POULSBO — A five-minute trip across Little Norway in 2006 could become a half-hour odyssey by 2025, but short of mandating the use of public transportation, city officials could be powerless to prevent such gridlock.

With the aim of heading such a dire future off at the overpass, City Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak will present a draft 20-year transportation plan to the city council at its Dec. 13 meeting.

The document outlines estimated costs for future improvements, citywide level of service and how much the city and developers would be expected to pay for those improvements.

“The council will have to make a decision on the level of service,” Kasiniak said.

The greater the standard level of service, the better the traffic flow but also the greater the cost to both the developer and taxpayer, he said.

“There is a cost-benefit ratio in which, at some point, you can drop a lot of money and not get much in return,” Kasiniak said.

Councilman Ed Stern, who serves on the public works committee, said he believes the recommended level of service is the best possible compromise in defining the city’s future transportation plans.

“With this we will fulfill our goal of growth paying for growth,” Stern said.

Even so, the development community won’t be the only group impacted by that decision, he said.

“Nobody gets off scot-free,” Stern said. “We are going to have to bring our existing infrastructure up to that same level.”

Councilman Mike Regis agreed with Stern that the recommended level of service is the best option as the city moves ahead with its transportation plans.

“There’s no perfect level of service, but it’s the most realistic,” Regis said.

Under the proposed plan, the city’s traffic impact fees will increase, but that increase won’t put the city out of line with other comparable jurisdictions, Stern said. But the increased fees could add to the difficulty of maintaining affordable housing in the city, he said.

“You can’t have affordable housing in an unlivable community, so it’s a balancing act,” Stern said.

While the city’s transportation plan plots roads, intersections and other improvements, both Regis and Stern agreed that the increased use of public transportation could help ease gridlock in the future.

“If you can get 40 people on a bus and 40 cars off the road, that’s efficiency,” Regis said.

In addition to the public transportation potential, Stern said having areas in the city with living wage jobs and other services within walking distance of residential areas could ease the transportation burden as well.