Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel and other Ballard businesses opposed to safety improvements, including the long-overdue completion of the “missing link” of the Burke-Gilman Trail, along Shilshole Ave in Ballard were dealt another blow in the courts.
After last summer’s decision in King County Superior Court, which sided with the city and Cascade Bicycle Club on eight of nine complaints, the judge remanded the environmental review to the city so that they could study the 0.3 miles of Shilshole Ave that hadn’t been evaluated. Even though the next phase of the environmental review has yet to be completed, trail-opponents rushed to appeal Judge Rogers ruling on the eight complaints where he found in Cascade’s favor.
Today, the Court dismissed Salmon Bay’s appeal. While Salmon Bay may ask the panel of the three judges assigned to the case to modify the commissioner’s order, it is unlikely that they would.
As for the status of the project, it is our understanding that the required additional environmental review is almost complete and that the city is looking at issuing a new threshold determination on full project, including the so-called permanent route on Shilshole Ave NW, by sometime in December.
From there we will likely have to go before the Hearing Examiner once again and then back to Judge Rogers courtroom. [Edit:] SDOT intends to see through the full appellate process before the trail is built.
Thank you to everyone who rallied in support of trail completion.
Finally… Looks like the light is finally visible at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been waiting for this segment since I lived in Ballard nearly 20 years ago.
Frankly, I’ve got to wonder what all the fuss is about. Metro drivers interact safely with cyclists all over the city every day. If we can safely navigate a bus in areas like Dexter Ave, the University district, or 3rd Ave, can’t cement truck drivers do the same? I mean, come on… Don’t those things have mirrors and brakes?
[...] Cascade reports on its blog that Friday, King County Superior Court threw out the appeals on those eight challenges. The court action on the part of these businesses basically amounts to delay tactics as they try to block and delay the completion of this much-needed trail as much as possible. [...]
Boy, progress is slow there.
The missing link I am interested in is the south ship canal trail connecting Magnolia under the Ballard Bridge to the rest of the city. This would make a huge difference to all the people who bike to and from Magnolia going East. Does anyone know what is happening with the BNSF permissions? What can we do to move it along?
When is Cascade Bicycle going to start trying to get the missing link in Pierce County done??? Planned years and years ago, it put a bike path from Puyallup to Tacoma – there’s no good route between the two cities without it. When Fife and Puyallup annexed some of the land the project stalled indefintely it seems. I know there’s some folks working on it but I believe they’re part of Rails to Trails – not Cascade Bicycle…..you guys seem to ignore everything outside of King County. Should be called Seattle Bicycle club….not Cascade.