[Klickitat] 🗣️ Neighborhood Pushback Leads to Lower Speed Limits - Klickitat BOCC 3/24

In today's episode, we dive into the Klickitat County Board of Commissioners meeting from March 24th. We look at a massive emergency contract extension needed to cover medical leaves at the 911 dispatch center, exposing the hidden vulnerabilities in our rural emergency networks. We also cover traffic safety and the continuing discussion over Accessory Dwelling Units. 

In This Episode:

• Speed limits are officially lowered to 35 mph on Hill and Counts roads following neighborhood advocacy.
• Growing friction with WSDOT over 60 mph speeds near the SR 14 Lyle tunnel trailheads.
• The county's move to make Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) easier to build by cutting bureaucratic red tape.
• The looming 2027 delay of the state's controversial new building and wildland-urban interface codes.

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com.
• Review official agendas, minutes, and public comment forms at the Klickitat County Website.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there, welcome to today's Clickitatler briefing. We're looking at the Clickitat County Board of Commissioners meeting from March 24th, and today it's all about keeping the county running when the unexpected hits. Let's start with a hidden strain on our emergency services. 911 dispatchers are the invisible backbone of our safety, but they require highly specialized training. That makes them incredibly hard to replace on short notice. This week, the board had to approve a massive change order, adding 1,733 hours to the county's traveling dispatcher contract. Why? To cover unexpected long-term medical leaves within our local workforce. It's an expensive but necessary move to make sure those emergency lines stay operational and that staff are able to keep a job in a sustainable way. It highlights a major budgetary friction point for rural counties that rely on a very small pool of staff with very human needs. Turning now to our roads. If you drive Hill Road or Counts Road, it's time to take your foot off the gas. Following community pushback, the board officially drops speed limits in those residential neighborhoods down to 35 miles an hour. But during that discussion, a bigger safety issue came up: Highway 14 tunnel in Lyle. It seems vehicles are shooting out of that tunnel right into a pedestrian trailhead zone at 60 miles an hour. The county is working on a formal letter to the State Department of Transportation to advocate for a speed reduction there. But as we know, getting state agencies to move on highway speeds is usually a steep uphill climb. And now let's take a quick look at housing. The county's planning department is trying to cut some local red tape. They're taking steps to make accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, an outright permitted use. This local move actually aligns with a massive evidence-based statewide push-in policy. In 2023, the Washington State Legislature passed House Bill 1337. This recognized ADUs as a proven solution to our statewide housing emergency. The State Department of Commerce estimates that Washington needs one million new homes by 2044 just to keep up with demand. Housing experts point to ADUs as a way to add gentle density built by your neighbors, creating more affordable living options and letting seniors age in place, all without needing to bulldoze new land for massive new subdivisions. And speaking of building, there's a major structural hurdle looming, but the CAN has just been kicked down the road. The highly controversial 2024 Washington State Building Energy and WUI WUI or Wildland Urban Interface, we're all learning new words today, aren't we? Those codes have been delayed until May 1st, 2027. Local contractors have been warned that with these code updates, these strict new fire and energy standards will drastically inflate construction costs. So this delay offers a temporary breather for housing affordability in the region. Looking backwards, it looks like there was a March 26th board workshop on short-term rentals. We look forward to reporting on that shortly. And coming up, that April 15th Childcare Facility Roundtable. For a full breakdown of today's infrastructure bids, to read the complete newsletter, or find out more details, just head over to the text version of today's briefing at schemania dispatch.com. So, you've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, the home of the Scamania Dispatch and the Click of Taddler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schemania dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.comslash opengorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.