Coastal Corridor Plan Resurfaces Through Scenic Byways Grant

Port Angeles, WA Ð Despite strong objections to the Scenic Byways Plan two years ago from citizens and elected officials across the Olympic Peninsula, the Clallam County Commissioners voted in favor of a grant application for $349,000 for The Port Angeles Scenic Gateway Center (WSDOT Region 3).
The grant request to the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) was voted in at the Commissioner's meeting held on Jan. 13 in Port Angeles.
The Gateway Center is described in detail on Page 143 of the 1997 U.S. Coastal Corridor Master Plan according to the grant application Ð the very document that many communities across the North Olympic Peninsula and other areas fought so hard against two years ago.

U. S. taxpayers, through the federal government, will fund up to 80 percent of the grant, while local/State will pick up the rest (20 percent minimum).
The project provides a multi-use transportation facility which combines direct access to the 52-mile Olympic Discovery Trail, access to the railroad trestle crossing of Morse Creek , recreational access to salt water beaches on the Straits of Juan de Fuca, interpretive signage, restrooms, and short term paved parking lot.

The Center would result in the construction of a key 3000-foot linkage segment of the Olympic Discovery Trail, which links a soon-to-be-completed 3.5 mile Olympic Discovery Trail Project undertaken by Clallam County with previous Scenic Byway funding. That 11-mile portion of Olympic Discovery Trail was funded by the City of Port Angeles.

The Olympic Discovery Trail is a non-motorized multi-user trail, which, when completed, will span 52 miles in Clallam and Jefferson counties, connecting the urban communities of Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend.

The project cooperates with multi-agency and multi-governmental partnerships between Clallam County, the Elwha S'Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, the City of Port Angeles, the City of Forks, and the City of Sequim.
Clallam County Commissioner Phil Kitchel of Forks, and Washington State Representative Jim Buck of Joyce, objected to the Washington Coastal Corridor Plan in 1996. Clallam County Republicans also presented a resolution to their county convention May 1996 opposing the plan.

Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor and Clallam Counties all objected to the proposed Plan, which was issued in its final version last year with minor changes.

The dedication and opening of the Gateway Center at Morse creek is slated for December 1999. According to Clallam County Commissioner Martha Ireland of Sequim to this reporter, the portion of trail between Port Angeles and Forks "will not be as expensive" as the Morse Creek project.