A RESOLUTION relating to Sound Transit; providing recommendations to the Sound Transit Board as to the selection of the Preferred Alternative for the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions project to be studied in the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
Agenda item four Resolution 32055. A resolution relating to sound transit providing recommendations. To the Sound Transit Board as to the selection of the preferred alternative for the West. Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions Project to be studied in the final Environmental Impact Statement, the committee. Recommends the City Council adopt the resolution as amended. Thank you, Councilmember Peterson. As chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to address the resolution. Thank you, President Pro Tem colleagues. Resolution 32055 is a joint resolution with our mayor on Seattle's recommendations regarding sound transit. West Seattle Ballard link extension routes and stations. As we all know, this voter approved expansion of light rail is a massive investment in the benefits of regional transit and will substantially impact communities throughout Seattle. On February 15, our Transportation Committee had a presentation on Sound Transit's Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and on April 19 we had presentations from both Sound Transit and the Executive on the various options at our committee. On June seven, we received a thorough presentation, had a robust discussion of that joint resolution 32055. To provide more time for. Consideration. We scheduled our second committee meeting on that resolution at our July five committee rather than June 21st. Then on July five, we amended the resolution and our committee passed it unanimously. As we confront the climate crisis. We want more people to ride transit. I recognize there's a strong desire to make sure the design and construction of this mega-project builds in flexibility for future expansion options beyond sound transit. Three And to make sure the experience for transit riders streamlined and efficient to address those two issues, it's important to note that the resolution currently states that the principle of financial stewardship includes. Quote. Prioritizing future expansion opportunities in planning and design. Also due in part to the concerns raised by several community leaders about the Fifth Avenue option. Today's resolution acknowledges that more time and community engagement are needed before making generational decisions that impact the Chinatown International District. And the resolution signals that we favor quicker, shallow alternatives instead of the deep options that would. Add travel. Time. I want to thank my. Council colleagues for their thoughtful engagement on this resolution and the expertize and care they brought to the table for their districts and for our. City. I like to thank the executive, especially Sarah Max, Santa, Marcia Foster and the Mayor's Office for their collaboration on this resolution. I also want to thank our city council, central staff, transportation analyst Calvin Chao, and my own legislative assistant, Hannah Thorsen. Ultimately, all of these decisions will be made by the 18 member Sound Transit Board that represents King Pier since two Homesh counties. But the city of Seattle will continue as the most populous and most supportive linchpin for the entire transit system. Time is money, and Seattle will be asked to expedite construction approvals to make sure the entire system expansion and its massive benefits for the region happen as quickly as possible. I'm hopeful that the thoughtful preferences on routes and stations expressed by the Seattle resolution will be helpful to sound transit and achieving our mutual goal of quickly expanding light rail within our. City and across our region. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Now, colleagues, this is the one where I'm expecting everyone's going to want to jump up. I see Councilmember Herbold from West Seattle, the city also annexed in 1907 by the city of Seattle. Councilmember Herbold, you are recognized. Thank you so much. I also would like to extend my thanks to Chair Peterson for his collaborative approach to developing this resolution and incorporating his colleagues feedback. Colleagues who are working to represent our constituents. I won't repeat all of my comments from committee. I do want to note that the resolution includes a clear statement of support for the medium tunnel option for the West Seattle Junction, in line with strong community support for a tunnel in the junction. A tunnel would have significantly less impact on residents and businesses. For Del Ridge, there's no clear community consensus. The draft is clear that all alignments have impacts on residents and businesses. The deal five and six options were developed to minimize impacts on the Youngstown community adjacent to Tennessee, but they were added late in the scoping process at the board level. So potential impacts of these options weren't discussed during the scoping process. And so perhaps that might be why the draft the EIA has failed to note the existence of the Elk Beach Academy Daycare Center as a potentially impacted social resource and did not fully analyze the project's impact on child care centers. Another impact would be transitional resources, offering 24/7 services to people with serious mental illness through both living facilities and a service center. They depend on 24 hour a day, seven days a week services the holistic system in the draft. This does not address the integrated nature of the program. For these reasons, the committee amended, including a statement that the city is not able to state a preference for the DART Station, given the inadequate D.S. DHS analysis of impacted social resources and the state, though that this future support of the city for a DEL Bridge option is conditioned on avoidance or mitigation of impacts or relocation of impacted child care and transitional housing service providers. So, you know, we're we're we're saying there's no preference now, but we're setting the bar for what we would need to see in order to be able to support a preference. I really appreciate the Executive's addition to an earlier draft version of of the bill requesting specifically a transit access study for the communities identified in the racial equity toolkit, including self-storage in White Center, and also adding mention of the important protections for Longfellow Creek. These are these are great additions. And I'm really pleased that the executive added them early. And I encourage folks to lend their support to Paterson's fine legislation. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Herbold. Other colleagues. Councilmember Lewis and then Councilmember Mosqueda. Thank you, Mr. President pro tem. Really looking forward to voting on this resolution today and appreciate the process and the ability to participate in the deliberations on the resolution. Even though I'm not a member of the relevant committee, the implications of sound transit three are amazing and at the same time offer a lot of challenges to District seven in particular. And this resolution addresses those challenges that have been expressed by important stakeholders representing cultural, economic and sporting interests in the area. We have crafted recommendations in this resolution that address preserving the viability of our strong and robust maritime. Economy. In the Salmon Bay area and throughout Inter Bay, preserving the cultural institutions and important public infrastructure in the Uptown neighborhood, particularly around the Seattle Center campus. And I look forward to continuing to have these discussions with sound transit on aligning their final planning priorities with the values that are expressed and the priorities that are expressed in this resolution. And I appreciate the opportunity to have gotten a lot of that feedback manifested in the four corners of this. And I know it's been appreciated by a lot of the constituencies in District seven. So looking forward to voting yes on this. Thank you, Councilmember. This councilmember must get it. Thank you very much. And now's the chance to thank the sponsor and my good friend from District one out here for all the work that they did. So let me repeat some of the things I was starting to say. I really want to thank the chair. Councilmember Peterson, thanks for all your work in spearheading this resolution to reflect the many needs and priorities of the city and our communities. It was our pleasure as well within our office. And thanks to Aaron Howson. There's a approved for their work that they did with central staff and the Seattle Department of Transportation, along with community partners like Seattle Subway, to be able to make sure that the resolution as introduced included prioritization of future expansion opportunities at station location and design, references to making sure that the refines the South Lake Union Station location best serve the surrounding community and for the better location requested that sound transit consider ridership impacts and the location of housing, employment and industrial areas and really appreciate the amendments that were made in the Transportation Committee. While I'm not a member of that committee, I want to thank Councilmember Herbold and with the support of the chair, Councilmember Peterson, for the work that they did to continue continue to improve the legislation in front of us today. And as Councilmember Horrible noted, recognizing that the draft is put together by sound transit didn't have the full analysis necessary to look at health care providers, child care providers and impact to the surrounding community, and to make sure that as we create our next integrated mass transportation system that we're thinking about, how do we preserve and and help promote the preservation of existing businesses, including child care and health services, by either maintaining their location or ensuring that they are able to relocate to an area nearby without losing the ability to serve the community, because those are the exact types of services that we want around new sound transit stations to make sure that the development that we're creating is truly transit oriented. We want to make sure that there's amenities like child care and health services around housing and other high opportunity options in all neighborhoods that sound transit service. So I'm really excited about the amendments that were made in committee and look forward to continuing the conversation about avoiding or mitigating the impacts of relocation or needs in the area as we think about housing as well as these other social services that we need. So I look forward to the next conversations and I really think that the city is sending a strong message here today about the importance of, yes, creating mass transit, creating our sound transit connected to all communities throughout Seattle. And as we do so, looking at the important things that we need in order to be a thriving, healthy community, and that includes health services, child care, housing and some of the other necessities located next to our new Sound Transit Station. So thanks for all the work that you did to really promote what transit oriented development should look like in the legislation in front of us, and to take into account really unique needs across our city, including including for our youngest kiddos and future generations. Well said, Councilmember Mosqueda. Colleagues in other comments. Councilmember Nelson, please welcome. Well, first, I want to thank Councilmember Peterson for his leadership and transparency throughout this process. Thank you very much, as well as Calvin Chow from central staff and Sarah Marks on it. Scott, thank you very much. For all the work that. You've put into this. So I approach this from the perspective of a city wide council member who must consider the needs of all of Seattle. And the reality is that no alignment or station location comes without challenging impacts. But it's critical that we position ourselves as a city well when it comes to future work with this with sound transit staff and as the San Transit Board goes into its own deliberations. So, of course, I'm going to vote in favor of this resolution today, weighing all the pros and cons as the citywide elected, truly believing that this will put our best foot forward in this process. So thank you very much. Thank you, Councilmember Nelson. Colleagues, I'll share my comments. Now, the amendments that were accepted unanimously by the committee is to note that 14th alignment is unacceptable. Without a pedestrian station entrance west of 15th, we should reopen analysis west of 15 to 20 second to identify cost savings. Now that the high bridge is not an option due to the Coast Guards ruling. 15th Avenue is our preferred alignment and there are cost saving opportunities available to us as compared to what some transit staff have put forward. If we shift to look at using right of way rather than private property or shifting the station a block north or south to use private property there, we need what I say every time I speak to this is that we need to connect our light rail spine to Tacoma and Everett as fast as possible. And I'm committed to seeing that through as the tri county board heads towards them making a decision. It is critical. Decisions are not rushed without full analysis of the options we have as this is 100 year infrastructure. I'm here to assist with any cost saving option in Ballard. I can show you where they are. I live. Breathe that community. It's my community. And it is critical again for an entrance to be west of 15th because the housing and commercial core is west of 15th. The sound transit ridership projections are highest coming from west of 15th. And the reason that we need that station entrance is because 15th Avenue Northwest is the third used most used North-South corridor in the city, only behind S.R. 99. And I-5, asking pedestrians to cross 15th Avenue at grade will impact ridership and is not aligned with our city's Vision Zero commitment. We also heard during committee both Montlake and Broadway received station entrances and pedestrian infrastructure to also avoid similar issues. Lastly, I'll note that the 14th Avenue station option abuts the industrial district. As in, when you exit the station, you are in the industrial district and the land to the northeast is not zoned for maximum density, with neighborhood residential in close proximity. The densest zoning and housing core in Ballard is between 24th and Fifth Avenue Northwest North all the way to 65th. This is why 15 Avenue Northwest is the preferred alignment and we need grade separation, a grade separated connection. If 14th Avenue is going to be considered. Again, as always, I'm committed to seeing this project through to Tacoma and to Everett. And we have to understand that we have to do our part here in the city and sound transit. Absolutely. We're not looking for bells and whistles. We're just looking for the things that serve our communities. Chair. Any closing comments and no, thank you. Thank you. If not, will the clerk please call the role in the adoption of the resolution? Councilmember Herbold. Yes. Councilmember Lewis. Yes. Councilmember Morales. Yes. Councilmember Mosqueda. I. Councilmember Nelson. I. Councilmember Peterson. Yes. Councilmember Salant. Yes. Council President Pro-Tem Strouse. Yes. Eight in favor, nine opposed. Thank you. The resolution is adopted. The chair will sign it with the clerk. Please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf. Item II items removed from the consent calendar. No items were removed from the consent calendar. Item J Adoption of other resolutions. There are no other resolutions for introduction adoption today. Item K Other Business. Is there any other business to come before the council?