The Allyn Community Association voted to start a petition drive to show support for the original south connector road. (S1) It will be announced in the North Bay Review and signatures will be gathered until May 3 at which time they will be sent with a letter to Governor Gregoire and Doug McDonald the head of DOT. At this time over 250 signatures have been gathered. Petitions are available for signing at Doug's Market, Lennard K's, Nelson Chiropractic and CarolAnn's gift store.

The Allyn Community Association Planning Committee wishes to go on record as supporting the concept of the Belfair Bypass and locating the southern connection with State.Route 3 (SR3) north of the North Mason School District campus. Planned to be a high speed/high volume highway meeting state and federal standards, it will be a major addition to the infrastructure of the area. The location of the southern Bypass connection and SR3 near the railroad crossing has been reviewed and supported by community leaders over the last several years. It serves the existing and future needs of Allyn and its surrounding environs.

By contrast, a new option proposed by DOT staff exacerbates the area's traffic problems and causes major problems for the community today. The new location (with three variations) inevitably moves this 220' wide right of way accommodating 60 mph traffic into Allyn and the Bellwood subdivision. These areas of higher population density, with ecologically fragile shoreline systems cannot possibly accommodate the scale and magnitude needed for this highway. Further, it routes the future extension over the landslide hazard area at the S-curves north of Allyn. The original southern connection allows for extension of this major highway to connect to Razor Road to the west of Allyn, an area of very low density development, then run southerly with many options for a future route. A decision to move the connection south can only set up a series of poor choices for years into the future which will degrade, if not destroy, this historic community.

In 1889, the same year Allyn was platted, the State of Washington began putting in place laws, policies, standards and criteria guiding development. Balancing the myriad competing interests and needs of both large and small communities in a predictable and thoughtful manner serves everyone. The proposed new southern connection violates state and local policies on many fronts

II. Be in conflict with the adopted Allyn plan, developed by the Allyn Community Association with support from Mason County, which states that Allyn will be a pedestrian friendly community. The GMA calls for community based plans, which the Allyn Plan surely reflects.

III. Introduce pollution from highway runoff along the shoreline, which varies in distance from the highway of 400 feet, quickly narrowing to 200 feet at the retail center of town, down to less than forty feet at Kayak Park. SR3 then the crosses the estuary of Sherwood Creek, a prize salmon spawning creek. The total travel distance through Allyn is about eight tenths of a mile.

IV. Destroy the existing retail core of Allyn, which now has a tourism overlay zone along the core of the retail area along the waterfront. This valuable, very limited economic asset would be wasted.

The Allyn Community Association is a strong supporter of the North Mason School District. As such, the Planning Committee is also addressing its concerns regarding DOT's proposal for the new southern connection. At this time the School Board has not taken a position.

The State Department of Transportation's recent inclusion of the new southern connection to the list of proposed routes for consideration has already caused the District to delay placing a long planned capital improvement bond issue on the ballot this spring. The property planned for use by the District to expand its existing high school/junior high campus is now in the path of the proposed southernmost connection, thereby putting the title under a cloud. This is particularly egregious to the community given the high child poverty incidence in the area. In 2003 Mason County had the highest child poverty rate in the State. Today, in the two elementary schools in the District, 40% of Belfair Elementary children qualify for subsidized lunch and 45% of Sand Hill Elementary children qualify. Our schools offer some of the best hope for helping these children become productive citizens.

Delay of these bonds results in more deterioration of existing facilities and larger dollar costs out into the future. Further, after years of hard work and investment of energy by community leaders to identify the best plan for new facilities, delay results in the potential of a loss of enthusiasm and momentum.

The DOT engineers offered an overpass connecting the bifurcated school district campus if they wished to continue with the construction. The question must be raised as to the quality of the children's school experience with a high speed/high volume highway running between math and gym classes. Further, with thousands of acres of undeveloped land on which to route the new needed highway, damaging an institution so central to the well being of the community is unacceptable.

The railroad location for the southern termination of the bypass offers true economic strength to the area, with the potential to locate the inevitable extension of the bypass around Allyn through an area of approximately 1600 acres of low intensity development This is immediately west of the Allyn UGA. It has been recognized by the Mason County Board of Commissioners that Allyn is growing and needs additional land for business parks, a wide variety of housing, flat, dry, useable land for recreation, civic institutions, and commercial development

While construction of a major state route through any area is disruptive to some, a carefully considered choice of route today that recognizes the future potential and impacts allows landowners to plan ahead and maximize their investments and minimize the cost.