Moses Lake allows business to keep driveway width

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake allowed a business owner to keep his driveway the same width.

The request came from John Sugg, representing Ernie's Truck Stop on Kittleson Road. He asked the council to allow him to keep the width of the two driveways to his business.

The driveways are presently 42 feet wide and 82 feet wide, according to city records. City standards only allow a 40-foot-wide driveway.

"In comparison, the width of Broadway Avenue is approximately 78 feet, which is five traffic lanes and two parking lanes," Municipal Services Director Gary Harer wrote. "The reasons for restricting the widths of the driveways include a shorter distance for pedestrians to cross, causes vehicles to enter and exit the street perpendicular instead of at a skew and causes vehicles to enter and exit the street in an orderly fashion."

The driveways were constructed in 1986, prior to the city putting the standards in place, Harer wrote. The owners would have needed to narrow the entrances during a planned replacement of the concrete.

"I think the widest driveway on an improved street is about 50 feet," Harer said. "They were planning on removing and replacing that driveway because of broken-up concrete, and that would be the time to bring it into compliance."

Harer pointed out that sometimes the most dangerous intersections are the ones with the fewest accidents because people are paying more attention to their surroundings.

Kevin Richards, the principal with Western Pacific Engineering, said the issue started because the business is building a system to channel rainwater into the city's stormwater system.

"While we were walking the site, the representative of Ernie's saw that there were some cracked areas of the entryway there in the middle driveway, and he asked the contractor to replace those," he said. "He was then told by the city, 'Look you can't just replace it. You would have to narrow it and also change the pitch or the grade of the entryway."

Richards explained the station handles a large amount of truck traffic, and it needs wide entrances to accommodate them. He showed a picture from Google Maps, showing a tractor-trailer pulling into the narrower entrance.

"There is quite a bit of area that is taken up; you can see that 18-wheeler pulling in. There is also a lot of traffic in that area," he said.

Richards pointed out the city standards limit single and duplex family home driveways to 30 feet, and limit everything else to 40 feet.

"It makes little movement for existing driveways, and, secondly, it makes little movement for what kind of other that would exist," he said. "For instance, I'm assuming that other would cover everything from a convenience store or an espresso stand all the way up to a major truck refueling station, and I think maybe there should be potentially some more classifications to allow for such uses."

Councilmember Brent Reese questioned why the owner couldn't make the entrances narrower.

"I know there are trucks pulling in. They need a wide driveway, but driveways here in town, there are trucks in and out all the time and they still negotiate OK," he said.

Richards responded, saying the trucks take up most of the second entrance, leaving waiting vehicles close to the tractor-trailers.

"Additionally, regular car traffic for the fueling island here, and then major truck traffic that comes in and out, unbelievably often," he said. "We were walking the site again, and it seems like every 20 seconds there was a truck coming."

The trucks coming into the station may have wider loads, which aren't typically seen in downtown Moses Lake, Richards said.

"The intention of the standard seems to be blanketing what should be a pretty straight forward matter of changing a couple panels in his driveway entrance," he said.

Councilmember Jon Lane supported allowing Ernie's to keep the present entrance width, because Kittleson Road is three-lane road.

"That does make it a little more challenging for trucks coming in and out," he said. "It seems reasonable given the whole scenario."

The council unanimously approved allowing the truck stop to keep the same driveway widths.