Consider traffic on East Second Street

After attending the Whitefish Planning Board meeting on May 16, I have some major public safety concerns with the proposed 150 apartment/housing development at East Second Street and Armory Road.

First of all, I was shocked that the developer and the Whitefish planning board failed to address the huge public safety impacts (up to 1,000 vehicle trips per day increase) that the dramatic traffic increase from this large development would have on an already inadequate and outdated road system in this area.

The new proposed development traffic would ingress and egress right at the bottom of the dangerous East Second Street hill. This hill has a blind spot, is slick in the winter and has inattentive school kids use it every day to get back and forth to school.

Armory Road is an old, outdated, narrow 22-24’ wide Flathead County gravel road that was paved. It already has more daily recreational and vehicle traffic use on it that is safe for a narrow road to handle.

I serve on the Command and General Staff on a National Incident Management Team as one of their primary safety officers for wildfire and national disaster management, public safety trumps all other operations, including increasing Whitefish city property tax revenue.

This project should not be approved until a public safety transportation plan has been written, reviewed, and approved, and East Second Street and Armory Road have been widened like the present Second Street West project.

The transportation system improvement needed will take years to complete and cost millions of dollars. You can’t just tweak this inadequate and outdated Whitefish transportation system and safely proceed with this large development.

For the record, this proposed development is a public safety hazard and accident or fatality waiting to happen if you approve and proceed with this development at this time.

— Scott Bates