Manson 'One Voice' shares priorities for future growth

Setting priorities for a growing community, The Manson Once Voice Coalition met with Chelan County Commissioners on Tuesday.

Manson is an unincorporated community receiving public services from the county.

"Our first priority is an emergency evacuation route," Manson Community Council chair Mike Kirk told the commissioners. "Our next priority is zoning, interest in the Manson community to increase our light industrial zoning and our housing affordability zoning. Next priority is diagonal parking in downtown Manson, which is a big issue for us. We need additional parking downtown."

Kirk further described the interest in, " Drive forward diagonal parking as opposed to back-in diagonal parking," along Wapato Way.

"The road isn't actually wide enough to have parallel parking on one side and then angle parking, it's not wide enough to have both," responded Chelan County Public Works Director Eric Pierson. "You end up knocking off spaces because you can't have them (parking spaces) blocking crosswalks. And you'd probably end up with potentially less parking stalls."

Planning for the need for an alternate emergency exit road out of the Manson area.

"At a minimum, people in our area would like to see the county take a look at backroads between Chelan and Manson and see how far you can get from Manson on county roads and someplace in between there's a nice connecting point," Kirk said. "It's only going to get more expensive as time goes on, and we're hoping that real estate development between now and whenever might be able to connect those two routes."

To solve increased traffic volume, county commissioner Brad Hawkins suggested that the Manson coalition meet with Link Transit to explore options.

"I really think that having park-n-rides in Manson would be really beneficial," said Hawkins. "If there was a way to identify some areas that could be sold to Link Transit, so Link Transit could build a park-n-ride, it benefits Manson in multiple ways."

The coalition also shared interest in downtown Manson sidewalk improvements for pedestrian safety and additional public access to Lake Chelan.

Learn more about the Manson One Voice Coalition on their Facebook page here.