BELLINGHAM - Bellis Fair mall owners object to a traffic change along Meridian Street that the state Department of Transportation says will greatly reduce congestion.
The DOT recently announced which proposed congestion-relief fixes it selected for Meridian Street north of Interstate 5, one of Bellingham's most congested areas. One of the fixes involves preventing northbound Meridian Street traffic from turning left onto Telegraph Road into the mall.
The mall owners, General Growth Properties, and a consultant working for them, The Transpo Group, say doing so will cause traffic problems and hurt businesses. Specifically, McDonald's, Boston's and Red Robin will feel a significant impact from reduced access, according to General Growth Properties.
"Closing the left turn lane to the main entrance to the property would be an inconvenience to our customers and a detriment to our businesses," General Growth Properties wrote to the DOT. "We are concerned that this in turn will negatively impact sales at the mall. These lost sales will of course also create a loss of sales tax revenue."
The closure would direct more traffic to and cause more congestion at the Bellis Fair Parkway entrance off Meridian, which doesn't serve the front of the mall and includes a shaded hill that retains snow and ice in winter, according to a Transpo Group memo. The DOT would need to install a second northbound left-turn lane at Bellis Fair Parkway, they wrote, but that would be prohibitively expensive because of right-of-way and environmental constraints.
DOT officials defend the plan.
As part of the project, the state also plans to extend a northbound outside lane along Meridian between Bellis Fair Parkway and Bakerview Road. That will reduce congestion at the intersection. And the city of Bellingham plans to adjust traffic signal timing for traffic turning into the Bellis Fair Parkway entrance to keep queue lengths down, wrote DOT planning manager Kerri Woehler.
"Restricting northbound left-turns at Telegraph Road will significantly reduce backups and merging conflicts in the busiest part of the corridor," she wrote to General Growth Properties. "We anticipate the improvement would reduce delays for southbound traffic by 30 percent."
About 50,000 vehicles pass through the intersection each day, she wrote.
To help, the DOT will look at revising signs to direct traffic to other mall entrances, she wrote, and will guide more drivers to the northbound Interstate 5 off-ramp dedicated for mall-bound traffic. Bellingham is also planning to punch Eliza Avenue through to Bellis Fair Parkway, creating another mall entrance.
The Meridian construction is slated to begin in early 2013.
SEE PROJECT DETAILS
To see the state's Meridian Street project page, go to this WSDOT webpage. The Bellis Fair, Transpo Group and WSDOT comments are included under the link "Comments Received" at left.
