Washington Street closure update

Centralia City Council has approved the sale of Washington Street to Centralia College. The street, which runs on the east side of Washington Hall, will remain open for up to three years.

The college and the city entered a developer's agreement whereby Washington will stay open until the signalization of Yew and Main is complete. It was suggested that the college pays $182,000, plus the funds for purchasing the street, for the signalization. Further stipulations were that no building permits would be issued until the college pays for the street vacations and its share of the light at Yew and Main.

More updates on this story will follow.

Information re-posted from the most recent article: 

The biggest area of contention is the eventual closure of Washington Avenue on campus. The reasons for wanting to close the street include safety issues, it's dangerous for pedestrian crossing; the street divides campus; and it interferes with the college's long-term goal to provide a pedestrian friendly campus and public open space.

The opposition for the street closure includes reasoning that the street is a north to south relief for traffic congestion on Yew Street. First responders would like it as an access to surrounding streets.

There are two other street vacations being requested buy the college: Walnut from Washington to King streets; and Rock from CC Boulevard to Walnut. With less impact to traffic then Washington, these have fewer obstacles to overcome.

Other issues include parking problems, which area associated with any facility that draws lots of people to it. There is not enough parking for students and staff, whose cars fill the streets causing headaches for many of the nearby residents. Residents spoke during the open comment period and mentioned students should have mandatory parking stickers; that there is not enough street parking for visitors; and perhaps the streets should be marked with residential-only parking places.

Yew Street became a topic of discussion. People were visibly cringing when the street was mentioned. Yew is a traffic nightmare. Certain times of the day and days of the week, it transforms into a gnarly monster that swallows cars, busses, and other vehicles for unnerving minutes for drivers. All parties agreed that traffic signalization of both ends of Yew are needed.

Full signalization cost $700,000 and people are at a loss as to how to remedy some solution. Mellon and Yew is on WA St Route 507 so that end will eventually be signalized buy Washington State Department of Transportation. Ironically that intersection was 13^th in the state to be signalized, though at some point was taken off the list and recently re-added in eighth on the list now, according to Abbey Russell of Washington State Transportation Department.