SEATTLE — The Sound Transit board of directors voted Thursday to select a site in Bellevue as the location of its next maintenance facility, where it will store and fix trains. The only existing one is south of downtown Seattle, but it will quickly be at capacity as Sound Transit plans to triple its fleet by 2030.
The choice of the Bellevue site west of 120th Avenue Northeast next to existing railroad tracks was one of three options the board considered. All three choices caused residents, business owners and city leaders to complain to the board. About 790 comments were sent to board members before Thursday’s meeting, and dozens more spoke during the meeting’s public comment section. Among those were Bellevue city council members John Chelminiak and Jennifer Robertson. They argued that choosing this site, along the Bellevue-Redmond corridor, goes against a major redevelopment plan in the Spring District that has been in the works for years.
Bellevue has been trying to build an area similar to South Lake Union, where people could live, work and have access to transit all in one place. Jennifer Robertson said Sound Transit’s choice is “not only going to reduce the ability for us to see that vision fulfilled, but it’s also going to reduce the amount of money that comes in from development that we needed to put back into that development to make it a reality. Something to the tune of a couple hundred million dollars is going to be lost by having this location chosen.”
Bellevue Mayor Claudia Balducci is a board member and was only one of two people who voted against the site.
“We certainly are willing to have the maintenance facility within Bellevue. We’re certainly willing to try to accommodate it. The particular site that was chosen is what causes the challenge,” Balducci said.
Balducci and other Bellevue leaders were also against the second option within their city limits, along state Route 520, which would have displaced 100 businesses.
The owner of one of those businesses, Andrea Duffield, said she was relieved that she and others would not have to move. Duffield had been deeply concerned she would have to uproot her therapy center for special needs children. Even though the decision was in her favor, Duffield said the selection of the other Bellevue site was not ideal either.
The third option under consideration was in Lynnwood but would have taken over land meant for an Edmonds School District warehouse and administration building. During the selection process, it was unknown whether Sound Transit could exercise eminent domain over land owned by the school district.
King County Executive Dow Constantine told the board there was no “perfect choice” and that the construction of such a rail yard was essential to the growth of Sound Transit.
After selecting the site along the Bel-Red corridor, the board agreed to an amendment proposed by Balducci to ensure high-level leaders would work together to minimize the impact on the Spring District development.
Council member John Chelminiak said, “I think the city’s going to hold their feet to the fire to do it right, because that’s the way we want to do this project.”
Sound Transit staff will now start producing a design for this site while a final environmental impact statement is formed. The board will then finalize this site in 2015.
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