Langley is scrapping long-held ideas about moving people from the waterfront to the city’s commercial areas.
After years of planning for a funicular and, just this past summer, a bridge and elevator, the city council announced at its meeting Tuesday that it was back to the preliminary phase. Mayor Fred McCarthy laid out seven options he envisioned: an elevator, an escalator, a funicular, a trolley on tracks, a trolley on wheels with an ADA lift, more electric golf carts or nothing at all.
“All these options are still on the table,” McCarthy said.
“We’re in no hurry,” Councilman Thomas Gill said. “We’ve had this money for 10 years and we’re gonna have it until we give it back.”
Gill was referring to $500,000 in grant money from the Island County Council of Governments, and its security was not always so certain. Designated for city use for years, Langley’s former planner had commented in public meetings that he thought the Council of Governments wanted to see something happen with the money sooner rather than later.
Council members’ comments this week marked a major shift from the momentum that was gained last year. In July, a bridge and elevator was proposed by Paul and Pam Schell, who would give an easement on their property for the elevator tower to land and people to walk from the bluff out to Wharf Street and the marina. Public outcry grew after renderings of what the bridge and elevator may look were published by the city’s planning department and later by The Record.
Councilwoman Robin Black, who was appointed to fill a vacancy in May 2014, said the city wants to look at all of its options.
“We’re open and want to listen to the feedback,” she said.
The funicular project was revived after the bridge was largely rebuked in city meetings. But the funicular, a pod that would move up the bluff on a track, has been on the city’s capital project list for years as a means to move people between the commercial core and the harbor, owned and managed by the Port of South Whidbey and recently expanded to accommodate larger vessels.
Discussion of a bluff/Wharf Street transport was not on the city council’s agenda Tuesday night, but dominated nearly 20 minutes of discussion when three citizens spoke about it during public comment. Brian Woloshin, a Langley resident critical of the project and the city’s approach to notifying residents of it, was upset that a letter rejecting the bridge and elevator, authored by members of the city’s Parks and Open Space Commission, was missing from city minutes. City Clerk and Director of Finance Debbie Mahler said the letter was not formally submitted to the city council, so it would not be included in minutes from an October meeting.
Sharon Emerson asked the city to look into the benefits of different options before researching the cost.
“Focus on things like ‘What’s the evidence for boaters needing help getting up the hill? What are the ADA requirements?’” she said. “What are the problems we’re trying to solve?”
Skip Demuth likened any project to a business owner knowing the foot traffic of a potential store location or counting cars to determine where to put an onramp.
McCarthy said the city’s new director of Community Planning, Michael Davolio, would bring a “fresh set of eyes” to whatever project the city pursues for the Cascade Avenue bluff. On Davolio’s end, he will work with the Port of South Whidbey as it looks to attract more visitors and larger vessels to Langley this year, its first full 12 months with the expanded dock space, and plans for more expansion phases in the future.
The mayor said the data and information-gathering process could take up to three months, and rejected calls for a public input meeting specifically related to the funicular or bluff transportation.
