Sound Transit Board
C-Link Task Force and Executive Committee meetings
Friday July 20th, 2001[Notes by John Deeter]
C-LINK TASK FORCE
[Prior to the C-Link meeting, several Board members, their staff, and Link staff toured Convention Place Station and the South Lake Union area to view possible SLU routings for the Link light rail line. Staff has come up with two routes: (1) From CPS, go immediately underground adjacent to I-5 and follow I-5 to Eastlake and thence underground below Eastlake off the map (north of itersection with Fairview); (2) From CPS, turn sharply and go underground below Boren, follow Boren emerging onto elevated north of Denny, turn at Mercer and follow Mercer elevated across Fairview, go underground before reaching Eastlake, and then turn north to follow Eastlake as in the first route (this info taken from a map used for the tour).]
C-Link meeting starts about 12:50 p.m. Attending: McIver (chair), Enslow, Sullivan, Gates (arrived late).
McIver: wishes SLU tour had taken place before the vote [3 weeks ago].
Sullivan: we saw just how challenging the Eastlake alignment is going to be.
Enslow: went on tour of alignments south of Downtown [about a month ago], and was surprised [by some of the difficulties]. [Likewise] surprised by SLU alignments. [Tour confirmed his] preference for Capitol Hill route. Recommends that other Board members take the tour of SLU.
McIver: [Board] should allow C-Link to make the decision [on north alignment].
[ST staffperson]: staff will brief full Board at its next meeting on the [SLU] alignments. Will make comparison with Capitol Hill alignment, but with warning that CH is at 60[?] percent engineering, while SLU will be at 5 percent or less. Will be able to give only order of magnitude [estimate on cost of SLU]. Board has to [then] decide whether to go ahead with 24-month long EIS. Could start EIS in September when [if?] Board decides.
McIver: how far do we have to get into engineering before we [might] find fatal flaws? [Staffperson]: staff hopes to find [potential] fatal flaws before the end of the 3-month work period. [If EIS is begun, there] still could be be challenges in preliminary engineering and final design.
Enslow: Board [appears to have] decided to go south first -- why the rush to do studies [north of Downtown]? [Staffperson]: if Board decides on CPS [as interim terminus] then SLU stays on the table [as a possible alignment], but if Capitol Hill is chosen then it comes off. [Answer seemed to be somewhat garbled -- JD.]
Enslow: Board decided Capitol Hill was too expensive [to do right now]. Does choice of CPS exclude Capitol Hill alignment [later]? [Staffperson]: No, and Board may decide to do full study of all [possible northern alignments].
Enslow: does CPS work [as an interim terminus while also allowing] CH route to be chosen later? [Staffperson]: Yes, but it will cost about $70 million more [to keep this option open]. We need to know [the northward alignment] if CPS is chosen so that CPS [can be rebuilt to accomodate it].
McIver: federal participation [in Link project must be taken into account]. [From federal perspective,] how can we choose anything other than Capitol Hill? "Chicken and egg" [situation] -- we would get more money from feds for CH so we would be able to afford it. [Staffperson]: staff is developing this information [about federal support].
Ron Endlich [Link staff]: on tour Board members looked at 2 options -- Boren and Eastlake. [Eastlake includes] station at Harrison with [elevated] pedestrian crossing of I-5. [Nearby employers include] Hutchinson and Pemco.
[Board member Gates arrives.]
Gates: were [any of] these routes looked at [in previous studies]? Endlich: [Matoff study in 1994] looked at Terry [one block west of Boren] route at grade, elevated across Mercer, then Fairview at grade.
McIver: thanks staff, particularly for providing lunch.
[Public comment.]
Phil Grega: would rail in DSTT be free, like buses are now? McI [rephrasing PG's question]: will rail be a ride-free zone? [Staff]: ST Board will decide general fare policies.
[Before the C-Link meeting I talked with Ron Endlich for a few minutes about the Eastlake and Montlake alternatives. He agreed with my assessment that the Eastlake study is not uncovering any new information, which I interpret to mean that ST staff sees little value in pursuing this option. Ron pretty much indicated that it's entirely up to the Board whether this happens. He also showed me a map of the Montlake area indicating the location of the five boreholes they are going to do, starting in a week or so (if I remember correctly). The map also showed two alignments north of the Montlake Cut. After crossing the cut just east of Montlake Bridge, one alignment follows Rainier Vista diagonally across campus with a station just north of the Triangle garage. The other closely follows Pacific and Eastlake (I don't recall the south station location), but Ron indicated that there are already questions about affecting medical research in this area. On the other hand, Ron continued, the cross-campus alignment might affect other research, specifically chemistry.]
[After the meeting, I talked with the other staff person (whose name I didn't catch) mainly with regard to how Eastlake and Montlake alternatives fit into the planning process. JD: can ST study more than one possible MOS after September and later decide between them? Ans: No, must immediately concentrate on just one MOS for federal review. JD: Doesn't looking seriously at Eastlake again require re-starting the alternatives analysis, since it serves a different market than the CH alignment? Ans: Yes. JD: But the Montlake alignment is just an amendment to the EIS? Ans: again, yes, and it should be easier to get the FTA to agree to the change.]
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Attending: Earling (chair), McKenna, McIver, Sullivan, Enslow, Gates, Schell (late), Sims (very late).
[Public comment.] Grega asks who distributes ST booklet to public.
Earling: transportation plan under consideration by legislature is in flux. But passenger rail allocation has apparently been greatly reduced. [This affects Sounder plans, and Board members are urged to contact legislators to get them to reinstate rail money.]
[Major item was a 20-minute discussion with the Mayor of Issaquah about ST annexation of areas incorporated into Issaquah after the 1996 vote authorizing ST.]
Paul Matsuoka [ST staff]: Issaquah Highlands and East Village [areas under consideration for ST annexation] presently are relatively undeveloped, but development in progress, [and will be substantially completed] by 2005 (EV) and 2007 (IH). These area will become major parts of Issaquah. Annexation has a lot of merit from transportation and growth [management perspectives]. ST Board has adopted "friendly" annexation policies, [and has indicated that it doesn't want to force annexations]. Question posed to Board, does ST want this matter to go to a vote this fall?
Mayor of Issaquah: [City of Issaquah strongly support this annexation, would support urban growth in these areas.] Large Metro park-and-ride lot [planned] in Highlands, would serve both Issaquah and Sammamish. Local communities [have expressed] support for this proposal, voters are expected [likewise] support it.
Earling: first annexation vote for ST, and will set policy [for annexations].
Gates: would like more complete report before going ahead.
Earling: [has City of Issaquah] already asked whether there is [community] support for this porposal? Do community leaders support it? Mayor: very few people now [live] in the area, only a few hundred. [Should be] easy to get people together.
Schell: moves to adopt, [but this sort of annexation] should be made automatic by legislature. Earling: would like to talk [some more] with residents first, don't let it an opportunity to beat up on ST. Schell: only proposing that staff go forward with preparations, not [that Board approve vote right now].
Sullivan: would it be the November election? Matsuoka: [Yes, and] 9/24 is cut off date [for putting it on the ballot].
Enslow: would express bus service [be provided]? Mayor: would extend present Issaquah expresses to Highlands [park-and-ride lot]. Sammamish can [also] use it.
McKenna: [has talked to people in] Sammamish, and they're very interested in express service. Microsoft is building multi-million square-foot [campus in vicinity, so there will be] employment as well as housing. [This area] needs good local and regional transit. [Board member Sims arrives.]
Enslow: Is Sammamish in ST? McKenna: Yes, but this [park-and-ride adds access to Sammamish.
Earling: [still] looking for [definite] community support.
[Committee votes to approve motion, to have Staff continue to work towards setting up the annexation vote but without yet committing ST to actually doing it.]
Marcia Walker [Board administrator]: Board membership must be redistributed among counties following decennial census. [According to formula being used,] allocation among counties does not change. [Divisor is] 145 thousand people per member, [so King gets 10, Pierce 4, and Snohomish 3 members].
[After the Exec. Comm. meeting, I talke to Paul Matsuoka (senior staff) for a few minutes. JD: is there any hope of making CH the interim terminus? PM: Not very much. JD: any indication of how much federal money will be available in next funding cycle? PM: big uncertainty right now. JD: I was hoping that we could split the northern segment into two parts at Captiol Hill and that would make the project easier to do. PM: FTA seems willing to accept the plan to do southern part first. Matsuoka didn't give a direct indication of how ST plans to get funding for CPS to 45th St., but based on what everyone said today (7/20) I gather that ST staff are prepared to devise a single FFGA for this entire segment and ask the FTA and Congress for a substantial federal grant to do it. It is currently priced at $1.4 billion plus, so 50 percent federal support would be $700 million. That's also the figure I got from someone else a couple of weeks ago.]
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