It’s decision time.
For the past several years, Sound Transit has been working to determine the environmental impact of East Link, its project to bring light rail across Lake Washington to serve the greater Eastside.
The agency has held numerous workshops, hearings, and community meetings to obtain input on proposed alignments. Now, the Sound Transit Board must decide where the rails and the stations are going to go in order for the project to move forward.
Sound Transit has already identified a preferred alignment for most of the segments that comprise East Link. Trains going through Mercer Island, for example, will run between the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-90, taking over the center roadway. (New HOV lanes are being constructed to replace the express lanes, so buses and carpools will still be able to quickly get across the lake).
While the City of Redmond and Sound Transit are in agreement as to where the train ought to go when it reaches the city’s Overlake neighborhood, the City of Bellevue has been beset by disagreements over the South Bellevue and Downtown alignments. Some residents — particularly a group of vocal and well organized residents from the Surrey Downs development — want East Link to go alongside I-405, rather than coming up Bellevue Way, the alignment preferred by Sound Transit.
What are they thinking?
We’re building light rail to move people, not cars. East Link can’t be a practical alternative to the automobile if it doesn’t go where people live and work. What are Surrey Downs residents afraid of? Construction? It would only be temporary, and Sound Transit has pledged to do all it can to mitigate disruption. Noise?
Perhaps the city should tear up Bellevue Way, then. Four lane arterials with 35-mile-per-hour speed limits are pretty noisy. How about replacing the road with a trail where only pedestrians, equestrians, and bicyclists are allowed? Call it the Bellevue Trail.
Why aren’t Surrey Downs residents lobbying for that? Because they like the convenience of being able to quickly get from their homes to someplace like downtown Bellevue or Mercer Island. Today, they can only get to such destinations quickly via car. But with light rail, they’d have another option. They’d have the ability to get to a Mariners or Seahawks game without getting stuck in cross-lake traffic. A reliable commute to employment centers in Redmond, Seattle, and beyond. They would have the power to reduce their carbon footprint. They should be welcoming East Link with open arms, not trying to push it away.
Some residents of downtown Bellevue — along with Councilmember (and developer) Kevin Wallace — are likewise trying to convince Sound Transit that East Link should run alongside I-405, rather than serving the heart of downtown.
Analysis suggests that would be a big mistake: a mere 7 percent of downtown residents and only 27 percent of jobs in 2030 would be within a five-minute walk of a station adjacent to Interstate 405. In contrast, a station in the heart of downtown Bellevue would be within a five minute walk of 92 percent of residents and 76 percent of jobs.
East Link needs to be within convenient walking distance of as many homes and businesses as possible. Otherwise, we’re losing potential ridership. We don’t want to put ourselves in the position of having to throw up our hands when our children ask us why we voted to spend billions building a reliable and speedy light rail line … only to site it next to a highway!
If Sound Transit does pick an alignment that serves the heart of downtown (and it should) the Bellevue City Council would prefer that it be a tunnel rather than surface tracks. A tunnel would be more expensive, but Sound Transit has been working to get costs down. For its part, the City of Bellevue has responsibly offered to help cover the expense. At a Sound Transit board meeting last month, city staff presented revenue options that could erase between $104 and $150 million of the $285 million gap between the existing East Link project budget and the tunnel alternative.
A tunnel would be completely grade separated and allow for faster travel times, which would be advantageous for travelers bound to or from Redmond.
Voters approved Sound Transit 2 in 2008 with the understanding that the agency would do its very best to ensure we the taxpayers get the maximum return on our investment. That means choosing and sticking with a smart alignment, not allowing NIMBYist fears to derail the project.
Andrew Villeneuve, a 2005 Redmond High graduate, is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a Redmond-based grassroots organization. Villeneuve can be reached at andrew@nwprogressive.org.
