Clearing the last requirements before construction begins on the Mountlake Terrace Link Light Rail Station, City of Mountlake Terrace Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts earlier this week issued his decision on Sound Transit’s applications for a Conditional Use Permit, Reasonable Use Exception, and Site Plan.
The decision issued Tuesday agrees with both Sound Transit and the city’s staff reports that state the project abides by the requirements for the permits. The reports were presented to Olbrechts during a public hearing in Mountlake Terrace June 27.
There were only two conditions that the city and Sound Transit disagreed upon, both involving Site B of the Link’s site plan.
Site B is where the city’s station will be located, right up against Veteran’s Memorial Park. The main pedestrian trail through Veteran’s Memorial Park is currently not ADA-accessible and ends at a stairwell that will be moved when construction begins. The city asked that Sound Transit, in addition to moving the staircase, build an extension of the trail with an ADA-accessible ramp connecting the trail to the sidewalk of 236th street. The elevation difference is about 4 to 5 feet, according to Olbrecht’s decision.
Olbrechts agreed the ramp is necessary, since Sound Transit will be increasing traffic on the trail as a new destination for public transit users, including those who are disabled. He also factored in that the city’s Civic Center, and many public facilities, lie just on the other side of the park and will therefore be accessible from the transit center via the trail.
“Sound Transit’s failure to provide direct accessible linkage to that trail system will compromise the utility and efficiency of the system by forcing disabled users to take alternative routes to both the Transit Center and the public and commercial services near and in the City’s civic campus.,” Olbrechts’ decision said.
The current trail is not ADA accessible, though the city has a long-term plan to make it so. To avoid Sound Transit building a “road to nowhere,” where an ADA-accesible path suddenly become inaccessible when entering the parking lot, Olbrechts recommended that the city be required to make the current trail accessible before the station opens in 2024 and before Sound Transit builds the trail extension. If the city fails to make the trail accessible before the Transit Center’s opening, he said, then Sound Transit doesn’t needn’t build the trail extension and create a “road to nowhere.”
Olbrechts said that the $2 million that the city received from Sound Transit for System Access Improvement should be put toward construction on the old trail to make it accessible first, and then be applied to the trail extension. According to Christy Osborn, Community and Economic Development Director for the city, if the cost of improvements to both the trail and the extension cost more than the $2 million, a study would need to be done to determine “the proportional costing that would need to be paid by the city.”
In addition, the city had requested that Sound Transit add a wrought iron fence along the western side of the path. This would be a safety precaution, since the path will be at the top of a retaining wall. Sound Transit had wanted to make this fence a chain link one, but Olbrechts agreed that the wrought iron was necessary to “maintain established character of the surrounding vicinity as required by the conditional use criterion.”
Osborn said that at this time, the city has no plans to appeal the hearing examiner’s decision.
— By Mardy Harding
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