The Richland City Council will discuss all-terrain vehicles, e-scooters and the budget. You can learn how to watch the meeting and about a sentence more on the subject matter by going to the agenda and packet. Residents will not have the ability to comment on these items until they appear on a city council agenda for a vote.

Washington State allows the all-terrain vehicles on streets if approved by the local jurisdiction.

All-terrain vehicles already illegally speed loudly down the Observer’s residential street. The council will consider legalizing them like Kennewick and West Richland have done.

The council will also discuss e-scooters. For fun let’s discuss those first.

E-scooters have come up in past meetings. Some city council members have mentioned that rental scooters might be popular with cruise passengers if placed near the docks.

Considering the demographic of the typical cruise passenger, you need to imagine the Observer and her friends Councilmembers Terry Christensen, Phil Lemley and Bob Thompson disembarking from a cruise ship and jumping on an e-scooter to cruise around town 😂🤣😂 Instead, let’s imagine a young person zipping along a sidewalk weaving in and out of the cruise passengers.

So back to the all-terrain vehicles…

According to state law:

(19) “Wheeled all–terrain vehicle” means (a) any motorized nonhighway vehicle with handlebars that is fifty inches or less in width, has a seat height of at least twenty inches, weighs less than one thousand five hundred pounds, and has four tires having a diameter of thirty inches or less, or (b) a utility-type vehicle designed for and capable of travel over designated roads that travels on four or more low-pressure tires of twenty psi or less, has a maximum width less than seventy-four inches, has a maximum weight less than two thousand pounds, has a wheelbase of one hundred ten inches or less, and satisfies at least one of the following: (i) Has a minimum width of fifty inches; (ii) has a minimum weight of at least nine hundred pounds; or (iii) has a wheelbase of over sixty-one inches.

The law includes requirements that only allow them on streets that have 35 mph speed limits.

During past discussions regarding this issue, Mayor Ryan Lukson indicated that residents of his Meadow Springs neighborhood would like to see golf carts allowed on the neighborhood streets. However, golf carts do not fall under the description of all-terrain vehicles.

A discussion of the budget process follows.