Public and council press for firmer design, enforcement on City Center Greenway shoulder plan

Mike Bullock Ziegler, a Twin Lakes resident, told the Land Use & Transportation Committee that the City Center Greenway design packets lack detail and that a shallow curb/shoulder treatment proposed for the project has been used as informal parking elsewhere in Federal Way.

"Drivers will just use this protected pathway as a private parking spot," Ziegler said, adding that the practice has forced children into the street and undermined the separation the design is meant to provide. He urged the committee to seek stronger design measures given the project's available funding of $1,000,000 and the route's role as a safe route to school.

Blake Messmer, the project's presenter, said the current scope provides a pedestrian shoulder — not a separated path or traditional sidewalk — with pavement widening in constrained locations, roadway striping, signing and lighting upgrades. "This is more of a shoulder," Messmer said, noting estimated widths of about 6 feet on 20th Avenue and roughly 8 feet in parts of South 308th Street where room allows.

On enforcement, Messmer said the plan includes reestablishing ditches to prevent parking in the shoulder and installing no-parking signs along the project length; he said actual deterrence would rely on code enforcement. Council members pressed on how the city will prevent the shoulder from becoming a parking strip, with Council President Susan Honda emphasizing enforcement as a key component.

Messmer framed the work as a "missing link" grant project intended to tie Federal Way High School to existing sidewalks and bike lanes in the city center and the Poverty Bay trail, not to build sidewalks along the entire length of South 308. The committee voted unanimously to forward authorization to complete the 85% design and request bids to the March 24 consent agenda.

The committee will see the bid-award and final authorization when staff return following procurement.