Park and Ride with Rural Character Eases Ferry Commutes

— by Margie Doyle —

Ribbon-cutting at the new Orcas Village Park and Ride: from left, Jamie Stephens, Nicole McIntosh, Colin Huntemer, Rick Hughes, Mike Thomas, Bill Watson, Russ Harvey, Jesse Douglas-Seitz and, holding the beginning of the ribbon, Richard Fralick

The Orcas Village Park and Ride project was formally opened on Tuesday, Oct. 31 with islanders, elected officials, county staff and State Ferries directors on hand. It was a snapshot of what islanders have done and can do when faced with a problem — congested parking on both shoulders of Orcas Road for ferry service– and more problems — coordinating efforts with multiple agencies — in effecting a solution.

Former County Councilman Richard Fralick was on hand, who recalled approaching the State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) in 2010. “They were quite interested in  the possibility of using the county’s newly acquired dock and I suggested to them that they had four acres up here and it might be a good way to do a quid pro quo; they immediately dug in their heels and said, ‘There’s no way we could ever do that,’ so this is quite a thing to see,” Fralick said.

Earlier this year, WSDOT awarded the county $760,000 to construct the transportation facility: (see orcasissues.com/county-gears-orcas-landing-park-ride-project/ )

County Engineer Colin Huntemer said, “I appreciate the delegation of the design to the local authority. We tried to take the approach here that it wasn’t just a parking lot but it blended with the terrain and the culture and the island feel and recognizing that it still needs to accommodate parked vehicles. We tried to incorporate those elements but softer, so people would say, ‘Hey it’s park and ride but Orcas Island style.

“I credit a lot of that to Jesse [Douglas-Seitz] who feathered that it and looking at other projects around the community, what worked, what people liked; Rick [Hughes] pleaded with us to keep the trees to preserve the screening from the ferries; we listened to a lot of parties to get this project together in a very tight schedule. This is a very proud achievement for a lot of people.”

Jesse Douglas-Seitz was the project manager (as well as site designer) for the Park and Ride. He said: “It’s a great opportunity for collaboration,  look at everybody who’s here — WSDOT and state legislature for providing the funding for the project, state ferries as the landowner, San Juan County, not only public works but also community development for the permitting process,the  council for encouraging and funding the planning.

“And also contractors, not only our primary contractor with Raz  doing a great job showing up every day from outside the county to get it done.; we also had key engineers who worked on the lighting plan, K Engineers and Sail Electric who worked on the lighting installation and then Green Acres locally here who did all the erosion control with the hydroseeding.

“In concert with the park and ride there was a massive undertaking by the local utilities: we had OPALCO with Terry Turner taking the lead for utility relocation; Rock Island  with OPALCO and Century Link; and Orcas Landing Inc and Bangs Trust providing water; and also our neighbors at Eastsound Sewer and Water District.

“In addition to that, it’s a community here, Orcas Village — we’ve got business owners here, homeowners who had to put up with our crews rock-hammering eight hours a day to build this new road and carve out the parking spots. During construction I didn’t get one negative comment from a homeowner related to the noise or construction effort so that’s a community really bearing with us to improve a long-term goal. It’s a unique island-bound community, a unique site, a unique environment and it needed a unique solution.

“There’s a lot of park and rides. When we first looked at this Clay [Warner, lead inspector] said, ‘I know how to do this, we’ll just cut down all the trees, put in 100 parking spaces and get it done.’ Then there was a concept of maybe eking out a little parking midst the trees but it still has to meet our transportation goals, our safety goals. So I think that, as a group at public works we did a great job working with other agencies to come together and build something that fits Orcas Village.

“Clay and Jake [Jacob Heinen, county inspector] were on site every day and it really is public works being here every day working with our contractor, design and construction — a whole group of helping  hands. When all is said and done it really is a safety improvement project, so we’re looking at getting the cars off Orcas Road and providing long-term transportation plans for the community. It’s a win.”

Council Chair Rick Hughes spoke up, saying, “I also want to give credit to Bob Eagan as tenant on this property for a long time, he’d tell me, ‘A  $500 year lease is really not the best use of state funding.’ He kept prodding me, along with Mr. Fralick.

“This is such an incredible victory for the county and for Orcas Island, with three huge projects this year: the Orcas Transfer Station /Exchange recycling, Deer Harbor bridge and the Orcas Village Park and Ride. We as an organization can be really proud of working with the community, with state partners and ourselves and great contractors to build this amazing public works project.

“This is just the beginning of what hopes to be a five-county intermodal [facility] where you can park here, walk down the hill to the ferry, connect with Skagit Transit in Anacortes, and get transportation to connect with Snohomish, Whatcom, Island and Skagit counties.

“This was the best partnership I’ve ever seen. We solved problems together that will serve our communities and intermodal transportation. It’s an honor to be part of this; I may have wanted a little more trees but this is perfect. Thank you everyone for all the work.”

Nicole McIntosh, WSF Terminal Engineering Director, spoke next: “We couldn’t have done something this fabulous. It does take the local effort. We strive to get there but unless you’re here and you get it…. You guys did a great job.”

She explained that during the process of leasing the WSDOT property to the county, the state attorneys wouldn’t allow a lease. However, she said “It took WSF attorneys to dig into the statutes to find a statute that would allow us to enter a lease that we all wanted to make work. It’s been  a great partnership and I look forward to working and doing the  next part, the connections to the ferry terminal.”

John Vezina, WSF Government Relations Director government relations for the ferries, said, “This is one of the first occasions of getting to know folks here; unfortunately with Rick [Hughes] having my cell phone number, there were late night calls and early morning calls and ‘what the hell are you people doing?’ calls. This is a really good example of thinking outside the box and not being restricted by how it’s always been done,

“Rick would tell me, ‘It makes no sense, here’s a video of people driving up the wrong way to try to park to get in line for the ferry. It’s not a good way to do things.’ So we really appreciate being a part of this and then to have the conversation afterwards about other things we can do in partnership with the county.”

County Director of Public Works Russ Harvey spoke of the other projects that have taken place recently at Orcas Village. (see orcasissues.com/county-wsf-show-off-new-orcas-landing/) “This is the third ribbon-cutting here this summer; it was the genesis for doing a whole bunch of upgrades and improvements, even returning theramp back to ferries, nobody understood the county owned the ferry dock.

“This is one of those 50-year project that can really impact the area.”

Bob Eagan spoke of his interactions with the state after the county had accepted the lease. “I started getting calls from Olympia saying, ‘You can’t have a lease while they have a lease,’ and I said ‘It’s okay’ and they [protested] and started sending me stuff like I was going to file a lawsuit and I said, ‘Don’t worry it’s fine… it’s Orcas.'”

Council member Jamie Stephens said of the Park and Ride lot: “Parking along the road is going to end up going away and moving up here and achieving better safety on Orcas Road as we have the ferries loading and unloading. This is the thing that needed to happen to achieve that safety goal on Orcas Road.

“More things will happen; we’re looking at next steps such as ADA access all the way down [to the ferry landing] and other traffic issues to alleviate some of the backup that sometimes happens on Orcas Road. So this is just the first of several projects that will be going on over the next 10-12 years to improve our community transportation.

“It’s a rather unique design that fits very nicely with the landscape here.”

Hughes then emphasized the cooperation with the state to complete other projects that have happened at Orcas Landing this year, “that will make this one of the best marine facilities.”

And Huntemer gave an additional nod to Fralick, saying, “You accomplished something that could never be done.”