Community/UW Letter to Sound Transit

The groups who authored this letter requested in July 1999 that Sound Transit evaluate a west side alignment for the 45th St. stations. Sound Transit's response was a "worst-case" scenario that caused some signees of this letter to drop their support for evaluating a west side alignment. Please note that while this letter may not reflect certain community groups' current opinions, it nonetheless contains relevant information about options to address concerns still widely shared, such as security, barging spoils, and other matters.

July 22, 1999 Dear Sound Transit Board Members: We are members of the community that will be most directly affected by the proposed Northeast 45th Street Link Light Rail station. As representatives of a broad cross-section of the affected community, we write to express our support for a thorough analysis of the issues regarding the location of the station entrances on the west side of 15th Avenue Northeast. A thorough analysis seems only reasonable in light of recent changes made to the Board's initial plans for the station. As you know, new information about the sediments in Portage Bay led to significant changes in the original design. Based on the new sediment information, the Board decided to tunnel at a depth that resulted in elevator-only access to stations. Moreover, those stations are now to be located exclusively on campus. These significant changes have caused us to question whether the new proposal best meets the needs of local businesses, residents, churches and those traveling to the University District-in short, the very stakeholders the transit system is intended to benefit. As the Board is aware, over the years we jointly supported the alignment centered on 15th. We did so, however, based on the understanding that the stations would be at a conventional depth that would allow multiple station entrances both in the community and on campus. Though we wish to emphasize our serious concerns regarding short-term impacts during construction and staging, we also wish to stress the significant resources we can bring to bear toward crafting creative solutions. Our reasons for wanting to fully evaluate stations west of 15th, our concerns about short-term impacts, and our specific offers to make this scenario work are described in more detail below. We support light rail Our community is home to the second largest employment center in the state, including the state's largest institution of higher learning. In fact, the University District represents the highest ridership in the system. In light of these facts, it is only sensible for the Board to work with us to get it right here, and it presents a terrific opportunity for the community to be working with Sound Transit. As the community that also enjoys the dubious distinction of being home to the most congested corridor in the state, we recognize that increased mobility is key to our future. We hope to promote a solution that we believe optimizes the chances to increase mobility, invite economic vitality for our merchants, and stimulate creative partnerships for desired change identified in the City Council adopted plan. We support mobility that is not at the expense of the vitality of the business district The history of discussions about light rail in the University District have centered not just on serving the University of Washington, but on locating and designing stations so that they draw people to the Ave. The businesses located in the University District provide as many jobs as are represented by employment opportunities at the UW. Not only the customers but also the employees of these U District businesses need and deserve to be well-served by light rail. Staff have suggested that configuring the entrances so that UW riders will have to cross the street will somehow deter ridership. That is not likely. The dynamics of the University are unique. Many people come to the location for a reason; they are not browsing among a number of possible venues for a variety of retail options. People come to the University because they are students, faculty, or staff there. Through the success of the U-Pass system, the vast majority of UW people come to campus via non-SOV modes, and most are already walking from bus stops or distant parking lots to their classes, labs, and offices. Asking them to cross the street will not deter ridership! Stations located in the community will better serve half of the U District's employee base. But they also offer opportunities for the kinds of redevelopment envisioned in the City Council adopted plan for our community. Both the community plan and the draft goals of the University of Washington's next campus master plan emphasize the value of working together to better integrate the edges of campus with the surrounding community. This light rail project represents the single best opportunity for many decades to implement important local planning goals. No one wants to squander this unique opportunity. New mixed-use development opportunities incorporating rail stations can create the kind of vitality at the surface that not only enhances safety and therefore encourages ridership, but makes for a more robust neighborhood commercial district over the long haul. Combining system and station design in a way that makes personal safety a priority, ensures staffing stations with security personnel, and provides station entrances that are well integrated into a lively and inviting mixed-use environment is in everyone's best interest. We must work together to address short-term impacts We accept the maxim of "no pain, no gain," yet we need to be sure that our community can endure the years of construction and staging impacts. We find Sound Transit staff's initial indications of staging needs alarming, and we expect that the amount of demolition and costs for acquisition can be significantly reduced. Suggestions about how to accomplish that are listed below. We are especially concerned about the loss of parking during construction. Our Ave merchants rely on the U Bookstore's parking, and they cannot survive without replacement parking immediately adjacent to the Ave. Our churches also rely on this parking, not just on Sundays, but throughout the day on every day of the week. This parking would have to be available before the Bookstore parking is lost to the community. Traffic congestion during construction also concerns us. We know that some inconvenience will be unavoidable, but we also believe Sound Transit has options that can reduce the impact on our already significantly congested streets. Barging spoils out rather than trucking-a successful tactic in many large construction projects, including the West Point project-will be an important part of mitigating impacts to our community. We also believe that barging materials in, in addition to barging spoils out, would greatly reduce the extremely undesirable result of adding potentially hundreds of trucks to our area each day. The additional noise and dust from trucks concerns us all, and adding the vibration from trucks creates huge impacts for the scientists who research and teach and care for patients in our community. Perhaps barging can also be a factor in reducing the staging area that would otherwise be required. We want to applaud the staff's recent efforts to work with the University of Washington to jointly pursue barging. We are also concerned about Sound Transit staff's assertions that moving the 45th Street stations across the street to the west side of 15th Avenue Northeast would require closure of Northeast 43rd Street. This would be especially problematic for the Bookstore, the Methodist Church, and, we presume, the U.S. Post Office. The church, in particular, needs access off 43rd street to its limited parking spaces and to its ramp offering ADA access. Maps of the neighborhood previously circulated by staff show a platform and elevator configuration that would fit west of 15th Avenue Northeast without having the elevators come to the surface in the Northeast 43rd Street right-of-way. We do not understand why, when things are all on paper at this point, it is impossible to commit to slight changes in elevator and vent shaft locations relative to the platform. We understand that the University of Washington Board of Regents requested that the Sound Transit staff review other configurations and asked specifically about elevators in the center of the platform. Perhaps there are other designs that would achieve the seemingly simple goal of moving elevators closer to the ends of the platforms that would not result in such dramatic cost differentials. We want to stress the importance that moving the stations across the street has for the University of Washington. Having successfully attracted significant private dollars as well as winning approval of state funds for the design and construction of its capital projects, the University must remain assured of its ability to move ahead in order to serve growing demand. Potential conflicts between Sound Transit's construction and progress on the Law School, the Burke Museum, and the Life Sciences buildings would be significantly reduced or perhaps even eliminated by moving the stations across the street and fully utilizing the option of barging. Further, if crossing the street with the 45th Street stations results in a slight shift west of the northern entrance of the Pacific station, then the added distance away from Physics, even though small, would help reduce Sound Transit's exposure to mitigation for adverse impacts on research. We will commit resources to make this work Working together, we have identified significant resources that we are willing to bring to bear to make this work for all of us. They include: The University Bookstore is willing to explore locating a station entrance in its parking lot, and its parking lot might be made available for staging if concerns about replacement parking, delivery needs, and access to N. E. 43rd are satisfactorily addressed and the store is adequately compensated for the loss of use of its property both during construction and thereafter. The store would also want assurance that a structure accommodating its customer parking needs on no more than two levels could still be built on the property. The Alumni Association is willing to explore locating a station entrance on the site of its current building, provided it is adequately compensated and a new location further south in the community with adequate zoning is secured in a timely fashion. In addition to its potential as an anchor for the lower Ave if suitable land is identified, the Alumni Association will work with the community to explore how its new building could offer various amenities that are consistent with goals of both the Association and the adopted neighborhood plan. We are all willing to work together to identify appropriate locations for replacement parking. The Bookstore and the University of Washington, in particular, are willing to explore working in concert to develop replacement parking in the community adjacent to the Ave and in close proximity to the Bookstore. The University of Washington is willing to make space on campus along 15th Avenue available for staging in order to reduce the impact on the business community and reduce Sound Transit's costs for acquisition and demolition. Since Sound Transit has stated that contiguous staging is optimal for speed and reduced costs of construction and staging, the University of Washington is willing to make space available on campus in order to permit Sound Transit's use of the sidewalk and partial use of 15th Avenue. We are willing to work together to explore tearing down the concrete wall on campus in order to temporarily shift 15th Avenue to the east. This might also provide opportunities for creation of temporary parking spaces on campus that could be earmarked for merchants and churches. The University is willing to make space available at the waterfront for the purpose of barging. We will work together to incorporate future options such as water taxi service that might bring passengers to the light rail system as well as to the University District as a destination. In summary, moving the 45th Street stations across the street appears to offer significant advantages. It will benefit ridership, community redevelopment, and integration of the campus and the surrounding community. It will eliminate the need for one of the options proposed to better serve the Ave, namely, an underground mezzanine which is estimated by Sound Transit staff to cost between $15-20 million. Getting this right is extraordinarily important for our community. And precisely because the stakes are so enormous, our willingness to continue to work together is also important. Finally, we take this opportunity to underscore our desire that every option be explored to extend the system to Northgate as soon as possible. We look forward to continuing to work with the Board and staff of Sound Transit and the City of Seattle to make this work.