More on the King County Ferry District plan

The full set of documents about what is being proposed for watertaxisailiconsize.jpgKing County Ferry District operations, including service levels and a tax levy, is now available. Some discussion erupted overnight in the comments on our Thursday afternoon post, including a detailed response from Chris Arkills on KC Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s staff. Here is everything available that you can read about the new Ferry District plan now — the “briefing paper” is the biggie:

Overview “transmittal letter” from King County Executive
32-page briefing paper on the full scope of the county’s passenger-ferry proposals
Proposed sailing schedule for next year’s Water Taxi (and Vashon-Seattle foot ferry)

The King County Ferry District board (KC Council) vote on this is now set for 9 am next Tuesday; if you have comments on the specifics, the online testimony link is still up.

5 Replies to "More on the King County Ferry District plan"

  • dq November 9, 2007 (1:13 pm)

    nice to see we won’t have to share the Argosy terminal in Seattle as that got very confusing for the tourists where the line was… bummer that there won’t be any additional parking on the WS side. hopefully an improved shuttle service will make up for it.

  • Fiona November 9, 2007 (4:54 pm)

    I’m SO glad they added a 10 a.m. sail time, and I’m sure every parent of a toddler is – it’s the ideal time to get to the aquarium etc and still get back for nap. YEAH!

  • Will November 9, 2007 (6:57 pm)

    The proposed property tax assessment for the Ferry Disrict sounds reasonable to me. By my calculations, a typical house with an assessed value (not market value) of $400,000 would pay $22 per year with the 5.5 cents per thousand tax rate. Not too bad for an alternative to getting stuck in traffic on the West Seattle Bridge or the Viaduct.

    I agree with dq that the Ferry District needs to get a better dock Downtown than the Argosy dock. It may be fine for tour boats, but our little Water Taxi has grown up. A better laid out dock set up to handle the gawking tourists before they are standing in the door of the boat could load people in half the time and we could get more crossings and better service. Moving to Pier 50 is pretty far south though.

  • Leslie November 12, 2007 (7:08 am)

    Does this assume, then, that the workers would be union, unlike the present situation of the WS Water Taxi – hugely important since the “demo project” has gone on for years being subsidized on the non-union workers’ labor.

  • jimbob November 13, 2007 (3:41 pm)

    Why should we all help pay for the ferry system even more now? By taxing us way in the East part of the county.

    Helping for people with more money than us . . . yet again. We already pay the taxes for NO bus service, no we will pay the taxes for NO ferry service.

    Great one Sims.

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