Resolution 4492 - Laserfiche WebLink

in place concurrent with the actual growth occurring. All agencies budgeting with the concurrency requirement in mind will face competition from each other in obtaining capital funding. Strategies demonstrating the values of non-motorized trail systems are necessary to justify their inclusion into local budgets. Transportation Industries in Southwest Everett, the Navy Homeport, and downtown Everett are major employment centers in the city, but also produce the largest traffic volumes. The current transportation system is limited in the amount of traffic it can accommodate. Further growth will impose even greater strains on a system which relies upon the efficient movement of automobiles to transport people. Ways to accommodate alternative forms of transportation are being studied to address the problem. Public policy is also beginning to reflect this shift. The 1991 Commute Trip Reduction Law, passed by the Washington state legislature, requires major employers to design, implement, measure and maintain trip reduction programs which use Transportation Demand Management(TDM) strategies to encourage the use of alternatives to the single occupant vehicle for employee commute trips. This law allows more emphasis to be placed on high occupancy vehicles, public transit, bicycling, walking, and telecommuting. A comprehensive system of bicycle and pedestrian trails offers an excellent opportunity to alleviate congestion, while providing an enjoyable form of exercise and recreation. Such a trail system should tie into local transportation planning, park and ride, lots, and bus stops, by providing service to the most heavily traveled routes. Specifically, commuter trails should be built in cooperation with Southwest Everett industries. The Interurban trail will provide the major North-South axis of the system; East-West trails would emanate outward, serving major commercial and industrial centers. Trail systems are needed for intra-city access to reduce the number of short distance trips taken, and to encourage smaller employers to advocate alternative transportation options. Open space Developable land is in demand for all types of land uses--commercial and residential development, transportation--and for parks. Land deemed desirable for park development and open space is also desirable for housing and commercial development. In the face of this competition, the search for usable park land becomes more difficult. Many opportunities have yet to be fully explored. In Everett,these include public right-of-ways, environmentally sensitive areas, and open space easements on private land. Public right-of-ways are not traditionally thought of as "park land" or open space. They accommodate transportation systems, utilities, and other functional aspects of city infrastructure. As urban trails become more popular, it is reasonable to assume the that corridors they traverse should be treated as park land. While this expands the traditional definition of parks, it provides opportunities to integrate open space into property already under city control. The Seattle Open Space Program advocates the concept of creating linear parks, which are defined as: "Linear parks are public rights of ways designated by the city as part of the open space system. They are intended to provide a path or roadway for pedestrians, cyclists, and/or motorists through W:\PLANNING\TRAILS\COMP96.DOC 28