Thurston Regional Planning Council approves transportation plan without Log Cabin Road connection  

The Thurston Regional Planning Council unanimously voted to adopt the 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, which does not include the Log Cabin Road connection.  

The planning council, which made the decision at a meeting on Friday, July 11, also added specific language directing the Southeast Street Connectivity Study in Olympia to evaluate the following:  

• An alternative for a multi-use path through LBA (Little Baseball Association) Park 

• An alternative to the Log Cabin Road connection through LBA Park.  

Olympia Council member Dani Madrone, who also serves on the planning council, reiterated the city's commitment to study the connectivity. 

"We have always been committed to studying the connectivity in this area. We would have included the alternatives. ... One of the things that we are hoping to explore when this study comes up is what some of the other alternatives that could be considered," Madrone said.  

Thurston Regional Planning Council Planner Katrina Van Every gave a presentation focused on the Log Cabin Road project, surrounding land use patterns, and the transportation modeling used to evaluate the impacts of removing the extension from the plan.  

 The Log Cabin Road extension project traces back to 1984, when a connection between Wiggins Road and Boulevard Road was envisioned as part of the region's broader transportation system.  

While nearby projects like the Yelm Highway widening and Mullen Road extension were completed, the Log Cabin Road connections remained unfinished, crossing what is now Olympia's LBA Park and Woods.  

She explained the goal for this connection project was to improve east-west mobility across Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and unincorporated Thurston County.  

Since 2021, Olympia has removed the extension from its comprehensive plan, emphasizing the preservation of LBA Park. In 2023, the city formally requested the planning council to remove the road from the Regional Transportation Plan and replace it with the Southeast Street Connectivity Study.  

The planning council, according to Van Every, assessed the vehicle volumes, level of service, and congestion impacts using a regional transportation model.

"What we found was that removing the Log Cabin Road connection results in minimal impact to mode split or vehicle miles traveled, but it does shift traffic to other roads like Yelm Highway, Ruddell Road and Wiggins Road," Van Every said.

If Log Cabin were removed from the plan, Van Every noted an additional $10 million would become available for other regional transportation priorities. However, the modeling also showed increased congestion on Yelm Highway, which is an urban strategy corridor.

"That means we are not looking to widen the road any further, and so we have to identify other methods to alleviate that congestion," Van Every said.

Van Every stressed that the modeling is limited, particularly for understanding impacts on transit, active transportation and utility siting — factors not fully captured in the regional model.

"We can't fully reflect the effects on redundancy in the street network or utility siting, especially underground utilities like water, sewer, gas, and telecommunications," she added.