Sound Transit Level 3 Analysis Released/Delridge Letter
Sound Transit has released its “Level 3” analysis for three end-to-end alternatives for the West Seattle/Ballard light rail line; here’s a link to the presentation from today’s meeting of the Sound Transit Elected Leadership Group (ELG).
At today’s meeting I requested Sound Transit provide visualizations of what the options will look like, and greater detail on potential residential and business impacts in West Seattle by neighborhood.
In April the ELG is scheduled to make recommendations to the Sound Transit Board about which alternatives to study in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS); the Board is expected to make a decision on May 23rd.
The timeline for developing alternatives, along with the formal public comment period, has been delayed due to the shutdown of the federal government. Any project seeking federal funding must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Under NEPA, the Federal Transit Administration needs to process and publish a formal Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS in the Federal Register before the EIS process can begin. This wasn’t possible during the shutdown; since the shutdown ended, the FTA faces a backlog.
The formal public comment period (called “Scoping”) will begin once the Federal Register publishes Sound Transit’s notice. At that time Sound Transit will announce the public meetings, and release visualizations.
Today’s presentation notes that one option is to present two recommendations: one requiring additional funding, and another that does not require additional funding. As currently conceived, both the “blue” option that includes a tunnel from the Avalon station to the Alaska Junction and the “yellow” elevated option, would require additional funding. At this point, only the red, “representative” alignment would require no additional funding. The yellow line is estimated at $400-500 million more for the entire West Seattle to Ballard alignment, and the blue option is $1.9 – 2.1 billion more. Sound Transit was asked today to determine whether, by “mixing and matching” segments from other alignments the cost of the “yellow” elevated option could be reduced. Additional funding would likely need to be identified by 2022 for any option that exceeds the cost of the representative alignment.
Earlier this week King County Councilmember McDermott and I sent a letter to Sound Transit CEO Rogoff requesting that the Elected Leadership Group have an opportunity to further discuss the Delridge neighborhood prior to making recommendations in April.
48th and Charlestown Park Development
The Seattle Parks and Recreation Department is seeking public comment on a landbanked site at 48th Ave SW and SW Charlestown St.
Parks will be working on the planning and design of the park through Fall 2019 and hope to begin construction in the Spring of 2020.
To share your thoughts about what kind of park you would like at this location take the survey online here, or you can attend a community meeting on Sunday, February 10 from 10am – 2pm at the West Seattle Farms Market (on California Ave between Alaska and Oregon).
Your Voice Your Choice website open for proposals
The Your Voice Your Choice Parks & Streets program is collecting proposals through February 22nd.
You can send in a proposal here, by clicking on the “Submit your ideas” button. You can also submit ideas in-person at Seattle Public Library branches.
Projects much benefit the public, and cost $90,000 or less. Here are examples of eligible projects
All you need to do is list the project idea, location, why it’s needed, and who the project benefits. You can list contact information, but it’s not required.
After the “Idea Collection” phase ends on February 22nd, volunteers will be recruited to narrow down the ideas into 8-10 proposals per Council District. You’ll have a chance to vote on the final list of projects in July.