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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, Copy editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Bring light rail to Snohomish County, city leaders tell Sound Transit

By Oscar Halpert
Enterprise editor

An altered version of last year’s roads and transit package -- the one voters rejected in November -- could make an appearance on the ballot this year.

Whether that new package goes to the voters this year and includes bringing Link Light Rail to Snohomish County depends upon what the Sound Transit Board of Directors decides in meetings on July 10 and 24.

The board's official position remains that the 20-year option is preferred but it has the authority to amend that position as long as it does so before an Aug. 12 state filing deadline.

Edmonds City Councilwoman Deanna Dawson, one of three Sound Transit Board members from Snohomish County, said the key issues for the county are making sure whatever package is approved has both long and short-term benefits to the county and ensuring that county tax dollars get spent for transit projects benefiting Snohomish County.

"The trick is putting together a package that we think is going to serve all of the subareas, because the 12-year package is not sufficient for Snohomish County," she said.

Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace have made their positions clear.

Both cities last month sent letters to Sound Transit’s board urging it to make sure Link Light Rail doesn’t end its northbound line at Northgate but comes to Snohomish County.

Voters in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties last year rejected Proposition 1, a $20 billion measure that would have brought Link Light Rail to the Ash Way Park and Ride at 164th Street Southwest and I-5 in 20 years.

The transit agency plans to open its first light rail line, from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport, next year.

Since last year's ballot measure defeat, Sound Transit board members and other regional leaders, assessing that voters were confused by the size and upset at the cost of the November package, have discussed whether to ask voters to approve less expensive, 12-year alternatives that call for expanded bus service with light rail only going as far north as Northgate. The same option, called ST 2020, would send light rail trains to Bellevue and Redmonds' Overlake neighborhood near Microsoft.

The city of Lynnwood has yet to take an official position but Council President Loren Simmonds told the Sound Transit Board June 26 that the 12-year option, known as ST 2020, isn’t enough because it doesn’t meet requirements of Sound Transit’s own Long Range Plan.

“That plan clearly states that light rail is the best mode for the ‘backbone’ of public transit services in the region,” Simmonds said. “The draft plan for ST 2020 fails to achieve even a portion of this mission, extending light rail only to Northgate leaves North King County and Snohomish County with no ‘fast, reliable connection’ to downtown Seattle or other urban centers.”

Lynnwood’s City Council June 30 opted not to take a position on whether the Sound Transit Board should float a ballot measure this year after hearing from staff that the transit agency has quietly been considering a 15-year option.

“It behooves us to wait,” said councilman Mark Smith.

Rick Ilgenfritz, Sound Transit's exective director for planning and public affairs, confirmed Tuesday that the agency is working on an option that could be built in more than 12 but less than 20 years. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, the board chair, asked Sound Transit staff July 1 to come up with the intermediate option that includes light rail to Snohomish County, Ilgenfritz said.

"Fifteen (years) is a reasonable guess but I don't want to confirm that until we do the analysis," he said.

Edmonds' City Council urged the Sound Transit Board in a June 24 letter to add a Mountlake Terrace light rail station and bring light rail at least as far north as Lynnwood or the Ash Way Park and Ride.

Edmonds Councilman Steve Bernheim had a slightly different take on the issue. He said June 30 that though he wants to see light rail come to Snohomish County, it's more important to get something going than nothing. To that end, he said, "Northgate to the airport is more important than Northgate to Everett."

Ilgenfritz said he expected Lynnwood's council to pepper him with questions about the so-called "fourth option" during his presentation before the council on June 23. No one asked.

"I was all ready to say 'yeah, we're working on a revised package,'" he said.

He called "absolutely right" comments that compared I-5 to a spine from which light rail would branch off to a variety of transportation interconnections, such as buses, bus rapid transit, van pools and commuter trains.