Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center Committee 3/19/2026

All right.

Good morning.

The March 19th, 2026 meeting of the Safety, Transportation, Engineering, Project, Sports and Experiences Committee will come to order.

It is 9.31 a.m.

I am Rob Saka, chair of the committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Lin.

Here.

Vice Chair Rink.

Present.

Chair Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are five members present.

Excellent.

Thank you.

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

Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

All right, good morning again.

And I'll say happy March Madness to you all.

I appreciate everyone who is attending this morning's meetings.

Understand how difficult it can be for some to miss the exciting NCAA tournament games.

Looking forward to cheering on our Husky women tomorrow.

I think they face off.

But I can ensure you that we have a very fun, action-packed agenda today, really important one.

I'll also start off by noting that my office has been closely monitoring traffic safety data in our city.

Since our immediate last STEPS Committee meeting, there have been no reported traffic incidents or fatal traffic incidents in Seattle.

While that is, I guess, somewhat notable, it's obviously only a very short period of time and does not indicate a broader trend, we must continue to evaluate the data over time and remain laser-focused on sustained long-term improvements in traffic safety in our city.

As a member of the Seattle City Council, I wear many hats.

The two most important of these hats are that I'm the committee chair of this committee here, and I'm also a District 1 representative.

These roles have a lot of cross-pollination, especially on the matter of Sound Transit's West Seattle Link Extension project.

This is in part what we'll be discussing today.

First, I want to thank everyone again for being here, my colleagues, members of the public, especially and including the many small, vibrant, small business owners who took time away from their shops, took time away from your staffs, your customers, to be here.

So I want to be very clear and state this very clearly as well.

We hear you, we see you, and your voices truly do matter in this process.

Today's community roundtable discussion is about something very real, not abstract, not at all theoretical.

It's about people.

It's about livelihoods.

It's also about small businesses that serve as anchors in our neighborhoods, in our communities, especially here in my Council District 1 and across West Seattle.

At the same time, we're talking about one of the largest infrastructure investments in our region's history.

Light rail expansion will shape how people move, how goods move, and how our economy grows for decades to come.

Both of these truths exist at the same time.

And holding both of these truths in the work is exactly the work that's in front of us.

I want to ground this conversation in what I've been hearing directly from impacted small business owners for the last couple years.

Taking many walks of these various corridors alongside you all, I have stood in your shops, I have heard your concerns, your questions, your frustration, and your fear.

One business owner in North Delridge in particular said something to me that has stuck.

They told me, I can plan for change, I just can't plan for uncertainty.

That is the heart of the issue.

Right now, uncertainty is the single biggest challenge facing many SC3 impacted small businesses, not knowing when relocation support will arrive, not knowing what will be recovered or reimbursable exactly, not knowing how to prepare.

And when you are running a small business, uncertainty is not just inconvenient, It's incredibly destabilizing.

So also let me be clear about roles and responsibilities here as well.

Our partners at Sound Transit remain responsible for providing relocation assistance and fair compensation to those displaced by its own projects.

That responsibility is real.

That responsibility is legal.

And it must be met.

My role as a city council member and chair of this committee is different.

My job is to bring people together to ensure accountability, to make sure the responsible agency meets its obligations, and to lead where the city can step in to provide additional support and relief.

because even when another agency holds the primary responsibility, we're not going to stand by and watch our small businesses struggle through this challenge alone.

We're going to show up.

We're going to lead and we're going to act.

Over the last two years, that has meant a lot of direct engagement.

I've met with many of the small family owned business owners, their workers, had numerous community conversations with various community leaders, coordination with Sound Transit, walking tours of impacted corridors, and yes, multiple letters to the Sound Transit Board pushing for clear guidance and stronger anti-displacement strategies.

It has also meant strong action at the policy level.

Proud to have been able to help support and champion from a city of Seattle perspective, state legislation to raise relocation assistance caps.

That was the easiest effort of all this.

We also launched a $250,000 pilot program in North Delridge to provide immediate relief.

And I'm advancing upcoming legislation to create a permanent public-private partnership fund modeled after the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund to support impacted small businesses across Seattle over the long term.

That work is about delivering relief now while building something more durable for the future, which is a complex effort.

Check the history, check the receipts of the creation of the Rainier Valley Community Fund.

Long, complex effort.

And that brings me to a broader point.

What we are seeing here today is not new.

Seattle has certainly faced this challenge before.

Indeed, when light rail first came through Southeast Seattle, visionary leaders like Seattle City Council Member Richard MacGyver stepped up and helped create the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund.

That effort helped stabilize hundreds of small businesses during a period of major disruption.

I should add hundreds of primarily Black and people of color owned small businesses in Southeast Seattle.

At the time, we are now facing a new variation of the same underlying challenge.

But there is an important difference Many of today's impacted businesses are located in our maritime and industrial corridors.

From West Seattle to Soto to Ballard, these are working neighborhoods that move goods, support jobs, and keep our city and our economy humming along.

Some of the impacted areas in North Delridge, for example, are right next to Nucor Steel, a critically important industrial steel mill where steel production activity occurs, provides steel that powers the backbone of construction, not just in our region, not just in our state, but the entire country.

Also located in what's known as a liquefaction zone in North Del Ridge.

And this is, by the way, Seattle City Council member Richard MacGyver.

This is the architect of the original Rainier Valley Community Development Fund.

This is the person whose work upon which I seek to help build upon as we face a new the newest iteration of the same underlying challenges impacting small businesses.

Again, this time we're talking about maritime and industrial corridors.

It goes beyond small storefronts.

The local chapter of the International Longshore and Worker and Warehouse Union, ILWU Local 52, is also located in the impacted North Delridge area.

This is just one of many examples of how this project touches our broader maritime and industrial ecosystem that underpins our local economy.

Many of these shops and small businesses might not serve directly the maritime industrial industry insofar as they support Steve Doering, classic Steve Doering worker exercises, but they certainly serve their workers, provide goods and services to many of their workers.

And these are not just isolated impacts, they are deeply connected.

They call for solutions that reflect that reality.

So I also want to take a quick moment to acknowledge something I know is on some people's minds.

There are some community members who have raised serious concerns about the cost of the project.

Some have even called for it to be stopped altogether.

I hear those concerns, totally understand where they're coming from.

These are big numbers, big investments, huge decisions.

and people deserve to ask hard questions.

That said, I do not agree that the answer is to simply walk away from this investment.

Sound Transit is a regional transit authority created by the Washington state law and funded by the generosity of voters across King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

Major expansions like SC3 were approved by regional ballot measures and voters.

The City of Seattle is not the owner or ultimate decision maker of sound transit projects.

Tying back to my clarification of roles and responsibilities in this matter.

My role as a member of the Seattle City Council, who doesn't sit on the sound transit board, is to advocate for strategies that will ensure that projects are completed in the most fair and just way possible.

We can support light rail expansion and stand up and support our strong, small, local businesses at the same time.

In fact, we must do both.

It's not an either or choice.

It's a responsibility to get both these sides and issues right.

And today is about doing that work together.

I'm excited for this community roundtable bringing together small business owners, sound transit partners, city departments, and other community partners like the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund, different perspectives, different roles, shared responsibility to move forward in a way that reflects the values of our city.

My goal for today is simple, have an honest conversation, grounded in lived experience, focused on solutions, and crystal clear about what comes next.

because, at the end of the day, this is about more than a project timeline or construction plan.

It's about whether the small businesses and working communities that built our neighborhood, that power the backbone of our economy, are still here to be a part of their own future.

And that is something worth getting right, and that is something worth fighting for.

Again, I want to thank everyone for being here today, and we will move into today's discussion.

The first agenda item, we'll be hearing from SDOT about three new levy programs that are funded by the 2024 voter approved transportation levy, the neighborhood initiated safety partnership program, people's streets, public spaces, and low pollution neighborhoods.

Excited to see how our levy resources are being put to use for the betterment of our community.

And then after that, we're going to kick off that exciting community roundtable conversation that I mentioned, focusing on anti-displacement.

The insights shared in that panel will help guide the next phase of this effort.

By investing early, learning from past success, and building strong partnerships, Seattle can protect small businesses that anchor our neighborhoods.

Thank you, we will now move on to the open hybrid public comment period.

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

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Chair, we currently have seven in-speakers signed up and there are currently zero remote speakers.

All right, each speaker will have approximately two minutes.

We will start with the in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

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

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 in the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

I'll call out the first three speakers who have signed up.

They are in order.

Cesar Garcia, Jordan Crawley, and Tyler Vasquez.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, and good morning members of the committee.

My name is Cesar Garcia.

I am part of a community-based organization, Lake City Collective.

I am here not only as part of that organization, I'm also here as a former Transportation Equity Workgroup member, also as a parent, and I'm also here as an ally to your communities, and also I'm here as a thoughtful partner.

I want to be clear that myself and my organization wants to be a thoughtful partner of SDOT You will see in the presentation that there is a slide, slide 13 that shows projects that are included in the people streets public spaces The Little Brook project, the Little Brook Plaza project that I'm advocating for used to be part of that list in the packet that Mayor Harold sent last year.

However, that project is not included in this project that will be implemented in 2026. And so my role is to pay attention to those things.

And when we reach out to the city about that, they say that the project was not included because there was not enough space on the document.

If it was a clerical error, so we are here today and we're looking at projects that will be implemented in 2026 that were included on that paper.

So that's my role, to pay attention to those things.

That's why I believe that we are here to make not only Azure accountable, but I'm also here to make are all of us accountable for those kind of things so I hope that the low pollution program will actually be the project that will actually implement that our plaza you know unless you decide that this public streets and public spaces program should include our plaza which is a project that Portland transportation officials came to see so it's a lot of people is proud of that so I really I really would like to invite you to really ask questions about when they present this project.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Our next speaker is Jordan Crowley.

Good morning.

We good?

All right.

So you just heard Councilmember Saka speak of things he's supported regarding the link extension and small businesses.

One was a bill I developed, strengthened in partnership with the West Seattle Chamber and Soto BIA and championed by my state representative Brianna Thomas.

He would call it easy because he didn't have to put in the work.

The other was a proposal for a citywide support fund I also developed alongside the West Seattle Chamber and brought to SACA back in August of 2024. Today, you'll hear from a panel of folks who are doing incredible work.

I love Albertus and RVCDF.

I love Sound Transit and my fellow North Delorge businesses.

And, deliberately excluded from this panel by Council Member Saka, are the people and organizations behind the policies he's now claiming as wins of his own.

It's disgusting, it's dishonest, and our district sees it.

I don't expect to have a seat at the table.

Council members Rink, Foster, and Lynn have graciously offered their time outside of these meetings.

I'm mature enough to keep my ego out of this and aware enough to recognize the deep disrespect of excluding the West Seattle Chamber.

Community conversations require that community be present.

I have and always will use my voice to uplift the people actually putting in the work.

The West Seattle Chamber deserves your support.

They deserve to have their voice heard and they deserve meaningful participation and decision making.

As council colleagues, you have an important role to play in holding each other accountable when things are screwed up.

Right now, that looks like bringing the right stakeholders to the table, whatever it takes.

I appreciate your time and look forward to you fixing this.

Our next speaker will be Tyler Vasquez.

Good morning.

My name is Tyler Vasquez, and I'm with Cascade Bicycle Club.

I'm here in support of the new levy programs that are going to be presented today.

I also want to remind you all that these levy programs weren't made overnight.

These levy programs allow for folks that gave 84,000 comments during the Seattle Transportation Project to be able to be heard.

We heard from a colleague over here from Lake City Collective about the issue about the people streets.

I feel that Julia and her team will be able to expedite the communication, will be able to lift up those words of community-based organization, and these types of programs are what the City of Seattle need.

When we look at the bicycle network, we see a large amount of citywide disconnected parts.

We want to make sure that when people ride their bikes, they cannot just ride their bike through a community, but we want to make sure they ride to a community.

We see levee projects such as the Beacon Hill Avenue's middle and southern section.

We want to make sure that people ride to Beacon Hill to be able to celebrate all the all of the businesses there and the community-based organizations there.

We look at the low pollution communities.

The bike itself doesn't produce any pollution when you ride through a community.

And lastly, I just wanted to highlight, when you drive a car, you're spending over $12,000 a year on a car.

So with that, there's other expenses that a bike allows you to not have to afford or you are able to have that ability to ride free and throughout the city.

Lastly, I wanted to thank SDOT for elevating these programs, making sure that they are here, and when implemented, I want to make sure that these communities and these programs are heard and taken seriously.

Thank you.

Our next three speakers will be David Toledo, Gordon Paddleford and Jim Buchanan.

Council.

My name is David Toledo.

I am a frontline service provider.

I am a 20-year resident of West Seattle.

I am a lifelong resident of Seattle as a whole.

I came here today because I wanted to support the project.

I wanted to talk about some of the families that I work with and how valuable transportation is.

I work with a lot of youth.

I work with a lot of families in general on everything from housing to employment, financial literacy, and small business startups.

and being able to get from West Seattle to Seattle proper is just so important.

I wanted to talk a lot about that, but I have to tell you, I'm standing here almost shaking just because of one of the comments that I heard two speakers ago and the personal attack on Rob Saka.

My experience with Councilmember Saka is that he has been engaged, that he has championed many things like increasing the stipends to small businesses.

In my 20 years in West Seattle, I've seen failed leadership, and I've seen real leadership.

and I just want to say that Rob Saka is engaged.

He is a leader in a room full of leaders.

They are looking towards Rob Saka.

I just want to say, be aware of public comment that has suspect motives, that is here for selfish ambition.

There are politics going on here and people that are looking to build their own resume.

Don't build that on Rob Saka's reputation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chaluto.

Our next speaker will be Gordon Padelford.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Gordon Padelford, and I am the executive director of now the Seattle Streets Alliance.

Hopefully everyone saw that rebrand.

If you haven't, check out streetsalliance.org.

But I am here to talk about the really exciting triple threat you're hearing from SDOT this morning, the Neighborhood Initiated Safety Partnership Program.

Super exciting.

It reminds me of a story back when the Filipino Senior Center on Beacon Hill was trying to figure out how to work with SDOT to get a sidewalk built.

Really frustrating and challenging for them.

this is the kind of program that's going to make that really easy and we've already heard great things from community about some of the sidewalk walks they've done around town so really excited for that program The People's Streets program, we love it.

It's such an amazing new program within the department.

Very needed community members across the city are asking like, how can we get it, right?

I think that's the biggest challenge of that program is there's so much demand for more.

And I think we're gonna continue to hear from communities across the city that wanna see that program come to their neighborhoods, which is a great problem to have, right?

You've created a very popular program that people wanna see more from.

So I think one question we have is, what is the process for community that want to get a pedestrianized street or a plaza in their neighborhood?

How do they go through that process?

Right now, it's sort of its own bespoke process.

It would be great if there was a formal way that community members could interface with that.

We've obviously got the project list from the levee, but on top of that, there's demand, there's hunger for more, and let's do bold things like we're seeing from cities across North America and around the world.

And then last but not least, low pollution neighborhoods.

There's an opportunity that council has to really make sure that program is delivering results and that it's tracking the specific metrics.

We have really bold climate goals, both overall as a city and with an SDOT, with a climate change response framework.

Let's make sure that those low pollution neighborhoods are achieving those goals early so that we can prove that change is possible.

I think climate change feels overwhelming, but we can show that there is possibility of achieving the Thank you, Mr. Paddleford.

Our next speaker will be Jim Buchanan.

And after that, we will have Marcus White.

Good morning, everyone.

I came here kind of on a kumbaya deal, but I see it.

I've got to be in the form of what I normally am in these meetings.

This is disgusting to have a person come up here with a topic that everybody should agree on.

It's disgusting to have this guy who's out there now come up here and attack, rob soccer on something that everybody, that's anti-black and we're not going for it.

And anybody who aids that, you know what the rest is, right?

He's out there, but let them know, we're not going for it.

Thank you, Mr. Buchanan.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you to the council members for all your service.

I just want to voice support once again, along with the other two gentlemen, about Rob Saka and his commitment to the city.

He was unjustly attacked.

This diatribe is not necessary.

Rob does a lot to help businesses, not just in West Seattle, but across the city.

I live in Queen Anne.

I have no connection with Seattle, but He still reaches out to me because he cares and just cares about my welfare and how I'm doing.

And I just think that instead of us fighting, we should be uniting.

I don't see the reason why, you know, we have to do this because Rob is trying to just do something helpful that's going to help, you know, thousands of people.

in the district and we're getting, you know, this vitriol that's completely unnecessary.

And so I just want to voice support that.

Please don't listen to the distractions of other people trying to bring Rob down when he's just trying his best to move things forward.

You guys know what it's like, you know, When you're trying to do good, there's just some mysterious force that I try to just bring you down sometimes.

And so I just want to voice tremendous support for Rob.

And I've heard the word disgusting three times.

Like, we're here to to build, not to tear each other down.

I work with Rob for three years and the fact that I know he's very open minded.

And so I just hope that we can find some sort of bridge to build instead of, you know, burning things down for the sake of, you know, selfish benefit or whatever hidden motives we might have.

And so I just want to just say that once again, please just focus on the bigger picture of Rob trying to help the city.

trying to connect more people and be a nexus, not just between West Seattle and South Seattle and downtown, but also just being a nexus between businesses to help people collaborate and connect and just make the city better and brighter than what it was before.

So, thank you.

Thank you.

Chair, that was our final speaker.

No online?

No online.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Thank you, public commenters.

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

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, levy program updates, neighborhood initiated safety partnership program, people, streets, public spaces, and low pollution neighborhoods.

All right.

Thank you.

Looks like our presenters are joining us at the table now.

Welcome.

Please First off, introduce yourselves, and then begin your presentation.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Council Members.

As you will see, a very important member of our team, Bill Laborde, is not sitting here, which means we are having to do the tech ourselves.

So just a moment, please.

All good.

He told me the secret.

And it didn't work.

Okay, hold on.

Ta-da!

Okay.

We will begin with introducing ourselves.

I'm Megan Shepherd.

I am the Policy and Planning Director from the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Julia Janenshields, new to SDOT, as our new GeoTeams program supervisor.

Simon Blensky, Senior Transportation Planner with SDOT and program manager for the Neighborhood Initiated Safety Partnership Program.

Ian Masek, he, him pronouns, Principal Urban Designer and the People's Streets and Public Spaces Program Manager.

Jaya Isagirre, Senior Urban Designer and a Program Manager for Low Pollution Neighborhoods.

I want to begin with a few thank yous.

One to many of the commenters today who came and talked about their enthusiasm and their hope for these new levy programs.

And I want to thank community larger for the ways in which they informed the creation of these programs.

And I want to thank the council for the support and the partnership that existed throughout the development of the 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy, which provides the funding that makes these programs possible.

These three programs we're going to be talking about today, there's so many little acronyms here.

The NISPI, PSPS, LPN.

And we fall into that rhythm of using those acronyms to talk about them.

But what they really represent is a lot of inputs into this moment to help us really take what community is telling us and co-create with community, and we use that word a lot, to bring about the kinds of improvements that we know people are really hungry for and have been for a while.

We have our transportation equity framework, which really pointed us, based upon the input of our TEW members, towards how are we meeting community where they are, to deliver the things that they're telling us that are important for safety, that are important for the environment and their community, and that is important for just having spaces that are livable, welcoming destinations in the right-of-way.

That was built upon by what we heard during the development of the Seattle Transportation Plan.

I think we heard thousands of comments and thousands of people writing in to say, this is what I'm hoping to see in my neighborhood.

and then that allowed us to build those into programs and work with council, acknowledging them through our levy legislation, as well as the follow-up work that occurred throughout our discussions about levy readiness and how we were gonna approach these new efforts.

So the last year, since the levy was approved, has really been focused on taking what people, what we're hoping, and then turning it into programs.

Hiring the staff, two of whom are here seated at the table today, joined Estat within the last year, or even sooner.

so that we can do the work of taking our vision for equitable investment, addressing safety and placemaking needs in historically under-invested places in the city and having community have a key voice in that.

So with that, I am super excited.

We're going to just through the whole group.

And then I think we'll just have a few minutes for questions for all of you at the end.

And so I'm gonna turn it over to Julia.

All right, thanks Megan.

So I'll start out here with our Neighborhood Initiated Safety Partnership Program or NISP.

Megan touched on those acronyms.

So we'll switch between the two.

So what the NISP program is, again, Neighborhood Initiated Safety Partnership Program, is we received about $39.5 million in levy funding to build at least 10 neighborhood-initiated, and again, that word, co-created projects, really focused on community priorities across districts with the emphasis on equity.

And what those could look like in practice could be safety or mobility enhancements like sidewalks, crossings, or transit access.

And an overview of this program, if it sounds kind of familiar, it's because it's an evolution of the previous Neighborhood Street Fund.

So really building on transportation safety improvements and responding to those community requests that may not otherwise be prioritized by other SDOT programs.

Gordon touched on that a little bit earlier.

and so with this new program, we're shifting away from a city-wide application-based model to a place-based partnership model and that's where this new GeoTeams program comes in, really focusing on high-need neighborhoods based again on safety and equity and working with SDOT projects and reviewing existing feedback to minimize the need for community to repeatedly have to bring those same things to the table.

so partnering with community groups like some of those today and like Cesar with Lake City Collective to host in person, in language conversations to see issues firsthand and have staff on the ground as well.

Yeah, so using this new place-based partnership model, NISP has done some early work early on in the levee.

We partnered over the last year with our new sidewalk program to host a series of walk shops or walking tours across the city, focused in areas with lots of missing sidewalks.

and a lot of times when we go out to the community, we are hearing about the projects we're going out there for, but also hearing a wide range of other priorities and other issues that are important to the community.

So NISP went out with our new sidewalk staff and our team.

We heard lots of feedback about where people wanted new sidewalks, but we also heard a lot of feedback about other issues, traffic calming, missing crosswalks, and we took note of all of that.

because we knew all that is really important to community.

In addition to hearing firsthand from people on those walking tours, we also reviewed previous public feedback from those neighborhoods.

Again, all the comments that came through via the Seattle Transportation Plan and other outreach efforts.

So we took all those ideas and we selected 19 initial projects across 12 neighborhoods that will be built this year and into next year, so early on in the levee.

And what's really exciting is that many of these projects will really add safety improvements that are adjacent or near a lot of these new sidewalk projects.

So it's really a nice network that's developing within these neighborhoods.

And a couple early project highlights that will be built this year, which is really exciting, and just wanted to highlight kind of the partnership model with the sidewalk program and other programs.

One example is in the Pinehurst neighborhood.

So on our walking tour, we heard that a lot of students need better access to Hazel Wolf.

and they're walking along Northeast 115th Street, and our sidewalk team was able to identify a new walkway that could be built along 115th, but we also heard that it's difficult to cross Roosevelt.

So we worked in collaboration with our sidewalk team to build a new crosswalk there as well, as well as traffic calming along Roosevelt.

So not only do students have a new connection along 115th, but they have a safe way to get to school as well.

And then another example is in Rainier Vista.

We actually didn't do a new walking tour here in 2025 because there's actually been a lot of work through our Home Zone program, which identifies traffic calming throughout the city and other neighborhoods.

A lot of ideas came through to SDOT through that outreach, and we're able to deliver and fund a lot of the improvements that we heard, but there are still a number of unfunded priorities, and that's where NISP really stepped in to help deliver some additional community priorities, so we heard a lot from Rainier Vista residents that they want additional traffic calming to discourage cut-through traffic, as well as some cross improvements.

So again, these will be built over the next year as well.

So looking forward, we're focused on designing and building all these early projects, but then looking past that, we're really looking forward to working closely with Julia and her team, as well as other SDOT outreach efforts to really collect additional public feedback going forward to understand what community priorities are across the city.

And our plan is really going forward on an annual basis to continue to collect, prioritize, and then be responsive and build community requested projects.

And I think that's it for NISP.

People's Reads.

People's Streets and Public Spaces, or affectionately called PSPS.

I'm Ian Masek, the program manager.

Our People's Streets and Public Spaces program really aims to transform our streets into places where people want to be.

It's about creating public spaces that bring people together, reflect community identity, and make Seattle more livable.

city for everyone.

And importantly, we're building on a strong foundation.

You know, across Seattle, we've already been creating vibrant public spaces through capital improvements, public-private partnerships, community activations like block parties and street cafes.

And some of those efforts are seen here from Thomas Green Street through South Lake Union to Portal Porch in Belltown to Detective Cookie Chess Park in Rainier Beach.

which really show what's possible, but also through this work we've really identified that there's a gap, we've relied on ad hoc funding, we haven't had one-off opportunities, and that makes it really hard to equitably apply a program across the city, but luckily through the STP really gave us that foundational element and vision for 20 years around people's streets and public spaces.

next slide and now we're moving from vision to action and through the levy we really have funding for the first time to invest in people-centered streets consistently and citywide and overall the people streets public spaces levy program includes funding for capital projects downtown activation pedestrian lightning and maintenance and wayfinding and i'll be focusing more on the capital program side of things but These investments together have led us move beyond one-off successes to a scalable, equitable program and really create spaces that are safe, welcoming, reflective of local culture, and supporting walking, rolling, biking, small businesses, gathering, and elements of play.

So how do we deliver on this vision?

We've really created a flexible program that allows us to respond to community needs while also delivering on our levy commitments.

We have four project types that range from larger capital investments to smaller, more nimble, community-driven improvements.

So it can include, you know, seating, wayfinding, public art, plazas, so really elements that turn a street into a destination.

Our projects are similar to NISP, really identified through place-based engagement with business districts, CBOs, on-the-ground outreach, and through our geo-teams efforts.

And we also have a lot of efforts that have been done through STP and through our home zone work and through other conversations that are happening through the community, we're able to uplift that work.

And co-creation, it really isn't just a goal of our program, it's how we work.

So many of our projects are the result of years of partnership in Chinatown International District in Little Saigon.

We've worked with SCIPTA over decades, really, to help identify community needs and uplift those through the the CID Alley Activation Program.

We've worked with the University District and the University District Partnership on advancing a community-developed concept design for Northeast 42nd, as well as with Henderson Street, where it's uplifting the work that RBAC has been doing for years to really understand what the community vision is and how we can implement that through our projects.

So we're building on that.

early momentum and our early wins are really ones that are community-different projects that we're able to move into design in 26 and implement in 27. And so what comes next?

First we'll advance our design for our levy funded projects as well as our tactical spot to really help us keep us on track for our 26 deliverables and at the same time launching our tactical and spot improvements project initiative which will really help inform our future work plans, ensuring that our investments are aligned with local needs and priorities and together these are helping us move forward with both certainty as well as some flexibility.

Thanks.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you again.

My name is Jaya Sagire, Program Manager for Low Pollution Neighborhoods or LPNs.

So what are low pollution neighborhoods and why do we need them?

First, I want to acknowledge that LPNs builds on a strong foundation of climate commitments in Seattle, from the climate change response framework to our C40 commitments to the last mayor's executive orders and the $8 million of voter-approved transportation levy that funds this work.

Through LPNs, we are responding to a few key challenges.

The first is that transportation is the largest source of climate pollution in Seattle.

Secondly, the impacts of those pollution and climate risks are not evenly distributed across Seattle neighborhoods.

And thirdly, that many of the city programs that do currently address these issues are not aligned in the same place.

Low pollution neighborhoods are our way of bringing these efforts together.

We think of them as designated areas where the city can coordinate actions to reduce pollution and strengthen climate resilience.

This would be done by aligning departments, working in partnership with communities and using a mix of policies, programs and projects to deliver cleaner air, safer streets and more resilient neighborhoods.

Over the last year, we secured federal RAISE grant to fund the planning effort and move us towards implementation.

Over the next year, phase one will focus on planning and partnership building.

We will work with communities and pilot areas to understand their priorities, identify strategies, and build out the initial toolbox and metrics.

In 2027, we will move towards design and early delivery, where we take those strategies, align them with city programs, and begin implementing on our priority projects, some tactically and some as longer-term projects.

In 2028 and onwards, we will focus on evaluation and scaling, tracking outcomes, learning what works, researching the delivery of longer-term priorities, and refining the model so that we can potentially expand it to other neighborhoods with future funding.

A key part of this throughout is coordination across departments.

We have been meeting across SDOT, OSC, SPU, SEL, OPCD, PARCS, OED, and more to identify potential partnerships in this work and guide the program's delivery from pilot delivery over the years.

So what could LPNs look like in practice?

The key idea here is layering multiple projects and strategies in one place that responds to local conditions and priorities in a coordinated way.

We do this through a shared toolbox, a menu of policies, programs, and projects the city can draw from and tailor to each neighborhood.

Across the neighborhood, that might include something like mobility and safety improvements, like safer walking and biking connections, traffic calming, and safer crossings.

It could also include things like clean transportation strategies, such as electrical vehicle charging, support for cleaner freight and deliveries, and expanded mobility options.

In addition, we're looking at climate and neighborhood resilience, including things like greening and tree canopies, stormwater and cooling strategies, and coordination with resiliency hubs and community infrastructure.

And finally, an important part of this work is improving access to programs and coordinated investment.

That means reducing barriers to participation and making it easier for residents and businesses to connect to existing city programs and aligning investments in the same areas.

Together, this layered toolbox approach is what allows LPNs to deliver more meaningful and visible improvements at the neighborhood level.

As of yesterday, we are happy to have publicly announced the initial low pollution neighborhood pilot locations through SDOT's blog and socials.

These locations were identified using a series of criteria to focus on areas where coordinated action could have some early strong impact.

We looked at factors like pollution burden, climate risk, safety, and access to transportation options.

The three plus pilot areas are Lake City, Capitol Hill and a combined approach to South Park and Georgetown, along with a broader set of candidate locations for future phases of the program.

Each of these neighborhoods reflects different conditions across the city, while also sharing common challenges around pollution burden, extreme heat, flood risk, pedestrian and bike safety, and freight complexity.

They also have strong community partners who have advocated for this work for years and who will be critical as we move into the planning phase and begin co-developing strategies.

I want to take a moment to just give a special thanks to those partners, Lake City Collective, the DRCC, DVSA, and the Urban League, Metropolitan Urban League.

As we move forward, next slide.

Our focus is on getting this work underway in the pilot neighborhoods.

We will kick off planning with community partners, which will include neighborhood assessments to understand local priorities and early engagement with community organizations.

At the same time, we will build out the city's LPN toolbox and begin advancing strategies for each neighborhood so we can move from planning to implementation.

Overall, the next phase is about turning the framework into something tangible, working with communities to shape solutions and setting the city up to deliver on some of its climate commitments.

Thank you.

Thank you all very much.

That was a lot.

So I'd be happy to take your questions.

A lot of great information.

A lot of great information.

Thank you, SDOT.

I really appreciate this.

I will now turn it over to my thoughtful colleagues, starting for any questions or comments from our perspective, starting first with Vice Chair Rank, if you have any.

Thank you, Chair Saka, and thank you all for this presentation covering a wide swath of topics.

Greatly appreciated.

I'm formulating some of my questions, so I might start with a couple, and then if it's all right with the chair, circle back after a few of my colleagues go, just to make sure we're having a robust discussion.

I wanted to start first with neighborhood initiated safety partnership program.

Could you unpack just a little bit more around the criteria you're using to ensure equitable choices and project prioritization and how there's touch points with the transportation equity work group in this as well?

The prioritization approach is, so Julia Janin Shields has been here for three weeks and it will be working.

She brings a lot of experience from doing very, very similar work at King County Metro to our palette of tools and working really, really closely with Simon and his project.

project expertise.

We see the prioritization and the approach actually being flexible and taking a different form in different neighborhoods.

I'll point some of you back to work such as Reconnect West Seattle, when the West Seattle Bridge was closed.

that was a really specific targeted effort in the neighborhoods most impacted where we worked with them to look at all the things they had been asking us for years from prior plans, from our customer service lines, from other projects, and then worked with the community to help them prioritize what their top needs were.

So that's just one of the strategies that this place-based model could take.

The foundation for it is really relationship building.

I think Simon gave another really good example of how, which is where we are already working and we already have a lot of community engagement underway with community.

SDOT doesn't have a great way right now of taking that need that's like two or three blocks away or that's like, it's really important to the community, but it's not what Project X is going to do.

And now the NISB gives us a way to take in that need, track it over time, and then prioritize it each year.

It's gonna be tough.

I don't wanna act like this is gonna be really, really easy because the need out there is tremendous.

But by adding Julia and eventually her team, once they're on board, we will have people who are really, really focused on getting to know neighborhoods and learning what is their top need.

Yes, thank you for that and happy three weeks, Julia.

Happy to have you here at the city.

Moving to just the People's Streets program.

With the People's Streets program, are we looking to expand beyond just the spaces identified in the levee?

This just seems like a great way to support more pedestrianization, so wouldn't want it to be limited in scope.

Yeah, so in the levy, there were five larger capital projects that were identified through our other programmatic needs, really thinking through from the spot and partnership program, as well as projects, as well as the tactical projects, that expansion beyond just those five to a greater city swath.

So the three that we're advancing from a tactical standpoint this year are really focused on where we have really strong community partnerships and support where we can uplift those projects and really use these as a pilot to hone in what is that engagement and pipeline process and be able to then expand that more broadly across the city.

And we're constantly working with our other program owners and external partners to understand what are some of the needs and projects that are being identified elsewhere to see how they relate then and fit and with this program to be able to uplift those and move those forward.

Thank you for that.

And then to go to just low pollution neighborhoods, trying to cover all the bases on this.

When it comes to low pollution neighborhoods, how does the possibility of a Capitol Hill superblock void of car through traffic interplay with this?

And I mean, given that cars are the greatest source of pollution in our communities, what efforts in regard to pedestrianization and making car-free spaces can we expect to be taken in these neighborhoods?

I will go back to what Jaya said about this being the year of planning and community-driven needs to address pollution in the neighborhood really being at the forefront of what we would then want to prioritize and move into implementation.

So the work with community in Capitol Hill over their priorities and needs is really going to be central, and that is what Jaya is kicking off as of yesterday's announcement.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is there isn't like a presupposed outcome.

We know that that is a priority and an interest of a lot of community members.

And now with the resources from LPN, we can like re-engage and we can walk through that process with community.

Okay.

That's really helpful clarification, just in terms of framing ourselves of where we're at in the process and what opportunities there are to engage.

I know we heard some public comment today, also thinking about the Lake City area as well and opportunities to engage.

So just Thank you for clarifying again where we're at in the process and that this is really the onset and we're gonna be planning alongside community moving forward and we'll just double tap the importance of that.

Thank you.

And thank you so much, Chair.

All right, thank you, Vice Chair, appreciate you.

Moving on to, looks like Council Member Kettle.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Saka, and thank you, Ms. Shepherd and the whole team, Ms. Janet Shields and Mr. Glenski, Mr. Masek, and Ms. Isaac Riira.

Thank you for being here.

It's so important to work through these pieces and the implementation of levy, but really to just achieve our goals across the board, levy or no levy.

And I really appreciate, you know, breaking it down to these three sections.

I recognize different pieces of it, because I used to participate in the neighborhood street fund pieces.

And because of that experience, I know that certain areas are better than others.

and in terms of District 7, I'd highlight that for different reasons, and there's different reasons, Magnolia has kind of been in the hinterland and they have some needs there.

And I say this because we do need to address those pieces because they've been off the beaten track, if you will, and it's important to address the needs of the community there.

Because I've heard from moms talking about, hey, we don't have, they compare themselves to Queen Anne.

It's like, well, Queen Anne has these different pieces, but we don't.

And I've seen them in my own eyes, so I just wanted to raise that because they're kind of on the outside over there, a little bit like this Seattle, separated because of you know, Interbay and so forth, that we need to remember, you know, their neighborhood as well.

And I'll work with Councilmember Strauss as we share Magnolia.

And so that's, I really appreciate this, and this is something that, you know, the D7 community would definitely be interested in.

On People's Streets, I thank you for the The early inclusion of Crockett Street, which has been done before Queen Avenue North, and basically the alley, First West and Queen Avenue North, it's just a natural piece for that area, particularly with the new Safeway project.

and all the other work in that area of Green Avenue North, it's a natural.

It should be used that way for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which I've been talking to community about in terms of, it could be like a pilot pilot, pilot to the pilot, if you will.

So I appreciate that.

I also wanted, and I brought this up with Interim Director Brady, Please think about, because this is the next step, we did a lot of work during a comprehensive plan related to the Queen Anne Boulevard Park, which is a ring road on top of Queen Anne.

And it has some great areas, parts of it are arterial, but there are some great areas of the Queen Anne Boulevard Park that are screaming to be included in the People Street section of this program.

And there's some great opportunities.

And I bring this up because it's not just a Queen Anne asset.

People come from all over the city to walk it because of the views.

Basically, I won't say 360, but incredible views, particularly in terms of to the south and then the east and west.

Funny enough, those two areas, the southeast and southwest, where we have parks, are some great opportunities to really incorporate some of these programs into it.

Because I do want to raise it, in partnership with SDOT and parks, to raise the Queen Anne Boulevard Park, building on the work that we did during phase one of the comprehensive plan.

The last piece, the low pollution network, I definitely see the need and I see some of the benefits in terms of the lay down of this slide.

I wanted to highlight, and it parallels South Park and Georgetown, but the industrial maritime lands of Seattle, the Duwamish and the Benwick, the Inner Bay piece, the Inner Bay piece is equally, not equally I guess, but very much similarly impacted.

And we need to, basically for the Dravis, because we're building a neighborhood center at Dravis, but we're also doing a lot of upzoning on the east side, the Queen Anne side of of 15th Avenue West.

And given prevailing winds and so forth, this screams to be also added to the list in terms of particularly paralleling the South Park and Georgetown effort.

and I would also add, by the way, noise and light pollution, something of concern.

But as we look to protect our communities, I want to foot stomp that we also need to protect our industrial maritime areas, our base, which is so key to ensure that we're a viable port 100 years from now for all the economic and various other reasons that that pertains.

Again, to the SDOT team, thank you very much.

And I look forward to having my team engage with you on those three areas, covering big swaths of District 7, particularly Magnolia and Inner Bay, but up into Queen Anne.

And then of course, downtown, there's a bunch of different efforts.

And by the way, thank you for things like the Portal Park, which we're gonna continue to build on, by the way, the park side of that.

And so thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Up next is Councilmember Foster.

My apologies.

It's hard to confuse us.

It made me laugh early in the morning.

I love it.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I appreciate it.

And thank you for this fantastic presentation.

I wanted to say I really appreciate getting the announcement about the low pollution neighborhoods.

It's really exciting.

And it's really exciting to hear more about how you all are thinking about and utilizing data on air quality and pollution and other neighborhood metrics and demographics to be intentional about driving projects.

I think it's really important because we know that not everyone reaches out to their local government in a way that is equitable.

And so it's important that we are prioritizing and leading with that outreach into community.

So I wanna commend you on that and say that I'm really excited to see that.

And then I wanted to ask a question around projects and when you think that you, we might be seeing construction if you're able to.

I know I see there's a CID alleyway is gonna get to, I lost my slide here, it's either 10% or 30% design this year.

If you can share anything else about when you're projecting out, we might see construction or action in the neighborhood for that project.

Yeah, for that one in particular, as well as 40 seconds, so what we're working is for both of those, we had a really strong concept design from community, and so wanting to advance the design early to be able to get a better cost estimate for the overall project to better understand do we need to look for grants to make the project whole.

I think these are really unique projects where we can't value engineer elements out because we really want to indicate to community that we're listening and that we're delivering a full project.

And so really doing this early design work so we can better set ourselves up.

And so I think once we have that towards the end of the year, we'll have a better estimate of the schedule knowing what kind of partnering opportunities we might need to align with, if any.

Got it, that's helpful.

And I know it's hard to estimate before you get to 30% design, but I figured I would ask anyways and just say, I think we all have an interest in making sure that we're investing in Chinatown International District.

So I look forward to getting more updates there.

I did also wanna say, following up on Council Member Kettle's comments, just love the Portal Park.

It's just such a fantastic place and such a great place to stand and hang out.

So you already beat me to the punch on that one, Again, I want to commend you for the work that you all have done there.

And then I'll just close with any other updates.

I know that you have South Henderson Street here.

to get it to 10% design.

I've also heard you mention the commitment that your team has in partnering with community.

I know that in some of these, some neighborhoods, they have really longstanding community vision documents.

And so can you speak to how you are working to both get current input, but also utilize things that may have been in place for a long time?

I know there's been a longstanding vision around some portions of South Henderson Street, for example.

Yeah, I think the main piece is in some places we are maybe starting from scratch and really understanding what the needs are because perhaps we haven't engaged in the past and in others we're really building from what's there.

And so I think for us it's working with Julia and her team, working with our engagement folks and our communications team internally and working with the Department of Neighborhoods to really understand where have we been talking to the community, what have we been hearing, and ensuring we're not asking the same questions.

I mean, we did so much engagement through the Seattle Transportation Plan, and we have so many of those comments and that wealth of information that we can mine.

And so it's starting from a place of, here's what we've heard, are we still at this place?

And then really diving in to understand what those People's Streets Public Spaces projects might be out of that that really align with the program and then the community's interest and need.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

I will just note that one, I want to extend my appreciation to you all at SDOT for being here today and sharing this and accepting my invite to report on these three critically important levy programs and would just love to better clarify, we heard earlier obviously from from some community members, including our partners at the Lake City Collective, who expressed some concerns and some hopes and opportunities pertaining to the People's Streets program.

Just curious, how does the department just generally engage with our community partners more broadly in making sure that their input shapes the final contours of specific project proposals and then also whether something ends up on the list just more broadly.

Well, there's a general answer here and a specific answer.

I think specifically related to Lake City and the work that's been underway with the Lake City Collective.

Ian, do you wanna just give an overview of how we've been working there and how that project, if you can, or do you want me to?

Yeah, I'm happy to.

You know, that project really stemmed out of our Healthy Streets program.

It's been an extension of that.

So our, you know, I've been really working closely with the program manager there and who's been working really closely with Lake City Collective on understanding kind of, okay, where are we at in the near term?

What is the longer term vision?

You know, there's been conversations around collaboration with parks, and so really understanding where we're at and then how do we as a program fit into that.

And so I think that's an ongoing conversation or an example where we are really kind of pinned in to aligned from that standpoint, but really just trying to dial in exactly timing and what is the project that might be there that kind of falls within the program.

So a lot of interest and support around Lake City, whether that interest is, like whether we're able to support the neighborhood through the Healthy Streets program, whether some of that support comes from PSPS, whether that support comes from LPN, but there's a lot of commitment right now at SDOT.

In terms of working with community groups and community organizations, I mean, I think a really good model here is the Low Pollution Neighborhoods Program.

The neighborhoods that are going to be the first pilots do have community organizations that are focused on the work that we want to be able to support them to do.

And they have people there who are working and they're able to engage with us.

when we take a different lens through the NSBE program and some of the work we're hoping to see Julia do is for those neighborhoods who don't have any community-based organizations, they don't have a business improvement association, that is where the relationship building may take different forms.

It may require building a lot of different relationships with different community members.

It may involve working really closely with the Department of Neighborhoods and their community liaisons.

so that we can engage in language and in ways that are culturally appropriate.

So that's sort of just like three models there.

Thank you.

Very helpful.

I'll just say a quick comment on the low pollution neighborhoods.

When I helped write the low pollution neighborhoods program into the original 2024 transportation levy that was approved by voters, South Park and Georgetown, the broader Duwamish Valley was exactly the neighborhood that I had in mind and I think communities had in mind and what we were hearing at the time.

So really good to see those announcements in the initial pilot.

And so I wanna thank the department again for centering their voices and making sure they benefit from this investment.

All right, that is all the questions and comments I have.

Colleagues, any final questions or comments before we move on to the next substantive item of business?

All right, hearing seeing none, we will now move on to our second item of business.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, round table discussion, anti-displacement strategies focused on sound transit impacted small businesses.

All right, thank you.

Will our newest presenters, panelists, please join us at the table and share your presentations.

Before you begin your presentations, please introduce yourselves and begin.

And let me just share, we have a exciting distinguished group of folks here and participants for this panel.

There's a lot.

and so kind of run a show how this is gonna be structured generally.

We're gonna start by hearing from directly impacted community.

In this case, Laurel from Ounces.

Do you wanna just kind of frame the conversation, share your perspective on Sound Transit?

or Sound Transit projects and its impacts on you and your small business.

And then we'll invite our partners from Sound Transit.

Then we'll have Jasmine from our central staff kind of just briefly share out some of the work at the city level that's already been done.

Then we'll talk and learn more from our partners at Sound Transit on how how they work to address these same issues.

So, Laurel, hate to put you on the spot, and you don't have to seize the opportunity.

Totally put on the spot here.

I was expecting to do a brief introduction, so I run a bar.

I'm the owner of Ounces Taproom and Beer Garden in West Seattle.

I'm a complete fish out of water in these sorts of situations and scenarios, so I apologize.

Totally being put on the spot here, but I mean, our business has been in West Seattle for 10 years now.

We've been on the potentially impacted list dealing with West Seattle light rail, Potentially coming to West Seattle now for about five six years And quite honestly up until about three four weeks ago when I really got introduced to the new project team I I knew about as much as I did six years ago when I knew my business would potentially have to relocate so I think the biggest issue for small business owners is financial I mean we We're a small business, we don't have piles of cash just sitting around.

So when I'm looking at having to face relocation, my main ask is where does that money come from?

I know if I estimate my business taking $500,000 to relocate, I know that Sound Transit doesn't provide 100% of that cost.

So my question is, where do I get that?

Where does that money come from?

And even if Sound Transit does provide 50% of those costs to help us with relocation, because they do provide assistance, that is fact.

But where there's a gap of funding in where the additional money comes from.

So That's the biggest issue facing us small businesses.

Where's the money come from?

Thank you so much, Laurel.

Really appreciate your perspective.

I note that Ounces, Laurel is the owner of Ounces in North Delridge and not only that, she's fully invested in the North Delridge community because not only is that the location, the neighborhood where she has a business and operates a business, but she lives in North Delridge as well.

Ish, high point.

But still, I go to the gym there.

Close enough to me and I'm in North Delridge.

I'm there enough that I can consider a resident.

So in any event, you're fully invested.

You're not coming from another neighborhood.

You're fully invested in all in on West Seattle and the North Delridge neighborhood in particular.

So really appreciate you and the perspective that you offer.

Now we'll have Jasmine kind of chime in and just briefly share some of the city work.

Yes.

Good morning, Council Members, Chair Sacca.

My name is Jasmine Marwa on Council Central Staff, and I'm just gonna get this slide presentation on full screen.

There we go.

So, as the chair mentioned, I'll be presenting on a couple of council actions taken in last fall's budget process related to North Delridge, which are slated to be implemented this year and related to the issue.

First, we have Council Budget Action OED 7A, which essentially set aside $250,000 in the Office of Economic Development to support small businesses in North Delridge at risk of displacement related to economic transition, industrial adjacency, and infrastructure projects like ST3.

It's important to note that OED has a number of programs designed to provide technical and financial assistance to small businesses that face challenges similar to the ones that the North Delridge businesses are facing that may and probably likely apply to these impacted businesses, including but not limited to the Accounting and Business Consulting Assistance Program and the Capital Access Program, Tenant Improvement Program, and I'm sure OED will be happy to share more about their programs that may apply later in the presentation or later in the discussion.

So it's important to note also that OED's programs have all been designed to ensure commensurate public benefits to comport with state constitutional limits on the use of public funds.

And so the proviso similarly notes that any disbursement of funding shall not be executed until the executive has ensured these commensurate public benefits which could include but are not limited to jobs created and maintained in-kind goods and services to the community with a focus on equity and activation and revitalization of the surrounding neighborhoods.

So that's part of the limitations of the proviso there.

In addition to that proviso or set aside, we have a statement of legislative intent that passed in last year's budget process that requests the executive convene an interdepartmental team led by OED as well as the Office of the Waterfront Civic Projects and Sound Transit in coordination with the Mayor's Office to develop recommendations for how the city can better support businesses located along the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extension Corridor.

The examples of how they can do that are listed there.

I won't go into reading the entire slide for you.

But essentially that report is due with findings and recommendations outlining those potential next steps and timelines and resource implications on June 15, 2026. And for additional context, as the Chair mentioned previously, in 2025, the Washington State Legislature increased the statutory cap on relocation and reestablishment payment from $50,000 to $200,000 for displacing, for agencies that are displacing businesses and nonprofits and other lands.

Other than the state, they have a different cap, but that's...

Not relevant here.

And that cap is to be adjusted annually by 2% to account for inflation.

And just another bullet point on distinguishing the relocation and reestablishment payment from the just compensation under a constitutionally mandated eminent domain is there's a slight difference there.

So this is a relocation reestablishment assistance that's crafted and controlled entirely by statute.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you so much, Jasmine.

Excuse me.

Thank you so much, Jasmine.

I really appreciate this.

I should have mentioned this earlier or held myself to the same standard that I laid out at the forefront.

But if you all wouldn't just mind going around and introducing yourselves, and then we'll hear from our partners at Sound Transit.

So we heard from Jasmine.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

I'm Cody Ryder, Government and Community Relations Director, working on the West Hale and Ballard Link Extension projects with Sound Transit.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Wells Lawson, Deputy Executive Director over Real Estate for Sound Transit.

Good morning, Albertus Brooks, the executive director for Rainier Valley Community Development Fund.

I already introduced myself, but Laurel Trujillo, owner of Ounces Tabroom and Beer Garden, one of the impacted businesses in North Delridge.

Hello, I'm Kim DeSaccio.

I'm the real property project manager handling acquisitions and relocations for the Sound Transit West Seattle project.

And good morning.

I'm Jason Hampton.

I'm the Commercial Director for the West Seattle Link Extension Project.

Good morning.

Alicia Teal, Deputy Director at the Seattle Office of Economic Development.

Good morning.

Chris Gregerich with the City of Seattle Sound Transit III Program, Government and Community Relations.

Thank you all.

We'd love to hear from our partners at Sound Transit, but before we do, I want to acknowledge King County Council Member Theresa Musqueda just entered the room who has been a consummate champion of expanding light rail to West Seattle and doing so in a manner that minimizes displacement to the full extent possible.

We are in West Seattle, we are lucky and grateful for her leadership now finally on the Sound Transit Board.

So we have representation, representation does matter.

And it's because of Council Member Musqueda that I, and her advocacy and her originally bringing people together in North Delridge early on, you know, two years ago now is how I started on my own leadership journey and advocacy journey on this.

So I want to recognize Councilmember Musqueda who just joined us.

Councilmember Musqueda, graciously just joined us from across the street, another, I think, transportation benefit district or some committee meeting that you had at the council, King County Council.

If you're so willing, we'd love for you to actually join us, have a seat at the table, because this is one of the champions and great partners of this work as well.

So welcome, Councilmember Musqueda.

You want to say a few words?

Thank you very much.

Did I turn that on correctly, Chair?

Okay, it's been a while.

Thanks for having me back in these chambers.

Thanks for having this forum.

I saw a number of these folks yesterday at the retreat that was an all-day endeavor, as you may have heard.

And it's really great to be here, especially with some of our neighbors and local businesses.

And I'm just here to be an advocate, an ally, and a co-partner in these efforts to make sure that we're thinking about preserving existing assets as we deliver light rail to West Seattle.

and have some policy ideas that we have been talking to Sound Transit about and the CEO, and as recently as yesterday, the policy and planning team.

So happy to be here and learn the latest and also brainstorm with the team here.

Excellent.

Thank you, council member.

All right, Sound Transit.

Go ahead.

Again, good morning, Chair and members of the committee.

It's Jason Hampton.

Is this mic working correctly?

Perfect, thanks.

I'm going to try to keep my face looking at you and see if I can see the presentation here as well.

I'll kick things off for Sound Transit here.

Can we go to the next slide, please?

So this slide shows a map of the West Seattle Link Extension project.

The West Seattle Link Extension would add four miles of new grade-separated light rail between Soto and West Seattle's Alaska Junction neighborhood.

It would include up to four stations, and I'll talk a little bit more about what I mean on that in an upcoming slide.

When built, and connected with the regional light rail system, this project would reduce travel time from Alaska Junction to Westlake by half.

So we would take a trip that would be 30 minutes down to 16 minutes, and that gives people an extra 15 minutes one way or 30 minutes in their day to spend time with their kids or with their families or do other things besides sit in traffic.

The project received a record of decision from the FTA in April of 2025 Prior to that, we published a final EIS in September of 2024. And near that same time, we had updated cost estimates, which identified a funding gap between the affordable project and the project estimate at that time.

Since then, we've been working to identify opportunities to reduce cost and reduce community impacts.

We presented at the System Expansion Committee meeting some of those impact reductions and cost savings last week.

That work was initiated by board motions M2024-59 and M2025-36 and it really asked us as staff to look at both programmatic and project specific cost saving measures that could be implemented on the West Seattle project and across the entire ST3 program.

to reduce impacts and to bring the program into affordability.

Board member Mosqueda mentioned the board retreat yesterday, and that was really centered on helping bring this work forward.

Next slide, please.

So one of the alternatives that was included in the final EIS included alignment in West Seattle.

that would not have a station at Avalon.

It was included in the final EIS as a potential cost-saving measure for future, and now we're here looking at cost savings.

So I'm going to share some of the opportunities that we've looked at for West Seattle.

We've looked at a broad range of cost-saving and impact reduction opportunities, but the ones that I'm focusing on today kind of move the dial the most.

They provide the most impact reduction, and the the most substantial cost savings.

These would include a consolidation of stations in West Seattle.

We would eliminate the Avalon station and we would shift the ridership for that station to Alaska Junction and Delridge.

One of the key things to note about these stations in West Seattle is the walksheds for Avalon, Delridge, and Alaska Junction overlapped, right?

So some of the people that would be walking to Avalon would be able to connect with the system by going to Delridge or to Alaska Junction.

And similarly, those who would be arriving by bus, we have a plan to be able to connect them with the stations if the board moves forward without an Avalon station.

This map on the right shows two alignments.

You can see a blue line there at the top and a grey line on the bottom.

The grey line is the record of decision alignment and the blue line is what we call the cost saving measure alignment or CSM.

Next slide please.

So when we look at an alignment without the Avalon station, it not only has direct costs and impact reductions, but it opens up a number of opportunities to kind of change the alignment of the system in West Seattle.

And that allows us to really look at other opportunities for impact reduction.

One of those is shown here.

And in the FEIS, we included the No Avalon.

The tunnel portal was up near the West Seattle Bridge connection to Fauntleroy, so on the west side of Avalon Way.

and by having that tunnel portal on the west side, we had a very small area where we could cross Avalon Way to reduce impacts and avoid displacement of really important social service providers.

When we're looking at this with the additional design resources, we've looked at shifting that tunnel portal back to a property that would already be needed for the other alternative and we're able to really reduce the impacts on the west side of Avalon Way.

and now that we have that portal, and it's a long story but it's a good one, on the east side of Avalon Way, we're able to look at the best alignment to reduce impacts and cost between the Delridge station and that portal, and we're able to shift that alignment a little bit to the north one block, so from Yancey to Andover.

And in doing so, we're able to reduce the effects on Longfellow Creek.

So where we would have been crossing it where it was daylighted in that channel, Yancey Street, we're now crossing it over Andover where it's in a pipe.

Secondly, we are able to avoid the displacement of the West Seattle Health Club by shifting the alignment to the north.

Laurel talked about the health club, so she's going to be able to continue to use that gym in Delridge.

So that's a big impact reduction but also some cost savings.

Next slide please.

So similarly at Alaska Junction by shifting that alignment and some of the track geometry shown on the top is the record of decision alignment.

and you can see there we have a tunnel and a station under 41st straddling Alaska Street and south of the station we needed a crossover.

This is track work that allows the trains to move from one side to the other and then they use the tail track to kind of pull out and then they have to reverse that movement into the station.

Ideally you want that crossover inbound on the station, so in this case north of it, but because of the tunnel geometry we weren't able to do that.

But without the Avalon station, we are able to realign the tunnel and be able to move that crossover in front of the station.

When we do that, we reduce all of the need to acquire properties and all of the construction south of the Alaska Junction Station.

And so shown on the bottom map, we show the new configuration.

You can see the station box is somewhat under the headhouse, so we're really being efficient with the space there.

And by not needing the vent structure and all of the property to the south, we're able to integrate the TPSS into the station, similar to how we have built Roosevelt and the University District Station.

And also, you're able to put your ventilation there as well, because that's where it's needed.

And in doing so, you can see south of the station box, we would have reduced the need for those properties.

We're also able to shift the station out of the street right of way just to the east of 41st and in doing so we avoid some utilities in 41st and we're able to bring the station up so it would be one of the more shallow stations in the system which would make it a really great transfer and access for the people using the system.

And so these are not only big cost savings, but there's a number of businesses that would not need to be relocated here.

Notably on this, the Jefferson Square property would not need to be affected.

And that included about 40 businesses as identified in the final EIS.

And throughout the corridor, there's businesses and residents that would not need to be relocated because of these impact reductions.

Next slide.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Wells Lawson.

Thanks.

Great, thank you.

And good morning, everyone.

Just as a, by way of introduction, I'm relatively new to Sound Transit as the director over Real Property.

And I did want to note that in addition to real estate, I have a background in local economic development and housing, as well as a community business owner is founding a business in West Oakland, California.

So I do come at this with a lot of different angles at this problem.

So, in this slide, you're going to see the schedule here.

Sound Transit began engaging with potentially affected property owners in the early planning phase.

The draft and final environmental impact statements indicated the properties that are potentially affected by the project.

Formal notification of all potentially affected properties was part of our engagement work prior to the publication of both the draft and final EIS.

Throughout the planning phase, our communications were clear that just because the property was identified in that EIS, it does not necessarily mean that the decision has been made to purchase the property.

That determination is made through the final design process, which is the phase we're in now.

Once we have determined that a property is needed for the project, we will seek Sound Transit Board approval to acquire those properties, and we'll prepare an appraisal and ultimately an offer to purchase the property from the property owner.

This is also the point at which we issue notices of relocation eligibility to residential and business tenants, and our relocation agents will begin assisting the impacted residents and businesses in finding a new home or a new location and in being reimbursed for those eligible expenses that I'll talk about in a second.

So you can see here where we are in the process.

Last year, the Federal Transportation Administration issued that record of decision formally ending the EIS process and marking the transition of the planning phase into the design phase of the project.

And as Jason just described, the West Seattle Link Expansion and other project teams have been analyzing those cost savings across the capital delivery program, and we expect the board to have identified a path forward by the end of quarter two, 2026. So this work has caused us to slow our property acquisition, and that is, I think, why we're here.

We recognize that this delay and uncertainty has caused additional burden and stress for many of the businesses and residents that we're working with.

Project staff are now working very diligently to advance the design work so that we can move those processes forward again and provide the certainty that is needed for those potentially effective properties.

Our board is also committed to timely decision-making, and once we have further information and direction on the project, will be able to provide more clarity about which properties are impacted and begin those relocation processes and conversations in earnest.

Let's go to the next slide.

So it's important to remember that throughout the process, our work is guided and directed by the Uniform Relocation Act, and then within Sound Transit, Our goal is to treat those property owners and businesses fairly, minimizing their hardships and maintaining open lines of communication.

To give you a sense of the benefits that we provide, starting with the residential side of the benefits, we provide these benefits both to tenants and renters as well as the owners occupying the real property needed for the project.

A Sound Transit-appointed relocation agent will contact the owner and the tenant of the displaced properties and explain the services and payments that may be available.

These may include the moving and related expenses for housing payments, including price differential for the homeowners.

For renters, we provide rental assistance, and we even have a program that provides down payment assistance for tenants that may wish to buy.

There's also support for temporary housing assistance and incidental and other purchase-related expenses that may come up.

Next slide, please.

On the business side, we start again with relocation advisory services.

This is where the relocation agent will personally interview those persons and businesses that may be displaced.

to start the conversation around their needs, their desires, discussing those in detail.

And we're looking in that phase at the unique needs to make sure that we're providing a full package of services and benefits that are needed.

Those could include determination, excuse me. the reasonable expenses needed to move personal property, actual and direct losses for tangible personal property and purchase of substitute personal property, reasonable expenses in searching for a replacement location, and importantly, all those costs are uncapped by the federal and state regulations, so that gives us a lot of latitude to be creative, to potentially think outside the box to support those businesses.

We also reimburse for actual expenses that are related to re-establishment, and those are currently capped to a maximum of $204,000.

Those may include the repairs or improvements that are necessary to the replacement property, such as signage, new letterhead, advertising, etc., as well as any modifications that may be required to accommodate business operation or make the replacement structure more suitable to increase and address any increased cost of operations.

And I should note I'm joined, as noted, by our team member who's been here longer than I, Kim DiSaccio, who also has been working closely with these folks to try to bring them the resources that we can bring.

Thank you.

I'm glad to be here and speak to everybody about the relocation services that we provide for residential and business relocations, particularly with the business relocations.

I'd like to point out that the moving costs, where they are uncapped, gives us an opportunity to work specifically with the intricate needs of the business owners and how they operate and how we can be creative and flexible in providing those uncapped benefits to them and trying our best to avoid the capped reestablishment payments so that we can preserve those benefits for more appropriate.

signage and build-outs, et cetera, of the replacement property.

Also, there's a benefit that includes feasibility studies, and that we don't want to forget as well, that don't touch the moving cost or the reestablishment to make sure that the replacement property is a suitable relocation prospect for these business owners.

The financial side of the relocation and benefits that are payable to the displays comes at the point, usually, generally, at the point that offers are made.

However, we as a business have identified a criteria that may allow for us to make business owners eligible early for suitable and reasonable relocation benefits.

We also work very closely with our financial department to where we can direct payment from directly to the vendors who are working with our displaces so that they are not so that the out-of-pocket doesn't come from those business owners.

With their approval, we can pay the vendors directly, and instead of that cost, coming out of the business owners' pockets and having to reimburse them and wait for payment to come back.

So we are diligently working on ways that we can reduce the impact to our residential and our commercial relocations.

I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to come and share a little bit of information about the work we're doing to both reduce impacts and minimize the number of relocations that need to happen both for residents and small businesses in the West Seattle Link Extension Project corridor and also share information about our relocation process.

So that's the conclusion of our presentation.

Thank you, Sound Transit, really appreciate this presentation.

In terms of next steps, would love to hear in a moment from Mr. Albertus Brooks, from the fund, just on how his organization supports impacted individuals and small businesses more broadly, particularly as it relates possibly to North Delridge.

Then we have some of our experts and leaders from our city's own Office of Economic Development and the Office of the Waterfront Civic Projects and Sound Transit here as well.

We'd love to hear how they're approaching this work and that initial $250,000 pilot investment.

But first, We have another distinguished guest and directly impacted community member, and I endeavored not to put you on the spot, but we'd just love to hear.

We grounded the conversation in hearing directly from impacted communities, and so I inadvertently put Laurel on the spot, my apologies, but we'd just love to hear from you, Erin.

If you wouldn't mind introducing yourselves and share your experiences with this work.

Sure, I am happy to introduce myself.

Hi, I'm Erin Rubin.

I'm the owner of Mode Music Studios and a founder and managing director of Mode Music and Performing Arts.

I tend to go on, so I'm timing myself.

And yeah, thank you all for being here today for this roundtable.

Thank you for inviting me, Councilmember Saka.

to speak on it just started like Laurel and I'm sorry I missed yours earlier but so I may just be reinforcing some of what you already said that we are in the North Delridge neighborhood so I have two organizations being displaced this has been quite a long process for us just a lot of back and forth not quite knowing what's going on but mainly like really not knowing how our business was going to be taken care of through this process so not just about when the project is greenlit and you know when we're gonna break ground on it when we have to move and then like what our future is gonna look like as a business so I am very grateful we have a relocation letter in hand.

So that is something that's very exciting for us.

Next steps for us, if I'm being honest to the table here, we're kind of scrambling to make sure that we have financing behind us.

This is something that for, The possibility of some of these costs not coming out of pocket for us, waiting for reimbursement is a positive.

I would love to know more about that because through this process, we've only known that we need to show receipt and we'll be receiving reimbursement after the fact.

I am a single mother business owner.

I don't know many in my position that are able to take care of those costs upfront.

We will also be absorbing the cost of a loan interest rate.

So I just need to really make sure that this doesn't fall on us as a business, you know, me personally and my credit.

because we again are just happy to step aside and happy to get out of the way for public transit, but we're not, this is the first that I've heard that there may be costs taken care of upfront.

So it's nice to hear it, but we'd like to know more about what that's gonna look like for us and other small businesses to follow, because I think that We've uncovered a lot through this process and it would be great to make sure that South Lake Union and Ballard doesn't have to go through this same back and forth that we've gone through.

So that's about my three minutes there.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Aaron.

Very insightful.

Always appreciate you and your contributions and insights.

Would love to hear now from Mr. Brooks from the fund.

Maybe just start by talking about how you approach the work more broadly and your organization, and then we'll turn it over to our partners at the city.

It's been integral in our ability to continue to support and be a resource to them.

deep analysis of who we are, what we do, just so that people are aware.

We did start because of a partnership with Sound Transit, the city, to be able to put together a fund that helps support small businesses in the Rainer Valley Corridor.

Because of that, roughly almost 25 years ago, we've been able to help over 320 small businesses, or 330 small businesses, in cycling about $110 million in the community.

For that reason, we believe that we are, the fund, is adequately ready to support West Seattle in being able to manage these Tough times that may come along with Sound Transit coming in and their development.

What we've been able to do with the small businesses, we support them with technical assistance supports.

We provide small business workshops for preparing these businesses for Again, what may come, what that sometimes looks like is holding similar conversations like this with communities on transit in the city to get a better understanding of what their pain points are and what they may need.

Then also because we are a CDFI, we also were able to provide funding, some of that gap funding that has been spoken to.

by the small businesses because we do know that many of these businesses have been in their communities for years and did not plan for this change in their community.

our ability to be able to come in and support that, I believe, as we have seen, has been integral in communities really being able to stay in where they're at and keep the essence of who they are.

We do that with the community approach.

I think very similar.

This isn't our space.

We're typically in community doing this work, but understand that it's important that there are individuals like yourself, like King County Councilmember Mezqueda, that are also advocating for those businesses in these spaces, and that's why we're here.

Thank you.

Turning it over now to our partners within the city, executive department partners.

Go ahead.

Great.

Well, I'm happy to keep it pretty short.

Again, Alicia Thiel, Deputy Director at the Office of Economic Development.

And we know from our work with businesses in West Seattle that the light rail construction is weighing very heavily on the minds of those who are in the direct station area.

And alongside you, Chair Saka, we advocated for the raise of the reimbursement cap, and so we're very excited to see that that happened last year.

and I think as we have approached kind of what can OED do?

I mean, we are, I think, in the place of the first stop for businesses to ask questions and to also articulate their needs.

And at the same time, I think it is critical as part of the city family that we are both working with the Office of the Waterfront Civic Projects and Sound Transit on what is the city's role, especially in relation to Sound Transit.

I mean, I think Wells and Kim articulated a very robust package of support and benefits that Sound Transit as an agency provides.

And so as OED thinks about what it offers, I think it is really important that we are thinking about how it layers on top of that and doesn't jump in front.

Chris Gregerich with the Office of the Waterfront Civic Projects in Sound Transit.

I'll just echo what Alicia said.

I don't have much more to add beyond that aside from the fact that we have a very close working relationship with Sound Transit and continue to have one with some of the businesses in the community.

So I want to continue to expand that, continue to be an outlet for folks to reach out to, engage with, and see where we can provide support.

And I think one of the biggest places where we are providing support is hopefully getting clearer definition on the West Seattle Link Extension progressing here shortly in the near future.

And there's been a lot of alignment from the North King County board members, Councilmember Mosqueda, Councilmember Strauss, and the mayor that West Seattle Link Extension needs to move forward and the board needs to act soon to get that moving forward and bring greater clarity to the business owners here at the table and in the community.

All right.

Excellent.

Thank you, very robust conversation.

At this point, I will turn it over to my Councilmember colleagues to see if they have any questions or comments.

Starting first with Vice Chair Rink.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

If you have any.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

I'm just recognizing our colleague, Councilmember Kettle has had his hand up for a little bit and I'm happy to let him go first.

You yielded to Councilmember Kettle?

Absolutely, go ahead.

All right, thank you Chair Saka for bringing this together, this meeting together.

I think it's really important to work through all these pieces and to daylight these issues.

and this whole line, obviously District 1 and different parts of the city is really important.

But today I just wanted to highlight in a more broader strategic sense that here in Seattle, we're working to implement state direction on land use to the Puget Sound Regional Council with the comprehensive plan and all its associated laws.

and then separately we're also looking to work to implement state direction on light rail on transportation through sound transit with the ST3 planning process.

And as everybody at this table knows, or at least a majority of them know, land use and transportation are two sides of the same coin.

On one hand, for example, we're working to densify areas such as Ballard by designating in a regional center.

But we may not, but still need, ST3 light rail access to Ballard.

Light rail, transportation,

Go ahead, Councilmember Kettle.

There's an audible noise in the background.

We'll work with tech, but go ahead.

So basically, we have to have the left hand and the right hand working together.

We have to have the left hand in terms of transportation working with the right hand in terms of land use.

If we don't have them working together, we're going to create so many problems.

And so I remind everybody that through PSRC process and the comprehensive plan process, we created the Ballard Regional Center.

And we're going to be densifying that.

But if we don't reach it with transportation needs, then we're creating problems.

We have to have good governance in this area.

And I'm concerned that we're not going to have good governance.

And so, Chair, you know, in some ways we need to have a meeting with the governor's office and PSRC, you know, maybe a select committee with land use combined.

to talk through these things because we have a disconnect between the left hand and right hand of state government through its PSRC and sound transit.

And it's being highlighted with Ballard.

And I bring this up as a district chef rep because the Ballard light extension runs through my district.

and will be very affected by the problems of this disconnect related to land use and transportation policy.

So I just wanted to raise this up, Chair.

I do 100% appreciate what's happening here in terms of what this work that needs to be done in terms of supporting the West Seattle piece, but we also have to highlight these other areas.

It is massively important in terms of what we're trying to achieve as, you know, in terms of our goals, in terms of growth.

and separately I'll take the opportunity as the Public Safety Chair to also highlight in daylight and ask the question, raise the issue, ask for transparency on the idea of tunneling under the Emergency Operations Center and the Fire Alarm Center, Fire Station 10. As someone who's worked in this area in my previous career and I've been engaging with the public safety elements in this city, there's a lot of concern.

with the idea of tunneling under the Emergency Ops Center and the Fire Alarm Center, which is so key in terms of our ability to respond to big issues like a massive earthquake.

And so this needs to be front and center out there.

This needs to be transparent, and we need to talk through this.

and so these are two points, Chair, that I just wanted to highlight, taking advantage of this agenda item to do it.

But again, I do thank you for having it on because the people in West Seattle do need, Delridge and Alaska Junction do need to have this support, to have all the work that you're doing because it's really important to the small business owners, the people who live there, the business owners that we go through this process.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle, all the work that we're doing.

So I appreciate your partnership and leadership on all this as well, because West Seattle is the most directly impacted in the nearest term.

But as we talked about, the construction of light rail and expansion goes through Soto, all the way through the Maritime and Industrial Corridor, through your district to Ballard.

So thank you.

Let's see.

Can I comment on that real quick?

Yeah, yeah, please.

I was actually gonna call on you, Council Member Musqueda, because I allowed you to introduce yourselves and didn't give you an opportunity to chime in since there was a lot of rich discussion since, so please.

Well, I don't want to interrupt the flow, but it was actually a perfect tee up from, I was gonna say Board Member Kettle.

from Councilmember Kettle.

And I just thought I'd take an opportunity to respond to that.

And thank you again for the opportunity to be here today to sit at this table.

I don't know if it's a surprise, but surprise.

I'm happy to be here with you.

I do want to take a minute to just comment on the overall theme that Councilmember Kettle, you touched on, which is making sure that we're committed to the overall lines and plans that voters agreed to, including ultimately getting to Ballard.

And I want to emphasize a point that was made at the table earlier, at least from the North King County delegation.

That includes Board Member Strauss, Mayor Wilson, myself, and Executive Zahalai.

for the four of us who sit on the North King delegation, we are united in a call to complete West Seattle and to ultimately get to Ballard, to make sure that we fulfill that promise.

And that also means the promise from Everett to Tacoma, completing the spine.

If there is not the universe of dollars to do that currently as was discussed in the retreat yesterday, then what we're asking the board to do is sharpen the pencils, go back to the drawing table, show us what it takes to get there because the residents of Seattle who are in Ballard also want their line completed.

And so yesterday's headlines I think were unfortunate because the takeaway that I was hoping folks would hear is the board is encouraging staff to go back and find a way to get to yes, figure out what the timeline is and what steps are necessary in order to complete those lines.

It's called the West Seattle Ballard Extension and we want to see that ultimately completed.

So the request is both about the timing and the resources necessary.

We know that we have a rental car tax option.

We have debt bonding capacity as an option.

We have other revenue options collectively in this region that we ought to be looking at.

I wish that was the headline yesterday to say we're gonna figure out a path to get to yes and complete the promises.

But just please know from the North King delegation, the commitment is there.

I also would love a chance to, if I could, Chair, just comment briefly on the North Delridge area and the West Seattle extension.

I was very pleased yesterday to hear a lot of support from board members in the Sound Transit Board raising the concept of moving forward, building on the momentum, recognizing the shovel readiness of West Seattle, but that shovel readiness and the kind of limbo that we've been in has caused a lot of concern and anxiety from small businesses, as you've heard about, from ounces, to Mode, to Skylark, to the Alki Beach Academy, to the grocery store, as we call it, in the North Delridge area that I just went into this morning to talk to the owners there and to get my morning coffee.

People want to have certainty.

And I think moving forward and having certainty on what West Seattle looks like offers at least clarity.

And the concepts that I am very interested in is making sure that we offer clarity and certainty in the immediate.

Mr. Chair, if it's possible, I'd love to show the slide that you had with the Sound Transit presentation.

I believe it was slide number seven.

And as maybe the public knows, people might know that Councilmember Saka, Chair Saka and myself, we live about six blocks away from each other in the North Delridge corridor.

and I think that we raise issues about the West Seattle area and the businesses that are represented at the table, not because we love this neighborhood and we love these businesses and we patron these establishments, but because our residents do and our constituents do and hundreds of our neighbors in the area are asking us to step in and to do more.

If you look at this corridor here, and again, very thankful for the 6,200, near 7,000 residents like Laurel and myself.

Laurel goes there more than I do though, I gotta say.

At the West Seattle Health Club, when I go, she's there, but every time you go, I am not there.

This is not only a place where people go for recreation and working out, this is a place where people learn to swim.

This is the only swimming pool in the North Delridge corridor.

and as we've been having conversations over the last two plus years, as you mentioned in your opening comments, people who are not members of this swimming pool also go there for their kiddos to learn to swim.

This is a place where elders go for their daily workouts in the morning and the concept of having a line that would have gone right through the pool was really is unthinkable when you think of the, not only health this brings to the community, but the smiles and social cohesion that this offers.

So I'm very thankful that the work that the Sound Transit team has done to sharpen the pencils, to go back to the drawing table and find cost savings actually has resulted in a place like the West Seattle Health Club, the hundred employees there and the near 7,000 patrons being able to see that place preserved.

But as you go farther east, you see the corridor that is Delridge Way, intersecting with Andover there, where Laurel's establishment of Ounces is directly underneath the blue line there.

Skylark is directly underneath the blue line there.

Mode is directly underneath the blue line there.

And Alki Beach Academy, directly under the blue line there.

This is where I think there is a huge opportunity if the West Seattle North Delridge station and our junction station move forward, which I hope they do, that we act with urgency, not only to see if there's still maybe any shift at the last minute, but if there is not, to make sure three things are accomplished.

Number one, I've been asking the board and reiterated this point yesterday at the policy and planning work group table.

I would love for there to be protective rent or some form of offsetting the existing costs of staying in this neighborhood as long as possible to be deployed now.

for ABA, for Ounces, for Mode, for Skylark, for the deli, because I don't want this to turn into a ghost town, as board member Strauss talks about.

We've already seen two businesses leave in the area, and I would love to be able to have Sound Transit offer some form of offsetting existing rent as you act as quasi realtors in this moment to try to figure out your next steps.

That is something that we talked about at the policy and planning table yesterday.

The second thing, Chair Saka, that we talked about as well, is I would love for there to be the right of first opportunity to return.

If there is to be a displacement of businesses here, we know that that could be five years or so in the construction phase.

However, if there was light at the end of the tunnel and you knew that if you moved and the place that you moved to wasn't successful, that you had the right of first opportunity to return to a new transit-oriented development site at the Sound Transit Station, and you knew that that was a possibility, that might give businesses a little bit more of hope and at least a chance to have another satellite location, even if your new location were to work out.

I'm very thankful, especially to the Sound Transit team at the table.

Jason's been very thoughtful about showing where the transit-oriented development location could be at the north corner there at Delridge and Andover to have retail establishments, especially on the first and second floors.

And I would love for those to be ounces, Skylar, Mode.

I would love for the second floor to be the Alki Beach Academy and for us definitely to have a grocery store retained in that area.

So opportunity for first opportunity return is something that we're actively working on.

And to Erin's point from Mode, doing anything we can now, and I know Laurel mentioned this as well, doing anything we can now to relieve funding, to allocate dollars now while there is uncertainty to allow businesses to have a little bit of reprieve as they think about where they may need to move, not only as they try to navigate what that looks like, but the moving costs that we know you will encumber before any reimbursement is allocated.

So that's why I'm so thankful to the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund for all that you're doing in partnership with Council Member Saka, freeing up some funding last year.

$250,000 is very much appreciated.

We were told it might have come from the jumpstart funds, but I'll get into that later.

So just to continue to get those dollars out the door is something we are very appreciative of.

All of that is to say, we do think that this can be both a value add to the residents in West Seattle and preserve as many assets as possible, like the Sound Transit team has done by the creative thinking they showed between Nucor and the West Seattle Health Club and clearly demonstrated by the preservation of all of those businesses at the Jefferson Square when you get up to the Alaska Junction.

That is an incredible demonstration of what it means to ask Sound Transit to go back to the drawing board and aggressively to pursue cost savings.

$2.6 billion with a B is the low end estimate of what we're able to shave in terms of costs here.

And my hope is that with additional creative thinking as we move forward, we will not only see some more strategies to support small businesses, if not preserve some more, but to see this type of cost savings applied to places like Ballard.

That requires us telling Sound Transit's team and the executive to go forward with advancing the designs for places like Ballard and Everett and Tacoma seek additional cost savings, pursue additional revenue, and in the meantime, do everything we can to move forward on shovel-ready projects for working families in West Seattle while supporting the small businesses there.

I thank you for the partnership in this work and look forward to working with you to get those dollars up and anything that we can do at King County to support those efforts.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.

Appreciate your advocacy on all this and thought partnership.

Strongly support sound transit-led anti-displacement strategies like the ones you specifically enumerated called out, protective rents, rights of first refusal to return to a completed site and the like.

And I know our team, our city executive departments at OED and the Office of Waterfront, Civic Projects and Sound Transit, that's more of a mouthful than steps.

I know they're working diligently to figure out how we can best implement and spend the $250,000 from a city of Seattle perspective.

There are some, I know they're also navigating through some legal, potential legal issues and challenges.

Sound Transit as an authority that is essentially exercising the state's eminent domain authority has much more freedom and flexibility to be creative and do things like provide protective rents and provide direct financial support than the city does.

But in any event, a goal with that is to amplify the impact of Sound Transit's investments and partner together.

And as Deputy Director Teal pointed out a moment ago is to be layered on top of and not get ahead of these very important sort of financial responsibilities of Sound Transit.

So thank you.

Let's see, colleagues, council member, Vice Chair Rink.

And then we'll go to Councilmember Foster, if that's okay.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

And thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda, for speaking to this and just kind of pulling back the curtain and adding some more detail to these conversations.

This is The announcement from yesterday or the news that broke yesterday, I should say, has certainly been front of mind for my office and we've certainly heard about it from folks across the community.

We know that voters in Seattle have overwhelmingly supported this extension and entertaining the deferral or elimination of Ballard Link extension is not acceptable.

And there are overdue stations such as Graham Street that I know Council Member Foster has lifted up yesterday that also need to be seen through.

and just to put a finer point on this, to not deliver on high capacity transit to the swath of our city, this plan for some of the highest levels of growth would be a disservice to our residents and would be out of alignment with our comprehensive planning efforts.

So as our partners and advocates say, we need to build the dam trains and we need to find a way to get to yes, to fully realize the voter approved West Seattle Ballard Link extension.

And to that point, just as a couple of questions for today, and I wanna thank the chair for pulling together this amazing group of folks.

It's amazing to see so many faces who are behind these really important efforts.

And thank you to our small business partners who are at the table today and taking time out of your day.

running your businesses to be here.

And really grateful that we also have a Rainier Valley Community Development Fund at the table as well as a notable model that's working in our community and recognizing again the history behind these efforts to put together this kind of model is tremendously important.

So thank you for being at the table too.

I wanted to dive into some of the points related to current residential relocation and I know there's a couple of slides on this matter I'm just wondering if you can attach some numbers to this understanding our current how many folks have gone through residential relocation through this current sound transit process how have we evolved the program and also how do we really regard success how are we ensuring that our residential relocation efforts as well as our commercial relocation efforts are successful.

What does that success really look like when we're being person-centered?

I don't know who at the table is the best to answer that question.

I'll start and then I'll pass it over to Wells to share more details and comments.

But in general, relocation efforts have only just begun on the project.

And as Wells mentioned in his presentation, Due to our cost savings work and looking at the design of the alignment and station locations, we've paused a lot of relocation activities.

There have been three residential acquisitions and relocations.

Those have been triggered by unique circumstances, burdens, medical or financial, that were severe for those property owners.

These were three single family homes and those folks have been- I believe all of those acquisitions and relocations have already occurred and those folks have moved out of state and we've generally heard positive feedback from them about the process and we were able to expedite a lot of those processes because of their challenging circumstances.

Certainly there are a lot of small businesses who are also under a lot of uncertainty and stress with the process and we just want to acknowledge that It's a challenging circumstance for them to be in, and we're working hard to get them clarity as soon as we can.

And to address your question, what would success look like?

I can say, I would let Kim speak to a little bit of some of the successes Sound Transit has had, but I will say from my former experience, which was at Los Angeles Metro, similar type of work.

There were a lot of success stories, and I think the thing to remember is there's generally, you know, we're talking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of relocations, and generally speaking, they turn out better than they do create troubles.

And from a residential perspective, it's the relocation agents that are actually meeting with folks in their living rooms and trying to understand their exact needs.

And honestly, there's a hundred stories of like, I love that tree, what can you do for me?

And the tree is moved.

So there's just very visceral types of relationships we have to land and to our businesses and to communities have to their businesses.

On the commercial side, that ideal that you raised about right of first refusal is really, really interesting.

And we did pursue that.

It's tough because there is no doubt an interim period which is hard for businesses to manage.

But I have also heard businesses that were on the precipice of doing some other big change, an expansion or potentially breaking into a new neighborhood.

it doesn't always work out the way that we might at a community level wish to see, but for the businesses, they often see that as a gain.

And I don't know if Kim, you wanna put some local color on it.

Yes, thank you, Wells.

One of the things that I take pride in in working with my team is that relocation and acquisition live separately, where both are very intricate and both are very, they dovetail together, but our relocation agent works specifically with relocation.

and acquisition is a whole other side of the same transaction, but there is a dedicated person for relocation in both commercial and residential to speak specifically to the needs of the person who is being relocated.

And with that, in gathering information about their needs, their wants, desires, what works for them specifically with their financial situation, and their immediate and long-term needs with our relocation, we are able to really dial into what it is that they need and what it is that we can provide under these relocation acts.

So we take pride in being able to be the subject matter experts for those regulations, but also being able to work hand in hand with our people and in the people that we are displacing to make the transition as less impactful as possible.

And that's always a win for us.

And then I'm just gonna ask Jason to share information about the number of potential displacements on the alignment.

Yeah, happy to do that.

You know, Cody described some of the work that we've already done, but we have a big job ahead of us.

In the EIS, we studied a broad range of alternatives, and some of those would have up to 150 business displacements, up to 600 or so residential displacements.

The project that was selected by the board was not near the top of that, but we still had about 130 businesses that would need to be relocated, and about a Checking my notes there.

About 160 residential, right?

But with what I've showed you today and just a couple of examples of where we've pulled back on the design and reduced impacts, we think that we'll be able to reduce impacting about 100 properties.

I know that's not a direct number of businesses or residents because some of those properties have multiple units on them or multiple businesses.

The example of Jefferson Square is near 40 businesses, right?

And then when we think about the Health Club and then some of the businesses in Soto and in the Duwamish area, the Manufacturing Industrial Center that Chair Saka spoke about earlier, we'll have those numbers in the future.

Right now, we're really focused on getting this design right, reducing the impacts and reducing the cost, and then we will have to count those businesses later, right?

But it's a substantial reduction over what we had before.

Thank you for that, and I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the tension in all of this.

This is a deeply emotional process, a challenging process, and one that we're figuring out as we go.

And I wanted to turn next to the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund, just because in your remarks you commented that you've supported, if I heard correctly, over 300 businesses?

Yes.

Yes.

Can you just illustrate for us, again, what that support specifically looks like in a couple of cases?

So, as I kind of mentioned before, so it can look like supporting the relocation process for businesses.

It can look like supporting some of these businesses and understanding what the process looks like, right?

So that's either providing them business readiness support, identifying what the business transition needs are, whether that be those businesses needing to sunset, maybe needing to maybe transfer ownership or really just look at what the change in the demographic or the change in the area in which they're going to move to may mean for their business.

So marketing, a plethora of different things that will support businesses and being able to take that next step in their growth and development.

Tremendously helpful.

And again, given the experience and the work you all have done, there's some excellent things that we can pull from there when it comes to trying to navigate through this, and I'm sure that engagement work is already going on.

And my final point or question for the panel, which I wish we had more time with you all, and I'll certainly follow up just to dive into this further and hear some perspectives.

But for the Office of Economic Development, I know we received a note preceding this meeting from the West Seattle Chamber, and I'm wondering if you can just speak to OED's further engagement like preceding this work with the West Seattle Chamber and how you see also further engagement with small businesses and business chambers throughout this process.

Yeah, thank you so much for the question, council member.

And thank you for sharing the letter as well, which I know went to council.

So we are talking with RBCDF about what that community engagement looks like.

And I know Albertus, you had convened a great meeting in February that brought a lot of folks together.

and then we also have a relationship with the West Seattle Chamber.

And so as this conversation proceeds, we'll certainly be following up with them, with the West Seattle Junction BIA and with Delridge Neighborhood Association to understand where everyone's at and also explain kind of what our priorities and also what our constraints are, right?

And how we deploy this funding, so.

Certainly.

Thank you for that.

Yeah, as chair over our Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee, we'd like to just continue that conversation, not just with you, but also with the small businesses at the table here today.

But with that, I'm going to see the rest of my time.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Moving on now to Councilmember Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I really appreciate it.

And I want to thank you for pulling together this fantastic panel today.

I really appreciate having the opportunity to have My question is, you know, I especially wanted to circle back to something I heard you say, Erin, just around navigating the various kinds of supports that are available.

And what I heard you say was just as a single parent and a small business owner, like, wow, it also takes time to work through this system, despite the fact that there's things that are available.

It's sort of like, how do we know what's there?

And I think you said something around, you know, how do you take that experience that you had and ensure that Sound Transit and our other agency partners are incorporating that into small business outreach when it comes into other communities.

And that really stuck with me, so thank you for that.

And I wanted to turn to our partners at Sound Transit and say, are there strategies that you're already taking or looking to make sure that all of the support that you already have available, to make sure it's clear and navigable, I'm not sure if I said that right, for our small businesses?

I would love to hear more about that.

I'll start with that.

I mean, the process starts early, we believe.

It's a matter of open lines of communication.

That's why even though you may not be impacted, we reach out early and often and start the open lines of communication.

I do think that these delays have created this opportunity for quiet, which is problematic, and I think we recognize that.

And so I think there is an opportunity for us to figure out how we can create kind of regular dialogue, or not dialogue because that's time consuming, but regular information that can be provided to those small businesses.

And I think there's room for improvement always for the tools.

We have online our relocation manuals that guide small businesses and residential property owners through the steps.

And that information is very clear, but it's sort of traditional static format, right?

So there could be other ways that we could start promoting the work through the project teams and who are more on the ground often in those early phases, but through other types of media, making sure it's multilingual, that it's accessible, that it's hitting all the pieces and that people are really familiar with feet on the ground, going door to door, businesses, et cetera.

So I don't know, Kim, since you've done this work, if you want to comment further.

Yes, and actually we've had some conversations with some of the participants in this roundtable about how we can better communicate with them and how we can keep them informed while we are in this pause, in this silence.

And by working with them directly, we've been able to come up with some ideas of how we can get more specific and also general information out to the public from the people who are working directly with these business owners by possibly holding like office hours, as we were mentioned before, where we can have our people who are subject matter experts in a room ready to answer questions for people who come in and have just general questions or specific questions about their own relocation or just a general sense of what we're doing with relocation in the project.

And so that was something I found really interesting because a lot of the times in my position, I'm not able to be boots on ground.

and not able to be face-to-face with people who have legitimate concerns.

And that's where I want to be able to kind of bridge that gap between the project and some of the silence, but also answer questions for what is a direct concern and impact while you are running your business and trying to mitigate some of the concerns that you have with some of the impacts that we're making.

Am I able to make just a quick comment here?

Thank you so much and thank you Council Member Foster for commenting here and asking those questions.

I am looking at a lot of Sound Transit members, the majority at the table that were not there when I first began this process, when Laurel and I first began this process.

and so just to be clear that that was not our experience in North Delridge, that there were not open lines of communication, that there was not an early outreach process.

Most of what we uncovered was done on the side of the small businesses.

A lot of our efforts, we were not, no one came to our building to do an assessment of whether or not we could be relocated in the neighborhood before the environmental study began.

So there were processes that I have read in Sound Transit's procedures and guidelines that were not followed in North Delridge.

So I think that those are important processes for our small businesses, knowing that we have a taproom, a music venue, a bar and restaurant, all in one, very hard to relocate.

Our music school is not an easy one.

to place in another neighborhood, another building in West Seattle.

And we're talking about displacing another music school in Jefferson Square as well.

So there are two of us looking for spaces and this was definitely missed on Sound Transit's part.

So I'm hopeful that looking at new faces here, that things will be different, but that if that were the the presented process of sound transit that was not our experience.

I thank you.

Thank you so much for that and for sharing that with us and thank you to the Sound Transit team and I think you've given us a lot of opportunity to think about and I'm sure other folks heard that you know what that looks like moving forward.

So I just want to appreciate you sharing that and I appreciate you at Sound Transit as well.

I know you all are working hard to collaborate and to figure this out, but I just want to express my appreciation for that.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Anyone else have any final questions, comments, please?

Councilmember Lin, who has joined us in person.

Go ahead, four of yours.

Thank you, Chair Saka, and thank you to the entire panel.

A few just comments.

I want to reiterate what others have said here that, you know, I think it's critical that we continue forward with what was promised to voters, including Ballard, including the Graham Street infill station.

I know this is incredibly hard work and early in my legal career, I represented property owners, businesses that were being relocated, displaced by Sound Transit and by other government agencies due to these large infrastructure projects.

And, you know, Sound Transit's This work is incredibly hard and we see the pressures on cost overruns, but at the end of the day, this project is an enormous regional benefit to us, but we also know that some of the costs of it are borne by our small businesses.

by our residents that are being relocated.

And when I was an attorney representing folks and being displaced, folks were never being made completely whole.

I mean, the best you could do is like, gosh, if you could get close to being made whole, that was a win.

And particularly for small businesses who might not have had the resources to hire expensive attorneys to represent them.

and or who, you know, were tenants and so did not have the same rights as property owners.

And so one, I just wanna reinforce that I think it's critical that we not, you know, while we absolutely need to be thoughtful of costs, that we not do so on the backs of our small businesses or other folks being relocated.

But I also, I think we need to celebrate the incredible There were things about the first phase that were not great, including the at-grade light rail, but one thing that was great was the foresight to have the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund and the leadership of Richard McIver.

And not only supporting during the time of construction, but we see 20 years later still supporting our community.

And I just wanna highlight that part of, I think, the structure, there are some legal complications here in terms of how to fund these things, but I think part of what was critical is I believe it got into the record of decision as part of the environmental review process.

And so as I think about representing District 2, including the Chinatown International District, just very concerned about potential small business impacts to that neighborhood as well through a lengthy construction process.

But again, how can we not just support them through the construction process, but have a lasting benefit and legacy?

So more of a comment than a question, but just would love to see as we go through this next phase, something like the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund replicated, expanded to support other neighborhoods that are experiencing displacement and other impacts.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin.

Well said.

I'm glad to hear you prospectively support my upcoming legislation to do exactly that.

Thank you.

A glowing endorsement of my legislation, which is just want to close out by grounding us in kind of why we're here and the work that we're seeking to build upon.

It's because of visionary leaders like the late Councilmember Richard MacGyver.

It's not any one individual person or initiative or coalition.

This has roots in a community-led organization and process that was championed by community and championed at the elected official level by this gentleman right here, Councilmember Richard MacGyver.

I say frequently and often that I am proud to stand, as a Councilmember who happens to be black, I am proud to stand on the shoulders of giants who have paved the way and sacrificed so much to make my work easier.

And when I say that, it's people like Councilmember MacGyver who have done the work.

And as part of this sort of process, I got a chance to learn more about him.

I never had a chance to meet him personally, unfortunately, but I did call up some of my close mentors and elders and who did know him and did interact with them and amazing person, amazing leader.

And again, we're building off of this work.

We're not recreating the wheel.

All this is is a 2026 iteration of a problem that started in our region in the late 90s.

This is the latest implementation of it.

Again, we know that the directly impacted, unlike Southeast Seattle, it was impacted before.

We're talking about the maritime and industrial corridor, key parts that really drive and serve as the engine of our economy.

So thank you all.

This could have been a three, four hour conversation easily.

And to be honest, if it was that, we probably would have just scratched the surface.

But thank you all again, especially want to extend my gratitude and appreciation to our small business, our small businesses, again, carving out time out of your busy days to share your perspectives and insights with us to help guide this work going forward.

So thank you everyone.

Let's see, we have reached.

Any other final?

All right, we have reached the end of today's meeting agenda.

Our next meeting will be April 2nd, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.

Hearing no final business to come before the committee.

Before we adjourn, we are adjourned.

It is 12 o'clock p.m.

Thank you.