4:19 PM: Sound Transit Board members spent much of today in an all-day “retreat” meeting in Tacoma (open to the public in person but not streamed). But now that it’s over, the Seattle City Councilmember who’s on the board is sounding the alarm about new proposals for cost-cutting options. We’ve already told you about the increasing likelihood the West Seattle Link Extension plan would be trimmed to two stations – Delridge and The Junction (cutting Avalon). Councilmember Dan Strauss has issued a post-retreat news release sounding the alarm about three possible “approaches” staff presented to the board. His main point of alarm was that none of the three approaches would extend light rail to Ballard (which is in his district). Looking at the retreat slide deck to see what’s suggested for West Seattle in the possible approaches – you’ll see the first one would build to The Junction, as most recently discussed, as part of a plan to “keep (current projects) moving”:
Second would “defer final design and construction” of the West Seattle extension entirely as part of a plan to focus on “regional connectivity”:
And the third would “phase” all light-rail projects, starting with building West Seattle light rail only to Delridge:
Here’s the full slide deck including these “approaches.” You’ll also see a page analyzing the potential approaches’ effects on ridership and travel time, among other things. No votes were taken today; it was just a discussion of possibilities. While Councilmember Strauss’s news release focused on Ballard, another councilmember who’s not on the board – Dionne Foster, the newest citywide rep – issued one with support for keeping West Seattle and Ballard in the plan, and board member King County Executive Girmay Zahilay also sent a statement, including “We must keep projects moving forward – as promised to voters a decade ago. The longer we delay, the more it will cost.” The board’s next meeting is March 26, a week from tomorrow.
5:45 PM: We sought comment from King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, the only West Seattle resident on the ST Board. She has issued this statement:
I stand united with my North King County Sound Transit board colleagues in our commitment to delivering light rail to West Seattle and ultimately to Ballard, and we need the spine completed between Everett and Tacoma. To do so, we cannot work within the confines of limited information or stagnant revenue, nor can we accomplish further cost-savings measures if we don’t move forward with authorizing additional design work for some of our highest impact projects. The scenarios presented by Sound Transit today were not proposals to make cuts — they were intended to serve as the basis for conversation, and more analysis for the Board’s consideration is clearly needed. The cost savings work the Sound Transit team has done on the West Seattle plan shows what’s possible when we demand creative thinking and aggressively pursue cost-saving options: properties avoided, ridership retained, and billions saved. Now is the time to build on this momentum, move forward on shovel-ready West Seattle, and roll up our sleeves to explore all options to deliver light rail to Ballard and the spine so that this generational project delivers on its full potential.
Councilmember Mosqueda is organizing another West Seattle light-rail forum on April 1, as previously reported here; tomorrow (Thursday, March 19) District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka‘s Transportation, Seattle Center, Waterfront Committee has a roundtable about light-rail business displacement, as previously reported here.
9:04 PM: We just talked to Councilmember Mosqueda by phone. She said the idea of choosing between the “three approaches” was basically considered a non-starter, and that staff was directed to come up with a “more sophisticated” plan for how the system could reach all the points voters approved – including West Seattle and Ballard. Since they managed to shave $2.6 billion off the West Seattle price tag in a few months of work, Mosqueda said, they should be able to find other efficiencies and savings around the system. She said it was a “missed opportunity” that they didn’t spend more time talking today about funding (here’s the document laying out the finance possibilities for one of the retreat’s “workstreams”). She repeatedly emphasized that West Seattle is “shovel-ready,” saying that if it gets the final go-ahead to proceed to final design and construction, “digging could start within 90 days.” She said she also refuted criticism that the West Seattle extension would only serve a “wealthy enclave,” noting that the peninsula is full of “working families” and that median housing prices here are a better gauge of reality than average prices.
So what’s the timeline now? Councilmember Mosqueda said that with the directive to staff to “sharpen their pencils” and bring back a plan with what it would take to reach West Seattle, Ballard, Issaquah, and other promised places, the board hopes to see that sort of information in May.
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