Under Canvas is proposed to be a 95 unit “glamor camping” facility located on Oak Ridge Road in the White Salmon River Valley. The business would bring a significant increase in traffic to Oak Ridge. This winding, narrow, partially gravel, road typically sees about 40 vehicles per day, used mostly by the two dozen families that live near it, the school bus, the mailperson, and orchard or logging trucks. Everyone is familiar with the road and drives it carefully — accidents are very rare. Under Canvas would swell the traffic volume from 40 vehicles to more than 300 on average. The increase would be out of town folks, unfamiliar with the road.
Steve Morrow
By functional classification, Oak Ridge Road is a “Local Access Road” and arguably could be classified a “Minor Collector” as defined in Klickitat County Code (Title 12). The design standards for the road; width, turn radius, turn sightlines, side slopes, etc., are well documented in the code. The problem is that the gravel portion of Oak Ridge, a two-mile stretch located precisely where the entrance of the Under Canvas facility will be sited, does not meet any of these standards — by far. To bring the road up to code is an expensive job, approximately $2-3 million for these two miles. Presumably, Under Canvas would have to pay this bill since they would be the impetus to do so and would also be a major user. Apparently, the have refused and negotiated a less expensive approach.
Without due process, Klickitat County Public Works has essentially redefined Oak Ridge as a private road and applied a lesser standard, one intended for a Fire Access Road, despite its actual use. A Fire Access Road is defined in the code as a “private road serving two to four lots.” The only non-conformance Under Canvas would then have to fix would be to widen the road to 20 feet. Incredibly, Under Canvas or the county had no idea the road was less than 20 feet, or along which stretches, and repeatedly denied it was in fact this narrow. Widening the road alone will not make Oak Ridge a safe road.
I walk the road four times a week except in winter and drive it every day. I can tell you it’s a dangerous road if you don’t know it, even at the current level of traffic. Three hundred vehicles a day risks public safety to an unacceptable degree. The traffic engineer Under Canvas hired to author a Traffic Impact Study testified in a recent hearing they saw no safety concerns with Oak Ridge Road due to the increase in traffic. They also testified they had never seen the road and never measured it. They testified they never considered it is open range area and cows frequently occupy the road, they never investigated its use by logging or orchard trucks, school buses, pedestrians, or cyclists. To this observer, the intent of the study, paid for by Under Canvas, was to generate a positive study supporting the project and not to conduct a careful and objective study in the public’s interest.
So Oak Ridge Road will effectively become the private driveway for Under Canvas, designated so by the county. Sometime in the future, it will most certainly have to be reconstructed to appropriate Title 12 standards, funded by the taxpayers. Let’s hope that does not occur as a reaction to injuries on this road.
There is no question that Klickitat County sorely needs economic growth. But to circumvent public law and compromise public safety to achieve it, is not just wrong — it’s immoral. Klickitat County leadership have not distinguished themselves thus far in this affair. It’s time for them to step up and remember who it is they serve.
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