Seattle City Council Transportation Committee 7/1/2025

All right, good morning.

The July 1st, 2025 meeting of the Transportation Committee will come to order.

It is 9.31 a.m.

I'm Rob Saka, chair of the Transportation Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Here.

Councilmember Rink.

Present.

Councilmember Strauss.

Present.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

Present.

Chair Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are five members present.

All right.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection online, the agenda is hereby adopted.

All right, thank you, colleagues and members of the public.

Thank you for joining us today at today's Transportation Committee meeting.

As always, we have a full and important, of course, exciting, as always, agenda before us today.

Our first topic today will be the ST3 Transitway Agreement, which we briefed and discussed at our very last Transportation Committee meeting.

This council bill and companion resolution are an important step to building out light rail infrastructure to West Seattle and beyond.

Thank you again to Sound Transit and our ST3 city team.

Our second topic will be a piece of executive-driven legislation we heard in a previous committee regarding a leasehold deed of trust between SDOT and the Cultural Space Agency at King Street Station.

Looking forward to hearing about this legislation from our central staff and SDOT partners again.

That said, we'll now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda and be within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have one in-person and one remote, but not present yet.

Thank you.

Each speaker will have approximately two minutes.

We'll start with the in-speaker or in-person speakers first.

Clerk, could you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Public comment period is now open.

It will begin with the first speaker on the list.

That is Dan French.

Testing?

Are we working?

Testing?

I'm on a second then.

Test?

You're live, you may begin.

Thank you.

I am objecting to anything moving forward with SDOT.

They have proved beyond any measure of sanity that they are incompetent and grossly negligent on multiple areas.

The most glaring one is the one I continue to bring here, the 130th Street unsafe project.

Currently they're redesigning, redoing the exit ramp from I-5 onto 130th.

People will be required to change lanes four times in a three block area.

Four times they will have to change lanes.

I have raised this, I have been ignored.

They are shutting down Fifth Avenue, an alternate route.

Just recently I-5 was shut down to yet another accident.

The alternate routes are not going to work because SDOT is shutting them down.

Who does this?

Who thinks this is a good idea?

I would like to know.

I would like to meet and talk with them and understand why.

Continuing on that same vein, the shutting down will reroute traffic where it is currently being rerouted in front of both schools, churches, and other residences that people have been begging to get SDOT's attention.

they won't look, they won't listen.

They need to listen, they need to look, they need to be held accountable.

Please, they're not.

They're showing everything is peaches and roses and they're not.

There's serious problems, backlogs, failures.

SDOT is not being held to any level of accountability.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

We will now go to the remote speaker.

We have one remote speaker, David Haynes.

David Haynes, when you're allowed to speak, remember to hit that star six, thank you.

Hi, thank you, David Haynes.

Hold on, give me a second.

$1.7 billion per mile to compete with overpriced Rapid Ride C that goes to the same area where King County Metro and Sound Transit compete to get you to the same area of Alaska Junction, nowhere near Alki Beach, proving progressive Democrats have impaired judgment and piss-poor planners.

Yet Council wants to increase the money for businesses from $50,000 to $200,000 on the ST3 route.

as if the greatest success those businesses will ever have is being forced to move by sound transit.

So I have to ask, out of all the millions of dollars council wants to spread through their neighborhood to help businesses move, how much money is actually going to go to the workers who do all the work?

are they gonna be able to pocket some of it for the inconvenience or is this another slush fund for businesses that oppress their workers, selling them out, keeping them desperate paycheck to paycheck like traditional capitalist oppressors of workers, reminding us there isn't really any difference between neoliberal and conservative debt service police state economy of non-working shareholder middleman donors, the owners of our politicians.

It's obvious progressive Democrats have impaired judgment Council should reject ST3 and fire all these government ST3 college pukes of privilege who virtue signal promotions of more obnoxious, loud, annoying, low-quality trains competing with rapid rides to go to the exact same place in Alaska Junction, proving how pathetic the planning is by Democrats who want to basically do everything backwards and introduce bigger roads and bigger bridges amidst established communities that meet 21st century first world quality redevelopment without the world wage or the misinterpretation of proper policy.

Thank you, David.

Chair, that is the end of the signed up public testimony.

All right, thank you.

We will now move on to our first item of business.

First and second item.

Actually, can you read, Clerk, will you please read item numbers one and two into the record?

Agenda item one, resolution 32172, a resolution approving the alignment station locations and maintenance base location for sound transit link light rail lines in the city of Seattle, including the West Seattle link extension and superseding the alignment station locations and maintenance base location approved in resolution 31784. Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 121003, an ordinance relating to the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, Sound Transit, authorizing the Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation to execute an amendment to the agreement between the City of Seattle and Sound Transit for grant of non-exclusive use of a light rail transitway as related to the Link Light Rail Transit Project to reflect the approved alignment and light rail transit facilities for the Link Light Rail Transit Project, including addition of the West Seattle Link Extension and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

All right, thank you.

Looks like our presenters have joined us at the table.

Please do introduce yourselves and begin your presentations.

Calvin Chauve, Council Central Staff.

Sarah Maxana, Office of the Waterfront Civic Projects and Sound Transit.

So, council members, the two pieces of legislation before you were heard at the last Transformation Committee meeting, there are two related pieces of legislation.

The resolution would adopt, provide councils approval of the West Seattle alignment, and that is a necessary step to allow Sound Transit to start applying for permits.

to allow them to continue to prepare for the future of that project.

And then the council bill is there to authorize SDOT to amend the transitway agreement, which is an interlocal agreement with Sound Transit that allows them to use our right of way to provide transit service.

So it is an administrative agreement that establishes the rights and responsibilities of the two parties.

Is there anything else I should add, Sarah?

No, we're just excited for this next step and prepared to answer any questions that you might have about the legislation.

OK.

All right, let's take questions, comments from my colleagues, if any.

Any questions, comments, no?

All right.

Hearing and seeing no questions.

Let's see.

Let's take up the resolution first, which is item one on the agenda.

So I move that the committee recommend adoption of resolution 32172. Is there a second?

Second.

All right, it is moved and seconded to recommend adoption of Resolution 32172. Are there any further comments?

My colleagues looking online.

Yes, Council Member Kettle, followed by Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair Sokka.

I just wanted to thank not only the central staff team, Mr. Chow, but also the ST3 team with the ST3 and waterfront office.

And I appreciate their support and background and insight on the issues related to this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah, just echoing the same comments that Councilmember Kettle did as well as sharing my comments from the last meeting that this is a straightforward routine bill that is directly aligned with the record of decision that was approved by the federal government for sound transit.

Thank you, Chair.

All right, thank you, Council Member Strauss.

I will pile on with my own two cents from my perspective.

So first off, I wanna again reiterate my support for this project, strong support.

Connecting our culturally rich neighborhoods benefits our city and our respective council districts.

Today's legislation is about expanding and investing in our city's transit infrastructure but for me it's also about accountability and oversight.

Major infrastructure expansion and rehabilitation projects like this can be disruptive.

So we need to always be actively ensuring that we are communicating directly with impacted residents, small businesses, et cetera, the like and mitigating to the full extent possible any disruptions related to large scale projects such as these.

So my support for this project is totally predicated on the expectation of engagement and outreach and the help to the full extent possible under the law, including the expanded law which raises the relocation assistance, the state statutory cap for relocation assistance that I lobbied for in Olympia this year to help with the mitigation.

And that mitigation on behalf of Sound Transit Sound Transit's responsibility, chief responsibility to do that.

And I expect partners like Sound Transit to work with impacted parties utilizing new tools like the aforementioned bill, HB 1733, that increases the statutory cap for relocation assistance.

And so once again, this is an important project for our communities and our region.

My office will continue to be active in making sure that engagement, mitigation, and accountability is present at every step of the way.

All right.

Any of my colleagues have any final questions or comments?

Hearing and seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on recommendation to adopt Resolution 32172?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Ink?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Chair Saka?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

All right.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the council adopt resolution 32172 will be sent to the July 8th, 2025 city council meeting.

We will now proceed to the second item of business, which has already been read into the record.

Presenters, just give us a quick overview of the ordinance, please.

The ordinance is a authorizing ordinance allowing SDOT to sign a amendment to the transitway agreement, which acknowledges the West Seattle alignment in the body of that document.

I don't believe there are any other changes in the document at all.

so it is just to acknowledge the West Seattle alignment in the transitway agreement.

All right, thank you.

Colleagues, any initial questions or comments?

Hearing and seeing none, I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 121003. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 121003. Are there any?

Further comments?

Oh, Councilmember Strauss, go ahead.

Floor is yours.

Councilmember Strauss, go ahead.

Oh, stale hand.

All right.

Joys of remote.

All right.

If there are no Final comments from my colleagues.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll and recommendation to pass council bill 1-2-1-0-0-3.

Council member Kettle.

Aye.

Council member Ink.

Yes.

Council member Strauss.

Council member Strauss.

I'll move on.

Vice chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Chair Saka?

Aye.

Can you call the roll again?

I heard him come off.

Of course.

Well, I saw him come off.

I didn't hear him.

Yes.

Councilmember Strauss?

Still can't hear you.

Councilmember, unfortunately, I don't hear you.

Yes.

Yes.

There it is.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

Okay.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

All right, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that council pass council bill 121003 will be sent to the July 8th, 2025 city council meeting.

All right, we will now move on to our third item of business.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Agenda Item 3, Council Bill 120989, an ordinance relating to the Seattle Department of Transportation authorizing the Director of Transportation to execute and record a leasehold deed of trust reflecting Cultural Space Agency's leasehold estate rights created through the agreement.

It executed with the City of Seattle as authorized under Ordinance 126916 and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Thank you.

Will our new presenter please join us at the table?

Looks like you already have.

Once ready, please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation, including a refresher of this topic from over a month ago now.

Yeah, Bill LaBoard, Seattle Department of Transportation.

And Calvin Chavez, central staff.

Rolled up and down.

So just a quick refresher, I'm not gonna go through, I don't think I need to go through these slides, but this is just some background that's available as a reference on King Street Station, noting that the city purchased the station from BNSF in 2008 and managed the historic restoration and seismic rehabilitation of the building.

which was completed in 2013. Estat has partnered with arts and culture since 2015. They moved on, renovated and moved into the third floor in 2019 and since then collaborating with arts and culture and the cultural space agency which is a public development authority that was created by the city.

They also funded a renovation, in this case on the second floor, and moved in five organizations, arts organizations, mostly centered on education for youth, arts education for youth in late 2023. and you can see we have lease agreements for all three uses, Amtrak on the first floor, Arts and Culture on the third, and Cultural Space Agency on the second.

And this legislation in front of you would authorize the SDOT director to execute and record essentially the existing lease, 30-year lease with Cultural Space Agency as a deed of trust, which is a prerequisite for the Cultural Space Agency to collect a State Department of Commerce earmark that covers a substantial cost of the over $4 million that they put into renovating the second floor.

and we have worked with law to determine that there's no financial risk to the city.

What it does provide is that if CSA was to default on their lease, the state would take over the leasehold interest as security for the earmark.

we would actually probably see a windfall if that happened in the sense that if arts or if Department of Commerce did take over the leasehold and couldn't continue to use it in its current form as an arts entity, arts education entity, then the rent would bump up $12 a square foot and we'd actually start collecting more money if it was used for office space or something like that.

I think that's it, yeah.

All right, thank you.

Colleagues, anyone have any initial questions, comments on this bill before us?

Hearing and seeing none.

Oh, Council Member Rink, go ahead.

I'll just chime in briefly since we've got the time.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll just be brief and say this seems particularly straightforward to me.

As was stated in the presentation, this comes at no financial risk to the city and the state would be responsible for the remainder of the lease term and this would allow important organizations, youth serving nonprofits at King Street Station like Totem Star, Red Eagle Soaring, Jackson Street Jazz Project and so on to go forward.

So I will be voting yesterday.

So I think that's a good question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

Yes, fairly straightforward.

look after our gems in the city, you know, those kind of historical locations that add that kind of extra piece to our city, whether it's on the waterfront or, you know, different parts, Town Hall or King Street Station.

And it's also a good way to build community, which is something, you know, that we need to do again and again post-pandemic to rebuild You know, the different pieces of community that we have in our city and this cultural space would be great for that.

So definitely support.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Any other?

Oh, go ahead.

Council member Strauss.

Thank you.

Just one last mic check.

Can you hear me clear?

Can hear you Lima, Charlie loud and clear.

Wonderful.

Just have to say, it's been an amazing opportunity to get to watch the King Street Station change over the last decade from having low-hung false ceilings to what we have now, which is positive activation in the rooms of King Street Station.

quite a journey and really this is a special opportunity.

I'm excited to pass this bill today as the last step on the journey for now.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

And I'll pile on that I think this is the category in my view of less straightforward and more firmly in the and the routine bucket.

I'll say as a lawyer, this bill deals with some very technical and fairly complex legal constructs pertaining to real property.

And so that's why maybe not the most straightforward, but it is a bit more routine and very important and impactful as well.

So for those reasons, and I am here to support it today, proud to be able to support it today.

That said, let's see, I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120989. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

We hadn't previously moved it, right?

Not, no, okay, okay.

All right, it is moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 120989. Are there any final comments from my colleagues?

Hearing and seeing none, will the committee clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to pass Council Bill 120989. Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Chair Saka.

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

All right.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the council pass council bill 120989 will be sent to the July 8th, 2025 city council meeting.

All right.

We have reached the end of today's media agenda.

Our next meeting will be on July 15th at 9.30 AM.

Is there any final business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Hearing and seeing none.

Wow, less than a half hour for a transportation committee meeting.

Great.

Colleagues don't plan on this on a going forward basis, but...

Hearing and seeing no further business to come before the committee.

We are adjourned.

It is 9.58 a.m.