Martin Way has deteriorated

Take a drive down Martin Way from Carpenter Road to Galaxy Drive.   The one thing you notice immediately is that the street doesn’t look like Martin Way looks elsewhere in the community..

From Carpenter Road to Galaxy Drive,( the Wall Mart road) you encounter billboards, after billboards.   Large, tall and impossible to miss.  And, more significantly is that at least half a dozen of them are selling marijuana.   Not just for pot shops on  Martin Way, but for marijuana  businesses throughout Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater.

That section of Martin Way is not in the City of Lacey, but in the unicorporated part of Thurston County.   Many people are confused about where the city boundary lines lay.   Part of that is the fault of the City of Lacey which annexed a large portion of Hawks Prairie without annexing Martin Way and the residential sections along its length.

Thurston County has different codes of development and lower standards on signs and billboards.   And, because it is the only major urban street in the county, those with products to sell find that section of Martin Way a good place to advertise their wares.

I’m not a prude.   I see absolutely nothing wrong with the legalization of marijuana.

My concern centers around that section of Martin Way which doesn’t look like the rest of the street.  It concerns me how low class and low brow that section of road has become.   I blame both the county and the City of Lacey for the mess.  I blame the county for lower standards in urban areas and I blame the city for not annexing the full section of Martin Way and cherry picking what it wanted.

Lacey should immediately begin discussions with the residents of Tanglewilde and Thompson Place over the deterioration of Martin Way and the advantages of annexing to Lacey.  And, the Thuston County Commission should begin a move towards adopting urban standards for urban areas in the county.