ResolutiontoAdopt20YearTransportationPlan

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Kittitas County Transportation Element 2o3.8 2.1 EXISTING CONDITIONS This chapter describes how people use Kittitas County's transportation network today, as well as how that may change over the next 20 years as the region grows. The way people travel is greatly influenced by the built environment, which includes land use and travel corridors, as well as the key destinations where people live, work, shop, and recreate. This chapter also describes trends in how people are traveling based on anticipated development patterns and travel mode data. LAND USES AND KEY DESTINATIONS The places where people live, work, and play are impacted by how a county and its communities guide development. The Land Use Element of this Comprehensive Plan provides this guidance. The Kittitas County zoning map regulates the types of uses that are allowed in specific areas of the region. This zoning map leads to clustering of like uses, for example shopping and other commercial destinations in downtown and along major roadway corridors, with other areas limited to primarily residential development or agriculture. Changes to zoning can affect not only the land use, but also use of the surrounding transportation network. The current zoning map for Kittitas County is shown in Figure 2. Key destinations in the county are mapped in Figure 3 and described below. The incorporated cities in Kittitas County are Ellensburg, Cie Elum, South Cie Elum, Roslyn, and Kittitas. Ellensburg is the county seat and the largest of these cities, a hub of commercial and recreational activity. The cities of Roslyn and Cle Elum are both centers of recreational tourism. Even within these incorporated communities, the majority of housing is detached single family with an owner occupied housing rate of 58 percent'. More than half of the county is forested, with 30 percent pasture and only two percent urban land. Agricultural developments are located throughout Kittitas County, with lower, more level expanses located in the central and southeast regions. The County is known for its high quality Timothy Hay that is shipped all over the world. Timber has historically 2 ACS 2011-201$ been another major economic commodity for County residents, although current trends see that potentially declining over the next 20 years. The export of forest and agricultural products lead to a lot of farm and heavy vehicles traveling on low volume County roads. This can lead to disproportionately high levels of pavement damage and safety concerns. Large swaths of the northwest portions of the county are highly mountainous, with the Okanogan - Wenatchee National Forest, four lakes that the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) operates as part of the Yakima Project, and Lake Easton State Park comprising large areas of public land. Recreation opportunities draw crowds to the sno-parks, lakes, and trails. Sixty four percent of Kittitas County land is managed by state or federal agencies so interagency cooperation is crucial. While there is a large amount of privately held land in the County that could be available for development, growth is constrained by the availability of potable water in many areas. Development is then concentrated in areas of the County that have access to potable water, putting a strain on existing roadways. Maintaining the existing public facilities to account for this growth is as important as planning for new growth during the 20 - year planning horizon. It is important to consider that areas of commercial, industrial, and dense residential land use tend to have more concentrated trips and can be supportive of alternative modes of travel such as transit, whereas areas of low density residential and agricultural use tend to have dispersed trip patterns more conducive to trips made by personal vehicle. Recreational destinations are also subject to seasonal trip fluctuations, which can stress local roadway networks. 9fpr-gr