Sound Transit update on Lynnwood Link
Friday, April 3, 2015
Sound Transit and the Federal Transit Administration published the Final EIS for the Lynnwood Link Extension light rail project.
The Final EIS:
- Responds to public and agency comments received during the public comment period for the project’s Draft EIS
- Describes the preferred alternative and other project alternatives, including their potential impacts
- Provides environmental information to assist the Sound Transit Board in selecting the project to be built
- Identifies measures to avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts
- Complies with National and State Environmental Policy Acts (NEPA/SEPA)
Where to find the Final EIS
- Area public libraries
- The Sound Transit office
- The project website
To request a free copy of the Executive Summary, a CD of the Final EIS or to purchase a printed copy, contact Lauren Swift, 206-398-5301.
Sound Transit Board selects final route and stations in April.
On April 23, 2015, Sound Transit’s Board of Director is anticipated to select the final route and stations and project to be built based on findings in the Final EIS, public and agency comments on the Draft EIS and public testimony to the Board. Come to the Board meeting to learn more and provide public testimony.
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1 comments:
This is an important note about democratic process for Shoreline citizens who wish to provide input on the Lynnwood Link extension through City of Shoreline. If you have an opinion on how the new light rail through Shoreline is emerging, now is the time to put it on permanent record for politicians to consider.
The final Lynnwood Link Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is a massive compilation of documentation that is required by law to justify the $600 to $850 million Federal construction grant that will pay for half the construction of the project and make it financially viable for our region. Without this grant, the line cannot be built.
One part of the EIS now available to read is a complete listing of all the comments received to data from citizens, along with the Sound Transit staff's written response to these comments. This material is in very large files posted at http://www.soundtransit.org/Projects-and-Plans/Lynnwood-Link-Extension/Lynnwood-Link-Document-Archive/Lynnwood-Environmental-Impact-Statement or on a compact disk that Sound Transit will mail for free to anybody who asks.
If you are one of the hundreds of people who cared enough to comment on this light rail line already, and if you think Sound Transit should have by now responded to your comment by doing something different in this project than what was described in the Draft EIS, now is a time for action, by May 3.
You should now take the time to look up and read the Sound Transit staff response to your comment as published in the Final EIS.
Don't you want to know if anybody has been listening to you?
After having checked back, if you are now in any way unsatisfied with the first response to your comment, you can send in a new comment on what you are today thinking about this project.
Your new comment on top of your first comment will force an official Federal response in the Record of Decision, another crucial document that will be issued in May or later.
Your new comment should be in writing and addressed to the Regional Federal Transit Administrator Rick Krochalis at Rick.Krochalis@dot.gov . Include in the top line of your message the words, "comment for entry into the Lynnwood Link Extension Record of Decision." You also should address a copy of your comment to the Sound Transit Board of Directors, at emailtheboard@soundtransit.org .
And even if you have not ever sent anything to the government on light rail in Shoreline, a comment you make now will go on record and be considered. It is not too late, even though Sound Transit wants you to think that all of its light rail is a done deal.
You may be interested in my comment that a commitment to extend light rail north of Northgate should wait until the ridership goal of 105,000 per day set back in 1996 for the train from U District to SeaTac is achieved. There is actually some doubt about getting to that, given the low ridership compared to planning expectations on the present line from downtown Seattle to the Airport.
Discrepancies have been documented between high forecasts of rail ridership prepared by Sound Transit for the 2008 tax election and lower forecasts issued by the Puget Sound Regional Council, an official planning agency, in 2010. Intermediate ridership goals for light rail have not yet been met, as documented by the U.S. Government in the Before and After Report to Congress.
If the multi-billion dollar light rail is not attractive to riders for reasons that were not understood when it was planned, we should not keep building more of it, especially with the disruption to existing neighborhoods that construction brings.
John Niles
Public Interest Transportation Forum
http://www.bettertransport.info/pitf
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