By Gene B. Foster, Northeast Tacoma resident

The many NE Tacoma attendees wish to express their gratitude for the opportunity to attend and address the Federal Way City Council meeting on Tuesday, although at times we felt like second cousins at the family Thanksgiving dinner.

We shouldn’t have to remind you that we are your friends and neighbors. If you were to take a look at a map of the region, you would see that we are virtually a demographic island. NE Tacoma is surrounded by water to the south and west and by Federal Way to the north and east. Politically, we are tied to the City of Tacoma, but we are culturally and economically bound to the City of Federal Way. Unfortunately, our tax dollars flow south instead of to the surrounding area, and our community is woefully lacking of amenities.

Our interest was in your assistant city manager’s report on Federal Way’s current position with respect to the pointless development of the North Shore Golf Course.

We were dismayed to learn that your city planners continue to regard this proposal as a Tacoma concern. The fact of the matter is that it could have more environmental impact on Federal Way than it would on Tacoma. Ironically, Federal Way has limited legal leverage to influence the outcome and needs to explore all available avenues of influence.

Your assistant city manager and staff seem to be comfortable with data supplied by North Shore Developers LLC. We have had a belly full of their reports and find them shallow, biased, omissive and occasionally just plain wrong. Further, they are based in some instances on 26 year old data. Rely on them at your peril!

For instance, consider the traffic situation. As I was driving to the council chambers for the meeting, I was appalled by the constant stream of headlights heading west on SW 340th, SW 335th, SW Campus Drive, etc., as far as I could see. It is obvious that the evening traffic is already overwhelming your main east-west arteries. Your city planners need to try driving these routes between 6 and 7 p.m. Despite whatever traffic studies they have in hand, common sense observation would tell them that the system is already in serious trouble and the additional traffic generated from North Shore could break it.

The traffic potential from the North Shore development is seriously underestimated. If the planning staff believes that the up to 2,500 residents (including a lot of two-income families) with a realistic total of 1500 or more cars, would generate only 530 trips a day, they must be dreaming.

And if they believe that only 50 percent of this traffic would be heading for Federal Way, I challenge your planners to stand on the corner of SW 340th and 49th Avenue NE and count the number of cars that turn south toward Tacoma. They will see it’s far less than 50 percent. Our main places of employment and our favorite shopping and after-work places lie to the west and north, not in Tacoma.

The suggested mitigation of a $3 million bandage wouldn’t begin to solve your traffic problems.

The same rationale applies to the other studies cited. The scale of environmental impacts surely is greater than the three areas addressed; traffic, storm water run-off and recreational space. And they need further study. Don’t fall prey to cursory analysis and wishful thinking. Keep in mind that the source of most of this information has one goal in mind and that is not the betterment of Federal Way.

Insist that your city planners place your environmental concerns in the hands of independent experts. A little money spent now can result in a realistic assessment of all the potential environmental impacts. This will help avoid unforeseen costs and enable the city to protect its long-term interests.

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