Langley residents urged the Island County Fair Board Monday to take the diplomatic route to end its fight with the city of Langley over the controversial new road planned to cross the fairgrounds.

Along with county officials, fair supporters are fighting the city’s condemnation effort in court over a strip of fairgrounds land that Langley needs to build the new street. Fair officials have repeatedly said no to the new road, maintaining the new street will make part of the fairgrounds unusable.

At the fair board’s meeting this week, the audience appealed to board members’ neighborly spirit.

“We’re all neighbors,” said Susan Cyr, an Al Anderson Road resident.

With construction about to begin on the Highlands, the largest housing development in the city’s history, neighbors fear their peace will be shattered if construction traffic begins rolling through town instead of across the new route through the fairgrounds.

Langley officials have said the new city street will ease traffic on Al Anderson Road. But the quest for an easement across the fairgrounds led to the dispute with the fair board that has been raging for more than a year. The proposed road would cut across a small portion of the fairgrounds on the southernmost tip of the property.

The dispute is now in Island County Superior Court. Depositions of the key players has begun, though a “use and necessity” hearing on the condemnation, originally scheduled for Jan. 17, was postponed last week.

The fair board’s legal fight is being financed through private donations and from fair association funds. The city and county are paying for the legal battle with

taxpayers’ money.

Cyr told the fair board that it’s time to talk.

“I would like to see a more collaborative approach between the city and fair board,” she said.

“I hereby urge the fair board to abandon this privately funded lawsuit,” Cyr added.

Another Langley resident echoed Cyr’s concerns.

“I don’t know what the problem has been, but I urge you to come to a resolution,” said Wayne Boddie.

Boddie added that he believes that a new subdivision of the Highland’s magnitude will need more than one way in and out.

Island County agrees.

The county’s development regulations contain a provision requiring at least two ways in and out of new subdivisions with more than 40 lots, and that new streets should be integrated with existing roadways, Langley city planner Larry Cort said before the fair board meeting. The Highlands will have 53 homes when finished.

Langley’s development rules do not set a specific threshold for when the requirement should be triggered, however. For all subdivisions, city staff reviews potential traffic impacts and also considers public safety and long-term transportation objectives.

“In the case of The Highlands, the city also consulted with Chief Dan Stout of the Island County Fire Protection District 3 who, in his letter supporting the second roadway connection, cited the Island County 40-lot standard for guidance,” Cort said.

One community member who is heavily involved in 4-H said it was important to keep the fair’s best interest in mind.

Craig Williams of Clinton suggested that the fair board should reach a lease agreement with the city.

“Make them pay for it,” Williams said.

He added that the fair board should try to get the best deal for the fair, including fencing and other improvements to the property.

The city had offered in the past a number of improvements, including new fencing and the paving of the current gravel road that would become part of the new road. City officials also offered to address concerns such as water runoff and other issues.

Williams said the importance of the road may dwindle in a few years, and suggested that an extension to Maxwelton Road be examined. The city may have to revisit how to get traffic in and out of town in a decade or two again anyway.

“It’ll be a much different issue in 20 years,” Williams said.

Several representatives of the city also came to talk to the fair board, marking the first time since negotiations failed that city officials addressed the entire board in person.

Citing the ongoing lawsuit, however, the fair board did not let city officials speak publicly. The fair board invited City Administrator Walk Blackford and Cort into an executive session that was closed to the public.

Ollis later said the board and the city officials discussed the engineering drawings that the city had received from the road’s builder in early December and that were sent to Ollis late last week.

According to the plans, the new street would be built on an existing road on the fairgrounds before sweeping up a wooded, unused slope. The plans also show a retainer wall and an above-ground water run-off ditch.

Final approval of the plans is still pending by the city planning staff.

“The length, width and final design of that portion of the planned Fairgrounds Road extension is still in draft form at this stage,” Cort said.

He added that he couldn’t provide cost or construction details.

Michaela Marx Wheatley can be reached at 221-5300 or mmarxwheatley@southwhidbeyrecord.com.