We hope so.

Dozens of businesses have gone in there in the past decade. While there have been road improvements, obviously they have not been enough to avoid gridlock many times almost every day.

That trend needs to end.

Before a business can even start building, studies are done on how it will affect the area, such as increased traffic. The business might have to help pay to widen a street or put in a traffic light.

But those requirements just aren’t solving the problem anymore. Gridlock has happened all along the Interstate 5 corridor from Olympia to Marysville because of growth being allowed to happen without the proper infrastructure in place. And we don’t seem to learn as we continue to allow more developments without the needed mitigation.

While we have no problem with being business friendly, we also think businesses and builders should be community friendly. People won’t want to live and work here anymore if the traffic woes get any worse. Many of us moved to Arlington and Marysville because it didn’t have the traffic problems of the more-urban areas to our immediate south.

We bring this up now because Senate Bill 5761 would give businesses tax breaks for locating in the industrial area around the Arlington Municipal Airport. It has the support of Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring and Arlington Mayor Barbara Tolbert, among many others. The 1,200 acres includes 400 at the airport and 800 between 128th and 164th.

We certainly support the concept of bringing high-paying jobs to the area. And providing tax breaks so the area can be competitive in attracting such businesses makes sense. A business that hires 25 people or more at $18 an hour or more for 10 years would not have to pay property taxes on improvements, such as the building itself, if the bill passes. It would still have to pay taxes on the land.

But don’t forget the little people when dealing with all this big money. We have to deal with all this mess daily. The least that should happen is a widening of 172nd before any more growth occurs around the airport.

Will that happen? We hope so.