Has Tacoma's fast ferry to Seattle found a home?

TACOMA, Wash. — A planned development on Tacoma’s Foss Waterway could become home for a proposed fast ferry speeding commuters from the South Sound to downtown Seattle.

The Village at Foss Harbor is planned for the waterway in downtown Tacoma.

Tacoma City Council member Ryan Mello said the city is negotiating with developers to provide the infrastructure for a ferry dock that will be home to passenger only ferries identical to fast boats now serving Kitsap County commuters.

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Three other sites are also being studied. The existing ferry terminal at Point Defiance, a new facility that could be built near the Point Ruston development on the city's growing waterfront and the 11th Street dock downtown

Mello, who is the driving force in City Hall behind the ferry, says all the sites under consideration will face challenges -- specifically narrow traffic corridors for passengers driving to the boat. But the Foss site, he says, may be the best option.

“Because of that challenge it makes the most sense to me because it’s so transit rich around it,” Mello said.

Construction on the Village at Foss Harbor could begin by the end of the summer according to Mello. He said a state funded feasibility study of the fast ferries won’t be complete until late 2020.

Cox Media Group