Puget Sound Park property removed from consideration as housing site
Puget Sound Park, a neighborhood park located just north of the intersection of South 128th Street and First Avenue South, is located within the area designated for annexation by the city of Burien. I joined community members and Burien city officials in opposing the conversion of any portion of this neighborhood park to housing uses.
I support efforts to create needed additional workforce housing in our communities. At the same time, our public parks—both active and passive—are valuable assets to their surrounding neighborhoods and King County as a whole that must be preserved and enhanced whenever possible.
Sound Transit news
Sound Transit has chosen July 18 as the opening date for light rail service from downtown Seattle to Tukwila.
The 13.9-mile line will stop short of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, but shuttle buses will take riders to the airport terminal. Full service to the airport via a 1.7-mile line extension will open in December.
The next step in the planned 55-mile light rail system approved by voters last November will be the opening of an extension to the University of Washington in 2016.
U Link project bids come in under budget
Sound Transit got more good news on its University Link light rail extension. The apparent low bidder to dig twin tunnels from the University of Washington to Capitol Hill was Traylor Frontier–Kemper Joint Venture with a $309,175,274 bid for the work.
Sound Transit engineers had estimated the work would cost some $395 million.
A separate contract scheduled to be awarded early next year will drill two tunnels from Capitol Hill to the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. Sound Transit has broken the University Link work into several contracts to generate greater competition among bidders for the work.
Sound Transit contractors began preparing the UW station site earlier this month and site preparation at the Capitol Hill station site is also underway.
Federal stimulus funds benefit Spokane Street project, Metro service
It’s nice to be the bearer of good financial news.
On March 12, I joined my colleagues on the Puget Sound Regional Council board in approving $214 million in funding for transit and highway projects in the four-county area (King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap).
At the top of our highway projects list was a $15.4 million allocation for the South Spokane Street Viaduct widening project. This project will improve Southwest Seattle residents’ access to downtown by providing motorists with an easy transfer to surface streets.
King County Metro, suffering from a drop in the sales tax revenues that fund local bus service, will receive $25 million in vehicle maintenance funding, plus $45 million to fund the purchase of new hybrid buses.
Other funded projects included:
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$1.5 million to improve the Southwest 98th Street pedestrian corridor in downtown White Center;
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$3.8 million for improvements to First Avenue South in Normandy Park;
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$4.6 million for Sound Transit’s University Link light rail extension;
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$4.6 million for Sound Transit to purchase new buses that run on clean fuels, and
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$1.3 million to the King County Ferry District for the purchase of a maintenance barge and other equipment.
Water Taxi returns, sets one-day ridership record
The King County Water Taxi set a new one-day ridership record April 5 as 3,429 riders took advantage of a warm, sunny opening day to make their first trip of the season on the West Seattle-to-downtown passenger ferry.
The previous record for opening day ridership was 2,404 riders on April 29, 2007.
The Water Taxi is now known as the King County Water Taxi to reflect the fact that the King County Ferry District has taken over operation of this successful route. The boat also has a new look, dock signage has been improved, and the Water Taxi will accept the new ORCA fare cards in addition to other transit passes.
The free shuttle van service has been split in to two routes—with Route 773 serving the West Seattle Junction and Route 775 serving the Admiral District, Alki and Harbor Avenue.
The one-way fare for the King County Water Taxi is $3 for anyone over the age of 5. Passengers with a valid Metro transfer pay just $1. All valid Metro passes are accepted for full fare.
Council approves major investment in White Center
The revitalization of White Center received an economic boost on March 30 when the King County Council authorized a $6.25 million federal loan for construction of a retail plaza.
This is an excellent economic development project that contributes to the surrounding mixed-income community and that will create about 60 permanent jobs.
The legislation approved by the Council authorizes the Executive to borrow $6.25 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and re-lend those funds to the White Center Investment Fund, LLC. This money will be used to leverage the additional funding needed to complete a new, $11 million, 26,500-square-foot retail/office plaza. The major tenant (and project owners) will be Vong’s Grocery, a longtime White Center business that desperately needs a larger space to do business. A restaurant, travel agent and other businesses will fill the rest of the retail and office space.
Citizens to get more detailed budget information
Citizens will better understand where their tax dollars are being spent through a budget transparency ordinance approved April 6 by the King County Council.
Too often, information-seeking citizens inspect budget documents only to find a department’s budget expressed as a single line item. This ordinance ensures a dramatically greater level of detail in the presentation and reporting of the annual County budget.
King County residents should expect to find detailed, complete budget information, especially given the fiscal challenges the county currently faces and the hard decisions that will have to be made in the near future.
County Council a leader in providing online meeting access
Making government more transparent and accessible is one of our highest priorities as a council. The more meaningful information we can put online, the more we can encourage citizen involvement and participation.
All King County Council and Committee meetings held in chambers are streamed live online through the Council’s Web site and archived videos of past meetings are available on demand. The videos are posted through the Granicus system, which integrates with the Council’s online Legisearch database so that citizens who call up an online agenda can click on automated bookmarks in archived video streams to see the discussion of specific items.
King County Council meetings are also carried live and replayed regularly on King County TV, the County’s government access channel on Cable Channel 22 throughout the county.
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If you have any questions or comments, please email me, dow.constantine@kingcounty.gov.