As many Vashon residents may have noticed, the sidewalks and crossings in town are becoming increasingly difficult for our seniors and disabled neighbors to navigate. King County Roads recently published their draft ADA Transition Plan in order to make the county’s sidewalks, curb ramps, and street crossings ADA compliant. 
 
However, Roads has a “fiscal crisis” on their hands. Over the next six years, they only have $900,000 to fix existing sidewalks and crossings that are not ADA compliant, yet they estimate making all of the sidewalks and crossings in the county ADA compliant will cost over $500 million. The first recommended action in the draft ADA Transition Plan is to seek funding and King County Roads is working hard to make it happen. However, until the county finds the full $500 million needed, projects will essentially be triaged through a “prioritization” process. The prioritization process is a scoring system that looks primarily at two factors: 
 
1) Physical impact to accessibility
2) Proximity to key pedestrian destinations, such as transit stops and schools
 
Community input will directly inform the prioritization process. Therefore, it is important for Vashon’s seniors and disabled that we get as many concerned Vashonites as possible to submit feedback on the draft ADA Transition Plan so that the final plan will be more likely to emphasize projects on Vashon. For more information and to read the draft ADA Transition Plan, please visit King County Roads. 
 
The public comment period runs from February 18 – March 22. 
 
Comments can be submitted to:
 
John Vander Sluis
Phone: 206-263-0621 TTY Relay: 711