The La Center City Council has scheduled a public hearing to discuss the formation of a new taxing district to fund road improvements.
The hearing will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25, at La Center City Hall, 210 E. Fourth St.
During a Wednesday, Sept. 11 meeting, the council unanimously approved the upcoming public hearing. The council will hear public feedback and potentially move forward with the creation of a transportation benefit district (TBD). Approved by Washington state legislators in 2022, the TBD would allow the city to impose a 0.1% sales tax increase within city limits. The revenue generated from the tax would be collected solely for road maintenance, transit services, operational costs and matching funds for grants.
La Center City Attorney Janean Parker noted that, if approved, the additional sales tax would provide approximately $65,000 annually for transportation-related improvements in the city. Following a taxing district formation, residents could vote to raise the sales tax increase up to 0.3%. This would allow La Center to earn just under $200,000 a year for its roads. Some Washington cities have elected to impose an additional vehicle license fee on residents as part of the taxing district, usually from $20 to $40. The City Council will review these options and decide following public comment.
For some La Center residents, maintaining the roads sets the city in a good direction. Celeste Monroe, a longtime resident, brought up concerns about many of the neighborhood roads receiving damage during public comments. She highlighted that many large trucks are driving through neighborhood roads, which aren’t built to sustain that weight. Monroe suggested the city could prevent further damage by adopting policies to designate vehicle weight restrictions on certain roads through signage.
“One of the bigger concerns that we have is that we have no restrictions over these large trucks that can travel on our neighborhood streets. … They are the biggest concern from a damaging perspective,” Monroe said. “Between … the signage and then any kind of enforcement that we can do for people who aren’t following the rules, we could go a long way to at least preserving our streets until we can get the money to fix them.”
In other meeting news, La Center Mayor Tom Strobehn shared that U.S. Sen. Patty Murray expects the Senate to allocate $2 million to help La Center finish its Fourth Street widening project. This will fund the construction of 7-foot-wide sidewalks and buffered bike lanes for easier pedestrian access across from La Center Elementary School. The Breeze Creek culvert underneath Fourth Street and east of the elementary school will be replaced with a bridge during the widening project. This would allow for salmon to pass through the creek safely. In June, the improvements were projected to cost $13 million.
“That puts the city at almost $12 million in four months of grants and earmarks, which is very big for this little city,” Strobehn said.
