The City actually brags about what will become a travesty on the old Cavanaugh lot. It brags about bringing 500 more people to live in downtown Auburn as well as new retail businesses.

Right now, those street areas are the most congested in Auburn. Between 4 and 6 p.m., it frequently takes 10 minutes to travel approximately seven blocks. And that’s without an additional 500 people plus retail businesses.

In the middle of all the bragging, where is the word about the developer’s responsibility for street improvements to withstand the additional traffic and congestion? The amphitheater was required at least to expand some of its affected roadways, but nothing, nada, zilch for the downtown project.

Fellow taxpayers, when we are raving mad from traffic congestion because our City does not look ahead, who will get stuck with the street upgrade costs? The developer (who was even gifted by the City with a post-purchase discount) after they are done building and maybe even sell to another company? Or us? If, as methinks the latter, we will not only be out the discount already given to the developer, and be out millions for road improvement because the developer’s profits are sacrosanct, but also we get to experience two-four years of horrendously worse traffic congestion.

Yay, City of Auburn, you sure have a right to brag. This lack of planning is as good as the millions you spent on the fancy red street and “Welcome” sign down from City Hall. We all know what a critical problem that project resolved.

– Lana Inez Zielinski