Sehome residents win a round in Samish Way battle

It appears the neighborhood won a small victory.

Tom Stacey, the study's project manager for the state Department of Transportation, said the final study likely won't show a new exchange sending traffic to Samish Way in the vicinity of Rocket Donuts. Instead, the study might suggest several options, and will leave the decision for later, he said.

The study presents a $1.5-billion, top-of-the-line proposal for improving safety and easing congestion on Interstate 5 from Fairhaven to Slater Road. But nobody expects $1.5 billion to land on their desk anytime soon. More likely, spot improvements will be made as smaller sums become available.

It could be many years, maybe decades, before big changes come to the freeway in the Samish area. Still, neighbors feared that an official study with a map showing a freeway exchange aimed near the doughnut shop could scare away folks interested in building condos, shops and other urban village attractions.

"A developer might well take a look at the picture and say, 'Oh, well, that's a non-starter,'" said Allen Matsumoto, former Sehome neighborhood president and unofficial godfather of the urban village idea.

If anything, the meeting made clear the challenges of cleaning up the freeway mess through town.

Twenty-eight of the 38 ramps in town are substandard, in part because the Samish exchange is too close to the one at Lakeway Drive, and Lakeway is too close to the Iowa Street exchange.

To eliminate those white-knuckle ramps, the study suggests installing a side road on each edge of the freeway but separate from the through lanes. Drivers would use the side roads to get from Samish to Lakeway to Iowa, and vice versa, but could enter the through lanes only by Samish or Iowa, not Lakeway.

Stacey said the current Samish Way exchange, built just eight years ago, isn't wide enough to span those side roads. That exchange already has lots of congestion and accidents, and more to come once San Juan Boulevard is punched through to Samish Way.

Rather than replace that exchange, the study suggests building a new one to the north, while closing the freeway ramps to and from the current Samish overpass.

Matsumoto said if a new exchange is depicted in the study, it should align with Bill McDonald Parkway, since that's the main route for traffic to and from Western Washington University.

Dick McKinley, Bellingham's public works director, said any changes should value the urban village effort, notwithstanding Stacey's remark that the window for public comment on the draft study would close in a week.

"Do not let them tell you they have only one more week to wrap this up," McKinley told people at the meeting. "Bullpucky."