We haven’t posted to our blog for several months and some may have felt that the quiet from CORE meant that our campaign to convince Sound Transit (ST) to alter their bus rapid transit design for SR 522 in Lake Forest Park (LFP) was over. On the contrary, CORE has been busy indeed and there’s still hope for a simplified design that benefits transit riders, LFP, and the public generally. Here’s an update if you missed our recent community meeting at the Sheridan Market.
Our last blog in March marked the release of CORE's report that found that bus queue jumps in the 1.3-mile segment of the highway as an alternative to a dedicated bus lane would avoid much of the project cost, construction time, and harm to our community while still saving most of the expected travel-time gains. CORE challenged ST staff and board members to check our traffic analysis and, to date, there has been no response.
Updated SEPA Reports Issued in August
ST published an updated SEPA addendum for Stride 3 on August 15, 2024. It is unlikely that the SEPA would have been amended without sustained feedback from LFP, but it was issued without warning and without a comment/appeal period. The addendum confirms the earlier report’s finding of environmental “non-significance” but admits that the original SEPA was based on 30% design, not later design changes that substantially increased environmental harm and property loss.
Here are some notable admissions in the SEPA update:
The retaining wall will be taller and thicker than originally planned – up to 17 feet tall! The SEPA further states “Additionally in Lake Forest Park, the thicker soldier pile walls along the west side of the intersection at NE 165th Street will remove more trees and vegetation than the previously proposed tie-back walls in order to meet WSDOT standards for drainage and maintenance.” (See Section 3.3).
ST admits that ridership will be far lower than original projections since the LFP parking garage is deferred until 2044 - "the total is anticipated to be much less than the projected number of trips associated with completion of the 300-stall parking garage." (See Section 4.2.1.1)
ST argues that pervasive traffic congestion is the key factor requiring the new northbound dedicated bus lane in LFP, but the SEPA noise report update in August says that despite 220 new bus trips per day noise will not significantly increase because traffic volumes are much lower than they were when noise monitoring was done in 2016 (See Section 5.2).
The number of full and partial property acquisitions has increased since the 2021 SEPA (See Table 8). There are strong indications that more full property acquisitions will be required.
The Visual and Aesthetic report update states residents "would continue to experience a high level of visual change, moderate visual sensitivity, and adverse visual quality impact at this location." (See Section 7). Apparently, "adverse visual quality impact" has no bearing on the SEPA finding of "non-significance".
LFP taxpayers will have to bear the expense of parking control with the postponement of the proposed parking garage, stating "Deferral of the proposed parking garage near the intersection of SR 522/Ballinger Way NE could result in riders seeking on-street parking nearby. Security enforcement and time-limited parking will minimize this potential at the Lake Forest Park Town Center station." LFP residents will have to make U-turns as left turn lanes are eliminated and more are substantially shortened. (See Section 3.8.2)
The Focus Has Narrowed to The Most Impacted Half Mile
Since the March report, CORE has refined the recommendation to the central .6-mile segment that corresponds to where Sound Transit altered the design in 2021 to move the highway west – only half the distance of the route through LFP. That’s where most of the tree removals, property acquisitions, and high retaining walls are in the design. We are essentially saying just leave alone the section between 153rd and 165th, except for adding signalized lights as planned and a short bus queue jump in the planned right turn lane at 165th. Doing so will provide a bus queue jump northbound at 153rd and will preserve nearly all the 2.3-minute expected bus travel time savings. This .6-mile segment is only 7% of the Stride 3 route yet it represents 68% the construction and property acquisition costs for the entire eight-mile route from Shoreline to Bothell.
ST will not incur much additional design effort since there would be little work in this .6-mile segment and ST plans would be unchanged elsewhere along the route in LFP. The city of LFP, also advocating for this solution, wrote to the ST board and staff on July 12 and has provided engineering drawings for this approach to ST.
ST has told CORE repeatedly that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) relies on dedicated BAT lanes, but they cite a much broader definition: “a high-quality bus-based transit system that delivers fast and efficient service that may include dedicated lanes, busways, traffic signal priority, off-board fare collection, elevated platforms, and enhanced stations.” There is already a dedicated bus lane in the westbound/southbound direction through LFP. Our plan would decrease BAT lane coverage only by 2% from the planned 53% to 51%. Traffic congestion is not higher in this section than in other parts of the route where dedicated BAT lanes are not planned.
More Property Acquisitions in LFP
There are over 40 driveways along the east side of this .6-mile segment and ST had cited eliminating full property takes as a primary reason for the west shift. ST Board Chair Dow Constantine said, “I’m heartened to hear that this may not involve those full acquisitions, but we will want to be on top of that if it changes” (see timestamp 2:19:50 of meeting video) when the board approved the acquisitions at the January 26, 2023 meeting.
But now, in addition to over 100 partial property acquisitions, the SEPA addendum lists two full acquisitions in LFP and ST will likely be forcing several residents along the east side out of their homes. The Sheridan Market, listed on the Washington Heritage Register of Historic Places, may be one of the properties sacrificed.
Table A-1 SR 522/NE 145th BRT Updated Property Acquisitions shows 68% of listed LFP properties show increases in square feet of planned property acquisitions since the 2021 SEPA. The table, which apparently omits properties where only permanent or temporary easements are sought, shows that most of the affected LFP properties are within the 153rd to 165th section.
As of October 23, twenty LFP properties are listed by ST as in "condemnation". This means that ST is taking property owners to court and CORE has ample evidence that many ST offers fall far short of fair compensation. Some property owners have indicated that the impacts of partial acquisitions render their properties essentially unusable, and some have said they were not notified of the move to condemnation by ST.
Documents Uncover Deep Concern for Soil Stability Near Bsche'tla Cree
Through public records requests (May 20, 2024 Geotechnical Recommendations Report), CORE has also discovered that there is engineering concern about soil “liquification” around the steep slopes at Bsche’tla Creek and behind the high retaining wall near 165th. Liquefaction during earthquake events is described in Table 5-5 of the report, page 5-25 in the Ravine area. The report column titled Liquefaction Susceptibility cites "At fill's deepest point (put there during WSDOT's previous construction) liquefaction anticipated from top of ground water table to 67 feet below ground surface". The adjacent column titled "Notes" states "Slope likely to experience flow, sliding/lateral spreading".
The report says that 70 soil geotechnical borings have been proposed but that 14 are still needed. Though ST claims they are at 100% design, the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has not yet approved a design to cross Bsche’tla Creek in the ST plan, having rejected three ST proposals already. We are deeply concerned about the impacts to the sensitive slopes in LFP during and after construction. Our recommendation avoids crossing the creek and eliminates the need for tall retaining walls.
We feel that our proposal makes sense, not just for LFP residents, but also for transit riders, Shoreline, Kenmore, and Bothell, and the ST public which is currently paying $1,800 annually per household for ST improvements. ST is already way over budget and a few hundred million dollars saved may not seem like much in the grand plan, but it could provide for some much-needed ST improvements. All Stride 3 bus riders will see BRT service sooner with our proposal since construction would take less time. This includes all cities along the route - Shoreline, LFP, Kenmore, and Bothell.
CORE Holds Meetings with Many Stakeholders
Since our last blog, CORE has had meetings with nearly two-dozen community leaders to try to convince them of the wisdom of our plan:
Terri Mestas, ST Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Dave Upthegrove, King County Council Chair
Claudia Balducci, ST System Expansion Committee Chair
Roger Millar, head of WSDOT
State representative Davina Duerr
State senator Derick Stanford
Bob Ferguson, Washington Attorney General
Rob Demboski, King County Council
Mason Thompson, Mayor of Bothell
Nigel Herbig, Mayor of Kenmore
Chris Roberts, Mayor of Shoreline
Dow Constantine's Reps
Kim Roscoe, Mayor of Fife
Jim Jastama, Mayor of Puyallup
Christine Frizzell, Mayor of Lynnwood
Nancy Backus, Mayor of Auburn
Anggela Birney, Mayor of Redmond
Cassie Franklin, Mayor of Everett
Girmay Zahilay Reps, King County Council
Dan Strauss, Seattle Council
The meetings haven’t resulted in design changes, but many of these leaders don’t have all the information so we have been trying to fill them in. We feel that increasing costs will ultimately make it hard to ignore sensible arguments to save considerable dollars.
We may also take out a full-page ad in the Seattle Times to call attention not only to the environmental damage in LFP but also to the taxpayer money that could be saved to get bus rapid transit running more quickly.
Next Steps
CORE expects to hold a community meeting sometime early next year. Meanwhile, you can support this effort by emailing the ST Board at emailtheboard@soundtransit.org and/or by donating to CORE.
This seems a little ignorant:
“We feel that increasing costs will ultimately make it hard to ignore sensible arguments to save considerable dollars.”
CORE ideas would have been embraced long ago if this were true. If there is anything this process has made clear to me it is that avoiding massive expenses, and providing sensible arguments that are good for taxpayers, home owners, natural wildlife and the environment, are not concerns for ST.
WPPSS on wheels!