The city of Battle Ground has SR-503 circled on its map as a road to economic development and the creation of new jobs.
This week, the city’s planning department is working through the design stages for a signalized intersection at Scotton Way (south of Main Street, north of Eaton Boulevard/199th Street) and SR-503. Battle Ground’s Capital Facility Plan also shows a signalized intersection off the state highway at Rasmussen Boulevard.
The new signals will make all the difference when it comes to attracting potential retailers to SR-503, according to T.J. Fontenette, principal of Mill Creek Partnership, the development company that’s working with the city to finalize the Scotton Way project.
“The lights provide full-signal movement,” said Fontenette. “You have to have controlled left and right access to the property, especially on a busy highway like 503. Limited access, right-in right-out only will simply not provide the access or the controlled movements that any major retailer is going to need.”
Fontenette said his development company is close to securing final permits for Scotton Way. Once that step is finalized, he said the company will be in a position to fully market it to potential users, like the Home Depots or Targets of the world.
“The reality is, for those types of retailers that generate several thousand trips a day, the average consumer is not going to try going around to accommodate a right-in right-out only – or without a signal, sit there and wait while traffic goes by to make a left,” said Fontenette. “It’s just too dangerous and it creates too many problems. Consumers won’t do it, and knowing that, the retailers won’t do it without full-controlled access to a site which means you have to have a signal.”
Robert Maul, the city’s community development director, said if all goes to plan with the new Scotton Way intersection, it won’t take long before retail spaces are open for business.
“We partnered with the developers essentially by entering into an agreement whereby the city will build the road, put in the utilities and the signalized intersection,” said Maul. “But at the same time, they [the developers] are going through their entitlement process to get their site shovel-ready so that when we open up the intersection they should be able to open a storefront at the same time.”
Maul said commercial development along SR-503 is something that the Battle Ground community has been asking for, for some time.
“There has been discussion in our local community and with the Battle Ground Chamber of Commerce in support of helping spur some additional growth in terms of economic development opportunities,” said Maul. “People are struggling. They want jobs and they would love to get some new employers out here and to see some good things happen in the community.”
