Letter to the Editor

Council Members,

Last Thursday night's bomb scare in the central part of downtown should give everyone pause, especially considering the recent vote by the Council to approve higher density rezoning for our town.

Several residents who spoke at the March 22 Council meeting clearly outlined that under current zoning codes, over 700 new homes are in the pipeline to be built. When completed, they will house 1,450 new residents, on average. This does not count the increases in density that will come with your vote to up-zone a vast area north, northwest and west of our town.

Last night, we learned that from 7PM until 2AM our town was cut off from Highway 2 access, effectively cutting us off from the rest of the world. We were told to "shelter in place" wherever we were. Cascade Medical Center's Emergency Department was placed in a lockdown in response to the threat, but remained open to emergency cases. Otherwise, all other medical care was absent from those who certainly may have needed it during that time.

Can you begin to imagine how nearly doubling our population would have made the situation so very much worse? Have you not yet realized what a precarious situation we are already in because of the limited ingress/egress capability in our town? Not to mention the confusing intersections leading onto Highway 2, which back up traffic under daily conditions? Much more so during an emergency? Or the limiting two-lane highways connecting our town with the rest of the world?

Right now, if we had a situation arise where we would have to evacuate, it would cause a massive traffic jam, worsened by cars running out of gas as they sat trying to access Highway 2 or on the highway itself. There could be mass panic with limited solutions available. People in these circumstances can exhibit very dangerous behavior.

We see your vote to continue to increase density as a slowly developing catastrophe for Leavenworth. Can you be certain without further studies that this will be a safe situation for the residents?

Since your first priority as a Council member is to support and enhance Public Safety, please provide a response as to why you have moved forward prior to properly evaluating the downstream impacts.

We look forward to hearing from you.