Comments on: Northgate, it’s worse than we thought http://blog.cascade.org/2012/05/90-percent-deserve-a-fair-deal/ Creating a better community through bicycling, throughout Seattle, King County and Washington state. Sat, 18 May 2013 11:32:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Northgate’s 92% deserve a fair deal | Streets For All Seattle http://blog.cascade.org/2012/05/90-percent-deserve-a-fair-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-54442 Northgate’s 92% deserve a fair deal | Streets For All Seattle Sun, 10 Jun 2012 19:54:09 +0000 http://blog.cascade.org/?p=13188#comment-54442 [...] a May 24, 2012 briefing to the Sound Transit Board, agency staff presented the plan they developed behind closed doors to build a 600 to 900 stall parking garage while making minimal (and nearly entirely unfunded) [...] [...] a May 24, 2012 briefing to the Sound Transit Board, agency staff presented the plan they developed behind closed doors to build a 600 to 900 stall parking garage while making minimal (and nearly entirely unfunded) [...]

]]> By: Northgate Open House on Monday - Seattle Transit Blog http://blog.cascade.org/2012/05/90-percent-deserve-a-fair-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-53227 Northgate Open House on Monday - Seattle Transit Blog Sat, 02 Jun 2012 13:30:32 +0000 http://blog.cascade.org/?p=13188#comment-53227 [...] million parking garage” (yesterday debunked again on Crosscut) has gone viral, with Cascade Bike Club and Feet First making it the centerpiece of efforts to rally opposition to parking structures at [...] [...] million parking garage” (yesterday debunked again on Crosscut) has gone viral, with Cascade Bike Club and Feet First making it the centerpiece of efforts to rally opposition to parking structures at [...]

]]> By: Rick http://blog.cascade.org/2012/05/90-percent-deserve-a-fair-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-53037 Rick Thu, 31 May 2012 15:51:39 +0000 http://blog.cascade.org/?p=13188#comment-53037 Antoine, Ditto. Well described. Other than missing the element of the bike/ped overpass to NSCC, and the actual commitment to follow through with the full plan (TOD & eliminating surface lots), this sounds like a reasonable plan, not the shady, underhanded deal that it's being headlined as. Antoine,
Ditto. Well described. Other than missing the element of the bike/ped overpass to NSCC, and the actual commitment to follow through with the full plan (TOD & eliminating surface lots), this sounds like a reasonable plan, not the shady, underhanded deal that it’s being headlined as.

]]> By: Antoine McNamara http://blog.cascade.org/2012/05/90-percent-deserve-a-fair-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-53002 Antoine McNamara Thu, 31 May 2012 08:06:06 +0000 http://blog.cascade.org/?p=13188#comment-53002 I really appreciate the work that Craig and Cascade have done to bring this issue to our attention. It's critical that we take a stand for safe, walkable neighborhoods. And, in general, surrounding stations with parking lots will defeat many of the advantages of light rail. That said, after reviewing the Sound Transit proposal, I can't help but feel like the tone of these posts is somewhat misleading. Yes, the proposal calls for building a new 600-900 stall parking garage, but it does so in order to "allow conversion of [King County Metro]'s surface [Park & Ride] lots to TOD [(Transit Oriented Development)] sites." (p. 22). Those two lots (labelled "KCM West Parcel" and "KCM East Parcel" in the slide presentation) account for 753 parking spaces, and they would *both* be converted to dense TOD sites for development of 85-foot-tall residential apartments with ground-floor retail. These lost parking spots would in turn be replaced with the parking garage, built on a site owned by the mall that currently holds about another 150 stalls of surface parking. In other words, Sound Transit isn't proposing the addition of a single parking space. Instead, the proposal calls for taking about 900 stalls currently spread out over 7 acres of surface parking and replacing them with 600-900 stalls in a single 1.1-acre garage. This will cost millions of dollars, but it will open up 6 acres of prime real estate *directly* adjacent to the new light rail station and the Northgate Transit Center for dense, walkable, bikeable development. In fact, ST claims that the number of Park & Ride spaces under this proposal would actually drop from the 1522 (now) to 1219 (when the light rail station opens). (p. 25). That's not too shabby, considering that ST expects transit use to *triple* (from 5,000 to 15,000 daily boardings). That's not to say that this plan is perfect. I would love to see *all* of the parking around the light rail station torn out to accomodate TOD. If that's not feasible, I can imagine Cascade arguing that ST should only spend money moving surface parking spots into a garage once it has committed to building all of the desired bike infrastructure (like the bike/ped overpass to North Seattle Community College). Moreover, even if one supports the idea of concentrating parking into a garage to make room for TOD, it might be nice if that garage were further from the station, freeing up even more of the directly adjacent space for dense, walkable development. Finally, it seems obvious that ST shouldn't build any kind of the garage unless King County Metro commits to turning over both of its current surface parking lots to TOD; otherwise, we might end up with the worst of both worlds. Craig is right that "[t]his is our chance to transform a neighborhood dominated by an ocean of parking lots into a bikeable, walkable and transit-rich community . . . ." But that's exactly what Sound Transit is trying to do here by freeing up 6 acres of surface parking for TOD. We can and should debate whether there is a better way to do it and/or whether it should be taken even further, but it doesn't really seem fair to demonize ST for a proposal that would *decrease* Park & Ride parking and *significantly increase* TOD opportunities. I really appreciate the work that Craig and Cascade have done to bring this issue to our attention. It’s critical that we take a stand for safe, walkable neighborhoods. And, in general, surrounding stations with parking lots will defeat many of the advantages of light rail.

That said, after reviewing the Sound Transit proposal, I can’t help but feel like the tone of these posts is somewhat misleading. Yes, the proposal calls for building a new 600-900 stall parking garage, but it does so in order to “allow conversion of [King County Metro]‘s surface [Park & Ride] lots to TOD [(Transit Oriented Development)] sites.” (p. 22). Those two lots (labelled “KCM West Parcel” and “KCM East Parcel” in the slide presentation) account for 753 parking spaces, and they would *both* be converted to dense TOD sites for development of 85-foot-tall residential apartments with ground-floor retail. These lost parking spots would in turn be replaced with the parking garage, built on a site owned by the mall that currently holds about another 150 stalls of surface parking.

In other words, Sound Transit isn’t proposing the addition of a single parking space. Instead, the proposal calls for taking about 900 stalls currently spread out over 7 acres of surface parking and replacing them with 600-900 stalls in a single 1.1-acre garage. This will cost millions of dollars, but it will open up 6 acres of prime real estate *directly* adjacent to the new light rail station and the Northgate Transit Center for dense, walkable, bikeable development. In fact, ST claims that the number of Park & Ride spaces under this proposal would actually drop from the 1522 (now) to 1219 (when the light rail station opens). (p. 25). That’s not too shabby, considering that ST expects transit use to *triple* (from 5,000 to 15,000 daily boardings).

That’s not to say that this plan is perfect. I would love to see *all* of the parking around the light rail station torn out to accomodate TOD. If that’s not feasible, I can imagine Cascade arguing that ST should only spend money moving surface parking spots into a garage once it has committed to building all of the desired bike infrastructure (like the bike/ped overpass to North Seattle Community College). Moreover, even if one supports the idea of concentrating parking into a garage to make room for TOD, it might be nice if that garage were further from the station, freeing up even more of the directly adjacent space for dense, walkable development. Finally, it seems obvious that ST shouldn’t build any kind of the garage unless King County Metro commits to turning over both of its current surface parking lots to TOD; otherwise, we might end up with the worst of both worlds.

Craig is right that “[t]his is our chance to transform a neighborhood dominated by an ocean of parking lots into a bikeable, walkable and transit-rich community . . . .” But that’s exactly what Sound Transit is trying to do here by freeing up 6 acres of surface parking for TOD. We can and should debate whether there is a better way to do it and/or whether it should be taken even further, but it doesn’t really seem fair to demonize ST for a proposal that would *decrease* Park & Ride parking and *significantly increase* TOD opportunities.

]]> By: railcan http://blog.cascade.org/2012/05/90-percent-deserve-a-fair-deal/comment-page-1/#comment-52961 railcan Wed, 30 May 2012 23:49:37 +0000 http://blog.cascade.org/?p=13188#comment-52961 Apparently you failed basic math: 90% of 15,000 is 13,500. That means 10% is 1,500. Yet they propose 900 parking spots, or 40% less than they think they need. Shouldnt the headline really be that Sound Transit is proposing less parking than they need, which could result in cars circling the station block and parking illegally, making things genreally more complicated for cyclists and walkers? Apparently you failed basic math: 90% of 15,000 is 13,500. That means 10% is 1,500. Yet they propose 900 parking spots, or 40% less than they think they need.

Shouldnt the headline really be that Sound Transit is proposing less parking than they need, which could result in cars circling the station block and parking illegally, making things genreally more complicated for cyclists and walkers?

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