• Roosevelt station progressing [DJC]
• Car makes illegal left, gets hit by light rail [KIRO]
• Sen. Reuven Carlyle reflects on ST3 after reading Zach… [Reuven Carlyle’s blog]
• … while Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon writes a full-throated rebuttal… [PubliCola]
• … and Rich Soltz of OneAmerica piles on [the Stranger]
• Wallace Properties – yes, that Kevin Wallace – making bank on transit-oriented development [PSBJ]
• Mercer Slough neighbors looking to protect the park. [Seattle Times]
• City proposes a density-neutral rezone in Ballard [The Urbanist]
• An autopsy of Hyperloop One.  19th-century trains, anyone? [Yahoo! Finance]
• Dan Bertolet looks at the root causes driving housing displacement [Sightline]
• NIMBYism could be sucking $8B per month out of the Bay Area economy… [Brad Delong]
• …fortunately, the (likely) next VP is on the case [CNN]
• Is Oregon DOT more than just a state highway department? Should it be? [OregonLive]
• Investigating bike accidents on streetcar tracks [Seattle Times]

Photo: Northgate TC from above by SounderBruce

This is an open thread

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Thursday evening at 7pm, the Shoreline Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on two ordinances (750, 751) that will formally adopt the the 145th Street Station Subarea Plan (145mb PDF). If you live in Lake City, Bitter Lake, Shoreline, or other nearby areas, the meeting could use urbanist support for the currently preferred Alternative 4.

Set to open in 2023, the 145th Street station is located in an awful place for transit access, far inferior to nearby station options such as 130th (delayed) or 155th (foregone). The station area is currently surrounded by a freeway on its west, a golf course to the south, single-family homes in all directions, and a soon-to-be-built 500-stall parking garage. Shoreline only has jurisdiction of the northern half of the station walkshed, but they have done an impressive and comprehensive look at the station’s TOD potential.

The current Alternative 4 is called “Compact Community Hybrid”, and will likely be selected over Alternative 1 (no build), Alternative 2 (“Connecting Corridors”, a broader but shallower upzone), and Alternative 3 (“Compact Community”, a narrower but taller upzone). The hybrid option rezones immediately adjacent parcels to 70′, and slowly steps down to 45′, 35′, and then back to single-family. Though the concepts surely could have been more aggressive, the preferred Alternative 4 is the best politically possible outcome, and it deserves urbanist support.

There will be an amendment presented at the meeting to retain single-family zoning as a buffer around natural areas such Twin Ponds Park and Paramount Open space. While the area affected would be small, it would reduce the number of units available to be built in both the 70′ and 35′ zones. If you want a walkable station area and believe that multi-family housing and natural areas can coexist, we encourage you to speak up at the hearing in support of Alternative 4 and in opposition to the amendment.

Meeting Details:  Thursday, August 18, 7:00 PM, Shoreline City Hall, 17500 Midvale Ave N

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On primary election night, there were two nail-biter races for who would take the second spot on the November 8 general election ballot, involving candidates endorsed by this blog. The nail-biting is over, and the two upstarts endorsed by STB have advanced.

In the wide-open race to replace longtime Congressman Jim McDermott to represent the 7th Congressional District, STB-endorsed former State Representative Brady Walkinshaw has opened up a wide lead over third-place finisher County Councilmember Joe McDermott. Councilmember McDermott conceded on August 5. Shortly thereafter, McDermott endorsed Walkinshaw in the general election. Walkinshaw faces State Senator Pramila Jayapal in the finale.

In another shocker, Snohomish County Fire Commissioner and STB endorsee Guy Palumbo has beaten out 3-term State Representative Luis Moscoso to advance in the senate race from the 1st Legislative District. Moscoso had come out against all tolling on I-405 in his Voters’ Guide statement. The two Democrats were fighting over second place in the primary election, as the other candidate is a Republican, and the 1st is a historically tight swing district. Moscoso conceded last Tuesday.
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Other STB endorsees who have advanced to the November 8 general election include:

Jay Inslee, running for re-election as governor

Patty Murray, running for re-election to the US Senate

Dan Shih, running for the open position 1 seat in the 43rd Legislative District

Derek Stanford, running for re-election to position 1 in the 1st Legislative District

Shelley Kloba, running for the open position 2 in the 1st Legislative District

Rick Talbert, running for Pierce County Executive

Linda Farmer, running for Pierce County Commissioner, District 6

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If you aren’t registered to vote at your current address, you can do so from the convenience of your home right now, online.

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During a press conference Friday morning with U.S. Representatives Suzan DelBene (1st district) and Rick Larsen (2nd district), Community Transit CEO Emmett Heath introduced details about the upcoming second Swift bus rapid transit line, including the all-important line colors.

As speculated during the planning process, the first line, which opened in 2009 and runs along Highway 99 from Everett to Aurora Village, will become the Blue Line; and the second line, set to open in 2019 and run from Paine Field through Mill Creek to Canyon Park in Bothell, will become the Green Line. The two lines intersect at Airport Road in southern Everett, forming an X-shaped network in southwestern Snohomish County. Both colors coincide with those of the Seahawks, who are celebrating their 40th anniversary this month.

While Community Transit’s 5-year plan published in May anticipated a September 2018 opening for the Green Line, Community Transit spokesperson Martin Munguia stated that hitting 60 percent design on the project brought a “more realistic picture of both cost and schedule.” Other hold-ups include construction on the 128th Street overpass crossing Interstate 5, where WSDOT is restricting construction to one side of a time to minimize traffic disruptions and thus will be split between the summers of 2017 and 2018 along with station construction. The early 2019 launch will fall a few months shy of the Blue Line’s 10th anniversary in November, and come only four years before the possible launch of a third line to feed Lynnwood Link at Lynnwood Transit Center.

15 new articulated buses will also be ordered and delivered in late 2018, and are planned to be inter-operable with the Blue Line, sharing the same branding and similar features.

Sound Transit’s decision last year to name its lines after colors poses some potential confusion with Swift’s new lines, but Munguia says that the two agencies came together and felt that the two modes were distinct enough to not be easily confused. For the time being, Community Transit will append the Swift brand to every mention of the project.

The $73 million cost of construction will be funded mostly by a $50 million FTA Small Starts grant that is part of the 2017 budget. $17 million from the state will help build the line’s northern terminus at Seaway Transit Center, adjacent to Boeing’s massive Everett factory. Operations will be funded in part by a portion of the 0.3 sales tax approved by voters last November as well as a $5 million FTA Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality grant for the first two years, allowing for the voter-approved increase to fund other services.

The line ends at Canyon Park P&R to the south, a few miles short of downtown Bothell, where an extension has been considered and put on the back-burner until the completion of a major road project by the city; as the line would fall into King County like routes 105 and 106 do today, Community Transit has held discussions with King County Metro about the extension.

The “Blue Line” moniker will begin appearing in schedules, on bus headsigns and at stations near you this fall. When the Green Line begins service in 2019, it will operate at 12-minute headways on weekdays and 20 minutes at night and on weekends, and is expected to attract 3,300 riders in its first year. Additional lines are also planned on major corridors, stretching as far north as Arlington and as far east as Highway 9 near Silver Firs.

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On Thursday, State Representative Reuven Carlyle (D-36) wrote a strongly-worded editorial on Publicola opposing Sound Transit 3 (ST3). By using much of the remaining property tax capacity, Carlyle says, ST3 “will suck the oxygen out of the room” and jeopardize the state’s ability to respond to the McCleary decision:

I am unsettled that the package consumes the oxygen in the room on taxes for virtually all other public services at all levels of government for years to come. The plan moves to among the very highest sales tax in the nation along with a major property tax increase. We need to be honest that the ability of cities, counties and the state to utilize the sales tax in the future as a new revenue source is effectively ended with this plan…

The Sound Transit financing plan arguably works well for Sound Transit. It’s reasonable and understandable that they feel strongly they are operating within their authorizing environment of our current tax system. But it’s a bold 21st Century spending plan with a lethargic 1990s financing plan. Why didn’t they choose to be as courageous and innovative on the revenue side as they at least attempted to be on the spending side?

As a state legislator I cannot in good conscience support an inequitable and unstable financing plan in one isolated silo of public services—no matter how valued and important to our future—that I believe will have substantial negative implications for public education in the years to come.

As well-intentioned as this is for Carlyle – he’s a long-time advocate for more progressive tax sources – it stings a bit more coming from a Democratic ally opposing a project with immense benefits to his own district. The 36th stands to get 6 new rail stations, a direct airport connection, and a traffic-free subway through Queen Anne, South Lake Union, and Downtown. Already set to take 19 years to complete, Carlyle would have us wait even longer on account of $.25 per $1,000 of property tax authority.

Let’s appreciate the deep irony of his criticisms. Carlyle is part of the only legislative body with broad authority to create new tax sources, and yet he is criticizing Sound Transit for not being “courageous and innovative” enough to reject the only choices made available to them. It’s a strange day when the cooks in the kitchen are upset that the diner orders off the menu they themselves wrote.

The property tax cap he cites as sacrosanct is not a constitutional amendment, but a simple legislative act like everything else, changeable with a simple majority vote in both houses. Passing ST3 surely complicates the McCleary funding puzzle, but the bottom line is that the legislature always has options, and Sound Transit doesn’t. 

Carlyle was absolutely right to raise these issues during the funding debate over the transportation package that authorized an ST3 vote. But having lost the battle to implement an employer tax instead, opposing ST3 now doesn’t make a McCleary resolution any closer (and the highways get built regardless). Instead, failure on ST3 would likely stifle progress on both education and transportation, setting up a dangerous series of false choices in which every civic need is pitted against every other.

Our property taxes are not high, and are in fact below the median nationally. And sure, sales tax is regressive and 10% a psychological barrier, but places like Vancouver BC do just fine with 12%. Progressives and transit advocates will be there every step of the way to help representatives like Carlyle find more progressive tax sources, so it’s disappointing to see him give in to such zero-sum thinking.

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• Metro has a driver shortage, has to cancel trips.
• Lindblom tells all ($) about Link capacity and crowding.
• WSDOT looking for a spokesperson and a performance analyst.
• Our local clean air agency is also hiring.
• Feds will probably not allow continued privileged access of Mercer Island SOVs to I-90 HOV lanes.
• Shoreline wins an award for growth planning.
• Revised Burke-Gilman section opens today, easing Link access.
• Waterfront design is “a highway on top of a highway.”
• Tim Eyman lays out his case against ST3. Fact check here.
• Port of Seattle comes up with $5m for Lander crossing.
• ReachNow now available for airport trips.
• Developer-bashing is unmoored from reality.

This is an open thread.

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