I’m writing with regard to your editorial of April 28, “The Dockton Road debate: Let’s have a conversation,” in which, among other things, you posed the question of “what could be gained for the environment” by closing Dockton Road. I had a prolonged conversation with Barbara de Michele, community relations planner for the King County Dockton Road Preservation Project (see very thorough documentation at ), and will share with you, as accurately as I understood, two of the points we discussed:

First, interestingly enough, habitat issues such as fish spawning appear to have improved along the newer stretch of seawall that was reconstructed seven years ago, relative to the older adjacent areas. It seems as though road closure may not be as environmentally positive versus refurbishment as you may have suggested.

Second, and also interesting, was information that all the beach property (except for the dock area) is comprised of slips of the privately owned parcels up the adjacent hillside, not public land as one might expect. This means that if the road were to be abandoned, the land could not simply be turned into a public park, as many people may hope or presume.

Considering this information, I feel the case for renovating the road is strong, being a preferred plan not only for traffic flow on Vashon, but for the environment and public access as well.

— Allan Kaplan