Wa. State Dept.of Archeology and Historic Preservation, During DEIS Process for East Link, Identifies the Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund Mid-Century Modern Homes as “Eligible” to be Nominated to the National Register of Historic Places
During the Sound Transit DEIS process for East Link light rail, Sound Transit turned over comments from City of Bellevue residents to a consultant, regarding the Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund Mid-Century Modern homes that the City of Bellevue previously identified as “historically and architecturally significant” properties.
This triggered the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) to conduct a study to determine whether the Surrey Downs homes would be “eligible” to be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
DAHP determined that indeed, the Surrey Downs Mid-Century Modern homes are “eligible” to be nominated to the NRHP as a “historic neighborhood“.
That designation of eligibility puts 2 federal laws into play- 106 and 4(f), which essentially guide projects that utilize federal funds to “avoid” or heavily mitigate negative impacts on historic resources.
According to Joni Earl (at last week’s ST Board meeting), Sound Transit will be using $985 Million in federal funds for ST2.
What this means with regard to the potential alignments being considered for the “B” and “C” sections of East Link has yet to be determined, but Sound Transit will have to comply with the federal laws to avoid negative impacts to both the Frederick Winter’s House on Bellevue Way, and now the Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund homes, which according to federal policy, will be treated as if they are already on the NRHP list.
The laws specify that all possible alternatives must be studied to “avoid” historic resources when using federal funds.
Does this mean that the B7 alignment will have to be studied to the same percent of engineering that B3-Hybrid will be? How would they know exactly what the cost, riderhsip, transit time, envitonmental considerations, etc, of B7 would be if they don’t continue to study the B7 alignment to the same degree of engineering that they will be studying B3 Hybrid? How will they know which is better?
Otherwise, if they do not study B7 sufficiently, the ST Board will not be able to compare apples to apples…
[...] previous articles on the Surrey Downs Mithun & Neslund Mid-Century Modern homes (click here), (here), and (here). Posted by staciel [...]
May 28th, 2009 | #