The state House has included $75 million in its transportation budget for a project to build freeway access ramps at Northeast 132nd Street in the Totem Lake neighborhood of Kirkland. The House bill will have to be reconciled with the Senate version, however, which does not include the allocation.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) project, originally approved by the state in 2005, but postponed and moved to the unfunded list, is considered by both the city and businesses in Totem Lake as a vital update to Kirkland infrastructure in anticipation of the Totem Lake Malls redevelopment project, among others. According to the city, the soon-to-be owner of the malls, CenterCal Properties, now calling the project The Village at Totem Lake, hopes to have it open by late 2017 or early 2018. The proposed freeway access project, if included in the final version of the transportation package, would start no sooner than 2019. CenterCal is expected to complete the purchase of the property by the end of the month.

If the project is not included in this year’s transportation package, however, the city could have to wait until 2025 before trying to get it funded again. By then, City Manager Kurt Triplett said, they will be facing traffic problems caused by new developments.

“It’s not just a 2025 issue,” he said. “It’s a 2018 issue.”

The city has actively lobbied local legislators representing the 45th District, as well as other state legislators, to support the project, claiming conservatively that it will bring in $140 million in state tax revenue compared to the current $46 million.

“From an investment point, this is a no brainer,” he said.

One of the difficulties they’ve faced in getting it into the budget, Triplett said, is the impression that the project is a new proposal rather than leftover from previous legislative sessions.

“This is not a project we made up,” he said.

As Triplett and other city officials see it, the project is necessary to relieve traffic congestion, in part due to growth Kirkland has absorbed under the Growth Management Act. Under the GMA, urban centers such as Totem Lake are given higher priority for infrastructure investments. The city also nearly doubled in size in 2011 when it annexed the Finn Hill, North Juanita and Kingsgate neighborhoods, which was made possible by sales tax credits that are set to expire in 2021.

Councilmember Dave Asher said that the city needs more support if it is to continue absorbing more growth at the state’s behest.

“You can’t have it both ways,” he said.

The city has spent $50 million in the last four years in the Totem Lake neighborhood, according to Triplett, and millions more will be spent under the current draft of their transportation master plan. Additionally, their redevelopment agreement with the property owners for the Totem Lake Malls promises $15 million in public infrastructure improvements under certain stipulations, along with up to $10 million in Totem Lake Park.

In a March 10 letter to State Rep. Judy Clibborn and Rep. Ed Orcutt, chair and ranking minority member respectively of the House Transportation Committee, Mayor Amy Walen wrote that it was “more imperative than ever” that the project finally get off the ground, as the city anticipates the neighborhood adding up to 20,000 jobs and 4,000 housing units.

“The growth of the Totem Lake Urban Center will be stymied if it is choked with congestion and gridlock,” she wrote. “Kirkland needs the Northeast 132nd Street ramps to help gain concurrency capacity to fully realize the zoning potential unlocked by the new mall. You can help us with this.”

Also lobbying legislators are Totem Lake business owners, such as EvergreenHealth. In an email to State Rep. Joan McBride and Luis Moscoso, Chief Executive Officer Robert H. Malte stressed the importance of maintaining good traffic conditions around the hospital.

“As the area grows with the redevelopment, it is vital that we protect throughput to the main hospital campus,” he wrote. “Those ramps have a critical impact to the economic growth of the Totem Lake Area in Kirkland and also serve to safeguard access to the hospital and emergency services. Patients and their families face challenges everyday with their medical conditions, but one challenge we want to alleviate is traffic congestion. The Northeast 132nd Street ramps provide the necessary infrastructure to help the Totem Lake Area flourish and support our patients in their travels to our facility.”

Concerns over traffic congestion have also been expressed by Lake Washington Institute of Technology President Amy Morrison Goings, who stated in a letter to the city that the Village at Totem Lake “will only add to the difficult traffic issues in this area and negatively affect LWTech students and staff and the other residents in the area unless the Northeast 132nd Street ramps from I-405 are advanced.”