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(1) When the county council determines that excessive expenditure of public funds is not warranted for the purpose of making further improvements on certain arterial units, the county council may designate, by motion, following a public hearing, such arterial unit as being at ultimate capacity.

(a) Designation of ultimate capacity shall include a commitment by the county to complete an access management and circulation plan for the arterial unit and a commitment by the county for specific, additional road improvements, transportation system management (TSM) actions, access management improvements, and/or transportation demand management (TDM) actions for the purpose of improving efficiency, preserving roadway capacity, and improving operations. In addition, any known improvements needed to address safety issues must be identified in conjunction with such ultimate capacity designation.

(b) The designation of an arterial unit at ultimate capacity by the county council will be initiated by an engineer’s report and written recommendation from the director of public works evaluating whether or not a given arterial unit is a candidate for ultimate capacity based on the criteria in SCC 30.66B.110(2) and related rules adopted by the Department.

(c) "Arterial Unit," under this section, shall mean the existing facility plus any improvements which are fully funded and programmed for construction within six years.

(d) The recommendation by public works and the designation by the county council must identify the specific growth management objective(s) that support(s) the designation of ultimate capacity for that particular arterial unit.

(2) A recommendation of ultimate capacity by public works and a designation by the county council of ultimate capacity may be appropriate if one or more of the following conditions are met for a particular arterial unit:

(a) The total number of vehicle lanes is consistent with the adopted transportation element of the county comprehensive plan and the facility meets the standards of the Engineering Design and Development Standards (EDDS); or

(b) The number of general-purpose travel lanes (excluding turn lanes) is consistent with the adopted transportation element, appropriate improvements are made at key intersections to provide for efficient traffic flow, adequate provisions are made to accommodate pedestrian and bicycle demand, and there are physical, environmental, existing structures or other constraints that preclude additional cost effective improvements; or

(c) The county arterial is experiencing a decrease in level of service, the source of which is attributable to another agency’s transportation facility, the conditions of subsection (2)(b) above are all met, and the county section of road approaching the other agency’s facility meets the standards of the EDDS, the number of lanes on the county approach is consistent with the adopted transportation element, additional left-turn or right-turn lanes are provided on the county approach to maximize efficiency on the county approach and where appropriate to match the ultimate lane configuration of the other agency’s transportation facility, and the length of turn lanes on the county approach is designed to accommodate forecast demand.

(3) Developments impacting arterial units designated as ultimate capacity will be required to provide additional mitigation pursuant to SCC 30.66B.160(2)(c) for the purpose of improving efficiency, preserving roadway capacity, and improving operations. (Added by Amended Ord. 02-064, Dec. 9, 2002, Eff date Feb. 1, 2003; Amended by Amended Ord. 05-092, Dec. 21, 2005, Eff date Feb. 1, 2006).