tom Fleming, assistant superintendent for business and operations for the West Valley School District, said the district doesn’t have any money specifically set aside for sidewalks.

And he says times have changed since the district built Apple Valley some 40 years ago.

“There were a lot different standards when we built that school,” he said. “All that used to be fields. You’re talking about a rural school, like Mountainview is now. There are no sidewalks in front of Mountainview, but a few kids walk.”The district installed sidewalks when it built its new high school on Zier Road last year.

Elsewhere in the district, grant money paid for sidewalks in front of Summitview Elementary School in the last five or six years.

As for 88th Avenue, “It’s a city of Yakima street,” Fleming said. “They own 88th Avenue. We don’t.

“We can only put sidewalks in front of our property,” he said. “We can’t put sidewalks across private property. That’s for the city or county to do.”

Before the school and the surrounding area in West Valley area was annexed to the city, 88th Avenue didn’t show up as a high priority for traffic improvements, said county engineer Gary Ekstedt.

Differences in city-county development standards weren’t so much of an issue as the fact that up until 2001, 88th Avenue didn’t show the high traffic volume or accident numbers that showed up on other traffic-heavy streets like 66th and 72nd avenues.

“The real problem with annexation, as I see it, is funding the projects,” Ekstedt said.

While the county has a designated pot of money for road improvements generated by gas tax and property tax revenue, the money is not enough to meet the needs. In the city, street repairs and improvements have to be weighed against police, fire and other expenses.

In response to Skolrud’s complaint, the Yakima Police Department plans to limit parking on 88th Avenue near the school.

And city traffic engineers are talking about applying for a state Safe Routes To School grant that would pay for new sidewalks at Apple Valley Elementary. If the city is successful, a sidewalk would be installed on one side of the street, in front of the school.

“Bottom line, we want our kids to walk to and from school safely,” said Heidi Sutton, the principal at Apple Valley Elementary. Getting even one side of the street paved for pedestrians would be “a dream,” she said.

• Chris Bristol can be reached at 509-577-7748 or at cbristol@yakimaherald.com
• Yakima Herald-Republic staff reporter Adriana Janovich contributed to this story.