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Many Washington County projects around Cedar Mill are in various stages of planning. Here’s a quick roundup.

Cornell widening and improvement project

Cornell Road between 102nd and 113th Avenue is a heavily-used two-lane arterial roadway that lacks continuous bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

This project will improve Cornell Road between 102nd and 113th to three lanes (one travel lane in each direction with a center turn lane) and will include the addition of continuous bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Additional improvements include street lighting, storm drainage upgrades and landscaping.

This project is currently in the preliminary design phase. Surveyors and other crews will be on site gathering data in order to initiate design. Once the information is collected and the best route is determined, additional right-of-way may need to be acquired.

The project is estimated to cost $3.85 million, which will be paid for from the county MSTIP fund and some state funds.

There’s long been neighborhood demand for a signal light at 107th, the main connection to Leahy Road, adjacent to DuFresne’s auto repair shop. Land Use spokesman Stephen Roberts says, “The signal determination will be made as part of the design development process, so we don't know at this point.” The county has to follow strict national guidelines when placing traffic lights.

Estimated completion date is December 2017, with construction anticipated to begin summer 2016, but many factors could impact those dates. The project web page is here. Bill Hunter is the project manager.

McDaniel Road pedestrian path

Several years ago, Washington County expanded the services eligible for Urban Road Maintenance District funding to include construction of safety improvements. The URMD selects several projects each year for funding, from hundreds of suggestions collected from the community and from members of the URMD Advisory Committee.

A project to create a path on the south side of McDaniel, east of Bonny Slope Elementary, providing safe walking for students and others, was approved in the 2013-2014 package of improvements. It was originally slated for completion this year but, according to Roberts, “we needed more time to finalize the design work, and wanted to avoid starting construction in the fall when school is in session and wet weather has set in. It's on schedule for construction Summer 2015. A postcard send to residents described the project as “a widened paved shoulder along the south side of McDaniel Road between Harding Court and Arnott Lane. We hope it’s a little wider, and safer, than the shoulder work that was done on NW 113th.

Neighborhood meeting for proposed 20-lot subdivision

November 19, 6 pm at Leedy Grange Hall, 835 NW Saltzman Road.

The subject property is four taxlots totaling approximately 3.1 acres in the R-6 (Residential, 5-6 units per acre) district. The subject properties are 2025 NW 113th Avenue, 11400 and 11450 NW Melody Lane, and one parcel with no address. Note: a Neighborhood Meeting was held for this proposal on October 22; however, it is being repeated because on-site notice was not posted prior to the October 22 meeting.

Saltzman Road access plan

A three-parcel partition was approved in October for a property on the east side of Saltzman Road between Coleman and Marshall. Because Saltzman is an arterial, there are access spacing requirements in the county code. The proposed private road that will be needed to access the lots doesn’t meet the requirements, but a report from the county engineer’s office finds that this development qualified for an “Exception to Access Requirements.” The approval included some very specific landscape and sight-distance specifications for the proposed road.

The county continues to improve their online information regarding land use and transportation. A new page lists pending projects under land use review—much more user-friendly than what was previously available. If you’re curious about what’s going on in your neighborhood, bookmark this page as a place to start your research. The best way to identify the area is to search for CPO 1 (Cedar Hills/Cedar Mill) or CPO 7 (Bethany/Rock Creek).

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