City Council - Legislative Priorities 2026

Effective, equitable partnership with WSDOT

Medina is a vital gateway connecting Seattle to the Eastside regional economic hub of technology sector, healthcare, and other major employers via the SR520 multimodal transportation system serving transit, cyclists, pedestrians, and cars. Three significant, ongoing, unresolved issues require WSDOT’s continuing, good-faith engagement to protect the viability of this crucial regional corridor and mitigate local environmental impacts:

1. The noise disturbance caused by design flaws in SR520 expansion joints,
2. Responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and liability of WSDOT’s SR520 lid structures in the Points Communities (City of Clyde Hill, Town of Hunts Point, City of Medina, and Town of Yarrow Point), and
3. The SR520/Evergreen Point Road multiuse path underpass.

The City of Medina strongly encourages the Legislature’s intervention to ensure WSDOT’s equitable commitment to the SR520 Project’s unresolved impact mitigation through both policy directives and appropriations.

Balancing the impact of legislative policy goals on cities

In recent sessions, the Legislature has advanced bold initiatives on statewide priorities such as housing, afordability, and environmental protection. However, cities face growing challenges as these policies are developed and implemented in isolation – along with other unfunded mandates – without adequate consideration of cumulative, conflicting impacts.

As examples, State mandates may:

• Require wider critical area bufers even as we make eforts to address housing supply and comply with higher density mandates;
• Address housing afordability while State agencies raise regulatory thresholds on wastewater treatment, increasing financial burdens on utility rate payers.

These overlapping policies create tension between afordability, capacity, and environmental quality.

The City of Medina urges the Legislative and Executive branches to:

1. Adopt a more coordinated, systems-thinking approach to policy development and implementation,
2. Provide cities – especially smaller cities – with the tools and flexibility needed to balance competing state objectives, and
3. Appropriate funds for local planning and capital projects to assist small cities to comply with unfunded State mandates