Building a Better Bellevue (BBB) has come out with a piece that suggests that the South Bellevue Park and Ride in Bellevue could be returned to a park/wetland status if the B7R alignment is adopted for Sound Transit’s East Link light rail, utilizing the A2 station option.

Another aspect of this plan would be that the B7R alignment protects the only property on the National Register for Historic Preservation (NRHP) on the Eastside, by avoiding it altogether.

The B2M alignment would pass directly in front of the historic stucco house, and there is concern from historians that vibration from the trains would damage the stucco, and eventually require the house to be removed from NRHP status.

Muddying the (peat) water further (much of the land near Mercer Slough is a thick peat bog), is the fact that Sound Transit must show due diligence in a good faith effort to “avoid” historic properties when it accepts federal funds for transportation projects, per federal laws 106 and 4(f), or to show why it is “necessary” to choose an alignment that adversely impacts a historical property.

Sound Transit’s FEIS was just released; it remains to be seen whether they have proven their case regarding due diligence, when B7R has been studied to a 5% level of engineering, and B2M has been studied to a 30% level of engineering…

Additionally, a fact unacknowledged by supporters of B2M is that the B2M alignment actually utilizes land in the wetland on the east side of Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue…

See BBB’s article at www.betterbellevue.org :

 

“Rejuvenation and Revival of Mercer Slough Wilderness and Wetlands, Once B7R Is Implemented

Preserving Mercer Slough, and creating a unique Nature Park there, has been a vision and desire of many nature supporters starting from the 1960s. As time progressed and development pressures intensified in the late 1980s several major commercial developments were in preparation to be constructed in the Mercer Slough wetlands.  They included the Enatai Plaza Office Complex, Enatai Corporation Office Complex, White PUD and the North West Building Corporation Office Complex.

At that time a proactive group was formed called “Save the Mercer Slough Committee” — our objective to save the remaining lands of the Mercer Slough and ensure that they would forever be kept for the public benefit and enjoyment.

Working with the City, King County and The Trust for Public Lands we were successful in having Park bond measures placed on the ballot for public approval. The levies were approved and the remaining lands saved.

There was one significant piece of land, some 11.5 acres, located along Bellevue Way that had already been covered in asphalt for a Park and Ride facility. This was recognized by our committee and by the public at large as an environmentally damaging result for the Mercer Slough.

Fast forward to today as “Building a Better Bellevue” (BBB) and the majority of our City Council are supporting the B7R light rail alignment (along I-405) rather than Sound Transit’s B2M alignment along Bellevue Way that will result in further expansion of the existing Park and Ride facility, and thereby creating further damage and blight to the Mercer Slough.

The B7R alignment with a new Parking/Transit (A2) station  (on firm lands) near I-90 will result in the existing Park and Ride facility along Bellevue Way becoming redundant, with an attendant opportunity to remove the asphalt and return the 11.5 acres of land to a natural vegetative state to become part of a larger, better and  more complete Mercer Slough Nature Park.

As a steering committee member of BBB I whole-heartedly support the B7R alignment and of the opportunity to enhance the Mercer Slough Nature Park and protect the historical Winters House.”

~Geoffrey Bidwell, a Steering Committee member of BBB

and former Chair of the “Save the Mercer Slough Committee”

 

 

By Randal O'Toole On Thursday, March 18, John Stossel’s show on the Fox Business News network will feature a discussion of how taxes and regulation have prevented urban areas like Cleveland from recovering from the decline of the industries that once supported those regions. While the “stars” of the show were Drew Carey and Reason Magazine’s Nick Gillespie, Stossel spent a few minutes on zoning and land-use regulation. When searching for someone to advocate such land-use regulation, they happened to ask James Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere, a critique of suburbia. ...

It is hard not to gloat over the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s infamous Kelo decision. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out recently, the city of New London, Connecticut spent $78 million condemning people’s homes and bulldozing them away, and the development that was supposed to happen in that area has flopped and looks [...]

KING 5 - News Story on June 24th http://www.king5.com/localnews/south/stories/NW_062409WAB-tacoma-light-rail-KS.32c7e0a.html The Sound Transit spokesperson says "they haven't made a final decision yet." "There's still plenty of time for people to check out the project," Other News: Tacoma News Tribune / Word On The Street http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/street/?blog=57&title=new_blog_makes_the_case_against_sounder_&page=1&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&disp=single

Street-level light rail in Bellevue is front-runner in study Seattle Times, United States A street-level light-rail route across downtown Bellevue will be the front-runner in Sound Transit's environmental studies for the $2.7 billion East Link project, the agency's governing board decided today. By Mike Lindblom A street-level light-rail ...

Surface route chosen for Eastside light rail Seattle Post Intelligencer The board's unanimous choice of a preferred route for Sound Transit's East Link project allows engineering work to move ahead on that route, while not shutting the door on other options. The board left the door extra open for a possible tunnel through ...

Here is an excellent study from Dr. Ron Utt, a senior fellow at Heritage Foundation, called President Obama's New Plan to Decide Where Americans Live and How They Travel. You might remember that Dr. Utt was our featured speaker at last years transportation event, where he spoke about performance-based transportation policy and traffic congestion relief. President Barack Obama's early comments on his opposition to suburban sprawl and his intention to alter the way Americans live and ...

Here in Pugetopolis it's still a matter of faith that growth is unstoppable and the urbanization is the answer to all our prayers. I've written that growth is often the result of national policies (land grants, homesteading, land reclamation, tax incentives, bank deregulation) and as such, it can be steered and controlled. We could, for example, create policies that could help repopulate fading rural areas, such as the proposed New Homestead Act. But U.S. rural areas aren't the only places losing population. Many of the world's cities are also shrinking. That trend is most visible in Europe (new ...

A majority of the Bellevue City Council (Mayor Grant Degginger, Patsy Bonnicontri, Claudia Balducci, and John Chelminiak) have voted for utilizing an alignment (B3) for Sound Transit’s East Link light rail along Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue SE, that would require that the Winters House (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #8, on map), a home on the National Register of Historic Places, be moved.

Moving the home would likely ruin its historical significance. It has yet to be determined if moving the home would be possible without destroying it. That could be a fatal flaw in the plan.

3 Council members- Dr. Don Davidson, Conrad Lee, and Phil Noble- voted to utilize the BNSF alignment (B7), which would not impact the Winters House.

Meanwhile, the Eastside Heritage Center (click here) has sent an email to Sound Transit during the DEIS comment period, asking for protection for the Historic home, as have numerous Bellevue residents and business owners.

Other sites recognized as architecturally and/or historically significant by the City of Bellevue that are potentially adversely impacted by the East Link project’s eventual preferred alignment are:

1. The Sacred Heart Church on Main Street (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #5, with map), and

2. Numerous homes on the north end of the Surrey Downs neighborhood, which were designed by recognized architects Mithun and Neslund, and are quintessential examples of 1950′s Modernist architecture.

See the link to an organization that advocates for  Modernist architecture, docomomo-wewa here: http://www.docomomo-wewa.org/architects_detail.php?id=66

Also, here is the link to Historic Seattle‘s web page on advocacy: http://www.historicseattle.org/advocacy/default.aspx

The hybrid alignment the Council approved this week has not yet been adopted by the Sound Transit Board.