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View Full Version : Open house exposes Highway 99’s future


Chief
05-05-2008, 04:07 PM
http://www.dailyinsider.info/2008/05_05_08.html

Driving north on Vancouver’s Main Street past the city limits puts one in the middle of Hazel Dell within five minutes on what is known as Highway 99 or the 99 Strip.

In the days before the interstate highway was designated as Interstate 5, Highway 99 continued north to the Canadian border and south to the Mexican border.

The Clark County portion of Highway 99 became the county’s first “strip mall,” changing from a rural section of the county into the most energetic non-metropolitan area in the county and finally becoming known as the 99 Strip.

Between NE 63rd Street and NE 134th Street, Highway 99 has become an energetic and growing business area, as well as an arterial and corridor, through shopping malls ending where Salmon Creek’s two biggest institutions, Washington State University Vancouver and Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital, have grown up

Highway 99, though is broken. The Klineline Bridge across Salmon Creek was closed last year. Reconstruction is underway, and that link is expected to reopen by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Clark County Planners are working out a new plan for the Highway 99 area, a plan that will affect commercial as well as residential interests.

On open house scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, in the 6th floor hearing room in the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin Street, will help citizens learn what current plans are and give them an opportunity to comment.


I'll be interested to see what kind of turnout this meeting gets, given the short amount of time Hazel Dell has to get their collective act together before the City of Vancouver annexes them.

Developing...

8)

Waterbuffalo
05-05-2008, 06:27 PM
:-) Darn.. Where's my popcorn?

Yeah, the anticipation is building in my heart for annexation myself. Especially if Light Rail does get built over the bridge, where is the next B-line to the North going to be along?

Ahh yes, I think Commissioner Betty Sue WOULD LOVE a fast way to get from her home into Portland when the fancy choo choo runs by her house along Highway 99, past Clark College and into Portland. Would this not be EXCITING?

karma
05-07-2008, 10:21 AM
Duh, old news here Chief!! All one needs to do is take a drive over to Airport way and see what she is pushing. I took that bus ride with the group many years back and it just made me sick to think this is all the better she could come up with. Nothing but big & little boxes and strip mall type of crap. One should really look what is up under Highway 99 and take a serious look at the stormwater system, which is not being done. More of the same old same old and nothing new?

Chief
05-07-2008, 11:42 AM
I'm with ya about that monstrosity over there by Ikea, karma. That's a perfect example of the kind of sprawl Loot Rail will bring too, since vicinity to the Red Line is the only reason why that development was built.

Waterbuffalo
05-07-2008, 05:22 PM
While coming back recently from NY into PDX, it was a NIGHTMARE getting out of that area in the afternoon. So to tell you the truth, I'll add my chorus also the the Ikea development. Its bad not because of the tax dodgers but the amount of people trying trying to get past the shopper backdraft to get to the airport and on to planes...

Chief
05-07-2008, 06:11 PM
Tell ya what WB...go over there on a busy Saturday and count the Washington plates in the parking lots.

Why do you think Video Only does such a land office business in that nasty little store of theirs in Jantzen Beach? I'll bet you half of the big-screen TVs in Clark County right now came from that one store...

karma
05-08-2008, 09:20 AM
Yep Chief, I'll agree on that one!! All one has to do is look at the Best Buy's lot and know they are crossing the bridge!! Why buy here and be taxed to death? I don't see the OR folks flocking here to save???

Chief
05-08-2008, 02:29 PM
Gasoline at the Costco on Airport Way is thirty cents cheaper than anywhere in Cascade Park...

;)

Waterbuffalo
05-08-2008, 05:18 PM
Are you trying to give Portland more money to build light rail from all the gas your shoving their way? ;-p

(from the increase in gas sales comes more taxes paid..)

Chief
05-08-2008, 07:37 PM
It's about keeping some money in the bank, and 30 cents a gallon adds up quick on a fill up...

Just sayin'...

Waterbuffalo
05-08-2008, 07:44 PM
You may save 30 cents but think about all the oregon and federal fuel taxes that are loaded in the rest of that chunk of change.

Watch how much of that Oregon is using to build light rail instead of fixing Portland traffic problems?

Yeah, your leading the charge of the lemmings right into LRT hands...