As part of the shutdown of the Library Science building, Seventh Street Northwest will close for a one-year pilot program Nov. 4.
The road was originally scheduled to close on the first day of school, Sept. 4, but the district announced that that date would be pushed back to Nov. 4, two months later, to allow time to address the overlapping closures with the Fourth Street Northwest project, disruptions to Fair traffic and installation of the new portables.
The district will also reassess the current traffic plan and hold another community open house Oct. 15 at 5 p.m in the Puyallup High School gym.
The road was closed as part of the agreement with the city to close and eventually tear down the LS building. The Conditional Use Permit (CUP) required more portables to be added and Seventh Street Northwest to be closed to handle the increased student traffic. Brian Devereux, the Facilities Planning Director for the school district, addressed the closure at a community open house on Aug. 15.
“Condition number two of the city’s CUP approval reads ‘The project shall implement the proposed street closure between the portable site and the main campus to ensure student safety,” Devereux said. “If, after the temporary street closure period, the closure proves to be infeasible, an alternative proposal to install traffic funding measures and enhance pedestrian safety facilities along West Main and Seventh Street Northwest will be proposed by the applicant, reviewed and approved by the city and installed at the applicant’s expense.”
Some of the alternatives that were considered to reduce the traffic, other than closing the road, included installing speed bumps, flashing signs like what have been installed downtown, and the closure of the roadway during school hours only. Meredith Neal, the director of Development and Permitting Services for the city of Puyallup, said there were worries about confusing signage.
“There’s a lot of concern about having these temporary closures that go in and out every day, that it’s much preferable to have a permanent closure so that you can have better signage,” Neal said. “Because, you know, the worst-case scenario is that you close it temporarily during the day, and somebody who had sped through there the night before doesn’t realize that it’s closed.”
Currently, the road will only be open to emergency vehicles, allowing for students to safely cross at any point along the road. District and city officials were concerned about the high speed of cars passing through, along with students crossing the road without using the single crosswalk.
At a community open house on Aug. 15, some community members expressed concerns about the road closure diverting traffic through the surrounding neighborhoods and inadequate notice and opportunity for feedback provided to the community. Mitzi McMahan, who lives close to PHS, provided a document sent to the school district and the city.
“Residents did not receive the required 14-day notice before key meetings, including the Aug. 15 open house, where notice was only received on Aug. 8. The transportation study only considered one route for traffic flow, ignoring alternative routes and real-world traffic behavior. It also failed to account for weekend and evening impacts, particularly during community events,” McMahan wrote in the document.
Community members also expressed concerns over traffic being diverted through residential areas, including students idling in front of houses before school and exceeding the speed limit in areas near houses.
