On December 6, Sound Transit will open the Federal Way Link Extension (FWLE). This extension will add three new stations along eight miles of new track south of Angle Lake station. The stations are Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Downtown. Each station will feature connections to local bus service, pickup and drop-off areas, and lots of parking. Wesley Lin discussed the walkability of each station in a previous article.
Kent Des Moines Station
The northernmost new station, Kent Des Moines, is located southeast of Pacific Hwy S & S Kent Des Moines Rd. The area around the station includes Highline College, car-oriented big box stores, a self-storage facility, and I-5. Excluding Highline College, these are far from ideal land uses around a Link station. Sound Transit and the City of Kent plan to develop two plots immediately west of the station, previously used for construction staging.
The north plot will be developed into 230 affordable units managed by Mercy Housing Northwest. A development team has not been selected for the south block. Kent has zoned most of the land around the Link station as Midway Transit Community-2 (MTC-2). MTC-2 districts allow buildings up to 200ft tall and should “provide a place and create environmental conditions which will promote the location of dense and varied retail, office, or residential activities, and recreational activities in support of rapid light rail and mass transit options, to ensure a primarily pedestrian-oriented character, and to implement the goals and policies of the Midway Subarea Plan” (KCC 15.03).
While few dense retail, office, or residential uses exist in the area around Kent Des Moines station today, more will be built over the next decade. Until then, many of the station’s riders will use the newly built 500-space parking garage between the station and I-5. Once Metro’s South Link Connection restructure is implemented (likely in March 2026), Kent Des Moines station will be served by routes 156, 164, 166, and the A Line.
Star Lake Station
Nestled northwest of S 272nd St and I-5, Star Lake is the second new station opening next month. The station’s namesake lake is located southeast of S 272nd St and I-5, about a 20 minute walk away. Star Lake station is surrounded by low density residential neighborhoods, green space, and I-5. The area around the station is primarily zoned for Neighborhood Residential 2 and 3 which allow single-family, multiplexes, multifamily dwellings, courtyard apartments, and stacked flats. Sound Transit has not allocated an surplus land for development. Instead, the station’s construction staging area is now a kiss-and-ride with 15 minute parking. Passengers can get to Star Lake station on Metro Route 183, be dropped off at the kiss-and-ride, or park in the new 1,100-space parking garage.
Federal Way Downtown Station
Federal Way Downtown will likely be the busiest new station. Located above the recently moved Federal Way Transit Center, riders will have easy transfers to/from a plethora of ST Express, King County Metro, and Pierce Transit bus routes. The Commons at Federal Way shopping mall is just south of the station, across S 320th St. Numerous other shops and restaurants are located within a 20 minute walk.
Sound Transit is working with the City of Federal Way to develop six acres across four blocks immediately west of the station. Development proposals for two of the sites (1 and 2) are being reviewed by Sound Transit. The other two sites (3 and 4) are contaminated and will need to be remediated before development. North of the parking garage, Trent Development will be building up to 1,600 new apartments along with lots of new office and retail space. This project will be built in phases between 2027 and 2042. For Link passengers who plan on driving to Federal Way Downtown station, Sound Transit has expanded the existing transit center parking garage to now have about 1,600 spaces.
The Federal Way Link Extension is the second to last major Link extension this decade. The three new stops will make it easier for thousands of south King County residents to access downtown Seattle, UW, Rainier Valley, and many other destinations in Puget Sound. The areas around the new stations are underwhelming today, but have lots of potential for new, dense development. The success of these stations depends on new homes, shops, and offices being built nearby. Now it is up to the cities of Kent, Des Moines, and Federal Way to encourage and foster new development projects.
Has there been any talk of a pedestrian bridge crossing 320th between the station and the commons mall? 320th is such a busy street, and so not pedestrian friendly ..
Federal Way has proposed creating a pedestrian crossing by excavating a 320th dip under 21st Ave.
https://engagefw.com/downtown?tool=qanda
The “dip” a nice idea but it’s certainly more expensive than it would have been to just have attached a walkway southward from the Link center platform to a new station entrance on the Southside of 320th.
The one new opportunity that it does create is to manifest a flat “Main Street” on 21st Ave. But that depends on the developers wanting to implement the full vision.
“Yes!” to that walkway. It’s hard to understand HOW deeply hostile to its customers ST truly is.
The way how they illustrated it make 320th look like such a narrow street.
Please don’t build a pedestrian bridge across 320th. That will become an excuse to remove the crosswalks, even though most pedestrians won’t want to go out of their way to climb and descend from the bridge. Pedestrian bridges usually do more harm than good, unless they are crossing a freeway.
The opportunity to have the station straddle 320th has been missed.
Additionally, there is no decent pedestrian path from the intersection to the mall.
On the bright side car parkers now have a much longer walk from the garage Majal to the station and bus loop.
A bus’ bike and pedestrian bridge should be built across I-5 at Sputh 240th with a busway curving north along the northbound off-ramp up to Military Road. Add a bus-only light there so buses can get onto Military northbound to Kent-Des Moines a half block away. There’s nothing there, so a bus-only lane could be added.
Westbound Kent-Des Moines should be widened one lane for a couple of hundred feet to the east of Military and a second bus-only left turn bay added between the existing turn bay and the leftmost GP “through” lane. The buses would then have a “jump” at the left turn to Military and a half-block BAT lane past the gas station would take them to the new busway.
This would speedup access to and from the east at the new station.
It would be smart to investigate using 240th and 20th South for access to and from downtown Des Moines also.
Looking forward to my first Link ride to FW, and it’s great that it’s there, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to ride that line without being saddened at the waste and stupidity of getting there via Interstate 5. It should’ve been Hwy 99 all the way, with one or two additional stops where someone might actually want to go, instead of Star Lake.
Sorry, grouse grouse grouse…
There’s also far north Seattle and Snohomish County to lament.
I find solace that two of the three stations are at least 700 feet away from the freeway right of way. The track locations in between are only limiting infill station opportunities in the future.
I agree. I think it is a mixed bag. Just to break things down a bit:
Star Lake — Terrible location. It is hemmed in by the freeway and a big greenbelt. There are some apartments in the area at least (and an elementary school). If you put the station next to the highway you would have higher potential in the long run. But it wouldn’t make much difference in the short run as it is just as bad. It is also not a given that an area gets developed just because they add a Link station. Twenty years from now it may look the same so this might not be much of a loss. (In contrast Mount Baker Station was clearly in the wrong area when it was built and that decision just keeps getting worse as we see more development farther away.)
Kent Des Moines — This is close to the highway. Students wanted it on the other side of the highway (closer to the college) but it isn’t far away from it. There isn’t much in the area other than the college. It isn’t clear that moving west would actually help. It might be better but not by a lot.
Federal Way — The station is too close to the freeway and too far from the highway. You can easily walk to the interchange from the station (which is bad). In the long run moving east has a lot more potential. There is also existing development to the east that is a long walk to the station (https://maps.app.goo.gl/dyYqyZvELnMiHTMn7). The buses go out of their way to serve the transit center. This isn’t a big deal because it is often the terminus of a north/south run (the A, the 501, etc.) or a crossing route (181). But if Metro ever decided to extend the A Line farther south this could be an issue as through-riders endure a detour that only exists because they put the station too close to the freeway.
with one or two additional stops where someone might actually want to go,
Yeah, I see that as the big loss. The stop spacing is crazy. Eight miles of track for three new stations. Even for a suburban section that is way too long. At a minimum I would add stations at 216th and 260th. Ridership on the A Line is high at both of those bus stops (about 500 riders a day).
I saw the poor manufactured housing community that was the one neighborhood powerless to have sound walls built. It probably is the densest neighborhood along the extension.
But even they fared better than the trailer park that was condemned for the path of the extension from Angle Lake to the freeway. The great RV wars in and around Seattle started about the time those residents were evicted.