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A Sound Transit (ST) representative gave no clues to future transit projects planned by the agency in Snohomish County during a presentation given to the Mountlake Terrace City Council on Monday, instead simply noting that the study of future plans by the agency will begin this month.
Patrice Hardy, ST Government Relations Director, reported that Sound Transit has scheduled to update their 2005 Long-Range Plan with a scoping and commenting period beginning Oct. 25.
“Our long-range plan is really the blue print from which we collect projects to send out to the voters for approval and the development of a high capacity transit system,” Hardy said. “Over the next year, that is what we will be doing, updating the long-range plan.”
Sound Transit has set Oct. 25 through Nov. 25 as the time period during which it will be collecting comments and data concerning possible agency projects throughout Snohomish, King and Pierce County, including a possible extension of light rail north from Lynnwood. Residents throughout the Sound Transit three-county service area will be receiving a mailer about the scoping process and will be invited to comment via email, phone, mail, or at one of six scheduled public meetings. The only Snohomish County public comment meeting set for now will be on Nov. 19 in Everett.
Sound Transit Directors want to update the agency’s Long-Range Plan as they consider any future projects in the region. “They wanted us to be ready to have the update to them in 2014 so that they could have the option of going to the voters sometime between 2016 and 2020 for the next set of high-capacity improvements. So that’s the scheduled we are on right now,” Hardy explained.
Sound Transit is currently building a light rail corridor from the University District to Northgate in Seattle, and will announce soon the route a planned light rail line will be taking through Shoreline and Mountlake Terrace to Lynnwood.
Sound Transit is scheduled to begin light rail service from Seattle to the University District in 2016, to Northgate in 2021, and through Mountlake Terrace to Lynnwood in 2023.
In separate action, the Mountlake Terrace City Council approved an agreement with Community Transit to continue operating ten electric vehicle charging stations at the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center until Dec. 31, 2015. The charging stations were opened in May 2012.
— By Doug Petrowski
Time for interested parties to comment on Sound Transit future plans. Let them know your thoughts & hope.