We’ve been talking a lot about Northgate recently, and for good reason.  The future construction of the Link light rail station at Northgate provides a once in a lifetime opportunity.  This is our chance to transform a 1950’s part of the city dominated by an ocean of parking lots into a bikeable, walkable and transit-rich community where everyone who wants to can safely bike or walk to the station.

According to Sound Transit, today, the Northgate Transit Center serves more than 5,000 riders each weekday, 70 percent of whom get there on bike, foot or transit.  In 2030, 92 percent of the 15,000 people accessing the light rail station each weekday will get there on bike, foot or transit.  92 percent.

But right now, instead of working to figure out how they can provide the 92 percent of people who will access the station on bike, foot or transit with safe and convenient ways to get there, Sound Transit might spend $40 million on a 900-stall parking garage benefiting the 8 percent, and less than $2 million on the 92 percent.  That’s just not fair.

Sound Transit should focus their investments on benefiting the 92 percent of people who will get to the station on bike, foot or transit.  Investments like cycle tracks and neighborhood greenways accessing the station, a bike/pedestrian bridge over I-5 to North Seattle Community College and Licton Springs, sidewalks in the surrounding neighborhoods, and improved bus service to the station.

Northgate’s 92 percent deserve a fair deal.  Sound Transit should spend at least as much on making it safe and convenient for the 92 percent of people who will access the station on bike, foot or transit as they are for the 8 percent.

Tonight, Monday, June 4, Sound Transit is hosting an open house from 6-8pm at the Olympic View Elementary School, 504 NE 95 St, Seattle.  Please join us to stand up and speak out for Northgate’s 92 percent and tell Sound Transit:

1. In 2030, 92 percent of the 15,000 people accessing the light rail station each weekday will get there on bike, foot or transit. Yet you are proposing to spend $40 million on a 900-stall parking garage benefiting the 8%, and less than $2 million on the 92%. That’s just not fair.
2. Northgate’s 92 percent deserve a fair deal. You should spend at least as much on making it safe and convenient for the 92 percent of people who will access the station on bike, foot or transit as you are for the 8 percent.
3. Your investments should benefit the 92 percent of people who will get to the station on bike, foot or transit. Investments like cycle tracks and neighborhood greenways accessing the station, a bike/pedestrian bridge over I-5 connecting to North Seattle Community College and Licton Springs, sidewalks in the surrounding neighborhoods, and improved bus service to the station.

We’ve also received a number of questions about this complex issue and we wanted to take a moment to answer a few of them.

Northgate Station Access – Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I care about Northgate station access issues?

Sound Transit is preparing to start construction on the North Link light rail extension project from the University of Washington to Northgate, as approved by voters in 2008.  Construction in the Northgate area is scheduled to begin in late 2013, and the extension is scheduled to open for service in 2021.  Northgate will be the first light rail station located at an existing transit center.

The construction of the light rail station at Northgate represents a unique opportunity to transform a traditionally auto-dominated neighborhood into a more walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented community with greater access to retail, grocery stores, medical services, schools, libraries, parks, and more.  The decisions Sound Transit makes over the next few months regarding their funding priorities at Northgate can help or hinder this future.

Vision 2040 and the Regional Growth Strategy identify Northgate as an important place to accommodate some of the 1.5 million new people projected to live in the region by 2040.  With the construction of the new Link light rail station and acres of underutilized land, Northgate has a real opportunity to transform into a complete community for thousands of new residents and to benefit the surrounding neighborhoods.

What is Sound Transit proposing to do to improve access to the station?

Instead of working to figure out how they can provide the 92 percent of people who will access the station on bike, foot or transit with safe and convenient ways to get there, Sound Transit might spend tens of millions of dollars benefiting the 8 percent at the expense of everyone else.  Even though construction of the Northgate station will permanently displace only 117 park & ride stalls (P&R) and 64 private stalls, Sound Transit is proposing to build a 600- to 900-stall parking garage that will cost between $25 and $40 million.  The garage would be built before station construction begins, increasing traffic to the station and making it more dangerous and uncomfortable for people to walk or ride their bicycle to the station.

As part of construction of the station, Sound Transit is proposing a few new and widened sidewalks and parking for 200 bicycles.  They have also adjusted the station design to incorporate other bike access improvements recommended by the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board and to accommodate a future connection to a potential I-5 bicycle/pedestrian bridge.  All other bicycle and pedestrian access improvements are either “being considered” or “under study” and could be funded through a $1.4 million federal grant recently awarded jointly to Sound Transit, King County, and the City of Seattle (that would also fund TOD planning).

All of this adds up to $40 million for the 8 percent and less than $2 million for the 92 percent.  That’s just not fair.  Sound Transit should spend at least as much on making it safe and convenient for the 92 percent of people who will access the station on bike, foot or transit as they are for the 8 percent.

What should Sound Transit do to provide the most people with safe and convenient access to the station?

According to Sound Transit, “it is not feasible to meet future transit demand at Northgate and achieve land use goals without shifting focus to non-driving access modes such as expanding rail-bus connections and pedestrian and bicycle access.”  Therefore, Sound Transit should focus their investments on benefiting the 92 percent of people who will access the station on bike, foot or transit.  Investments like cycle tracks and neighborhood greenways accessing the station, a bike/pedestrian bridge over I-5 connecting to North Seattle Community College (NSCC) and Licton Springs, sidewalks in the surrounding neighborhoods, and improved bus service to the station.

Sound Transit should commit to funding a substantial percentage of the construction costs of the bike/pedestrian bridge and convene a task force of the local agencies, WSDOT, NSCC, UW Medicine, local business and property owners, community leaders, and advocacy organizations to begin a transparent process for designing and building the bridge.  Providing direct access from the station to the west side of I-5 will reunite the neighborhoods and provide station access to thousands of potential light rail riders, including the nearly 7,000 students, faculty, and staff who attend and work at NSCC.

Will the 900-stall parking garage really cost $40 million?

It’s hard to know exactly how much the 900-stall garage will cost because Sound Transit has stated that the “actual final use arrangements and cost of these stalls will be negotiated in the future.”  But a comparable project primarily funded by Sound Transit in Burien – a five-story 462-stall parking garage and adjacent surface lot with 43 stalls – cost $20.8 million, approximately $41,000 per stall.  At $41,000 per stall a 900-stall garage would cost just shy of $40 million.

Why would Sound Transit build a 900-stall garage to replace the permanent loss of 117 park & ride stalls?

It’s a great question, especially since most of the current users of the transit center live nearby and that in 2030, 92 percent of the 15,000 people accessing the light rail station each weekday will get there on bike, foot or transit.  It’s also unclear how Sound Transit will decide whether to build a 600 or a 900-stall parking garage as they have not stated what factors will affect this decision.  What is clear is that despite Sound Transit’s legal obligations to mitigate parking displaced during construction, they have many options beyond just building a parking garage, making mitigation a complex but solvable issue through creativity and innovation.

First, Sound Transit has committed to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to provide one-for-one replacement of all 117 P&R stalls permanently displaced by the project in the North Link record of decision (ROD).  However, Sound Transit could petition the FTA to waive this requirement.  Given that the ROD was signed two years before regional voters approved extending Link to Northgate, Sound Transit would have a strong basis for this petition.

Second, under the terms of the North Link ROD, ST must provide “best effort” mitigation for the 428 stalls of P&R capacity lost during construction. This could involve improved bus service (either direct to downtown, or connecting service to Northgate), pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements, satellite parking lots with shuttles, leasing P&R stalls from adjacent private lots, or more structured parking.

Third, and most challenging, Sound Transit needs to use a substantial part of the Northgate Mall property for construction of North Link, and it has an obligation to mitigate the temporary displacement of these 462 privately owned stalls.  In addition, construction of North Link will permanently displace 64 other private stalls that Sound Transit must mitigate.  Sound Transit can either pay compensation to the owners of these stalls for the loss of parking, or provide replacement parking.

When you remodel your kitchen you don’t build an entirely new house to mitigate the temporary inconvenience.  You get by as best as you can for the lowest cost in a manner that prepares you for the future.  Sound Transit should take a similar approach.

Why is Sound Transit in such a hurry to reach a decision?

The Sound Transit Board will consider approval of the final North Link project scope schedule and budget for the Northgate station in late June.  However, at the May 24 briefing to the Sound Transit Board regarding this project, Sound Transit staff stated that they could push this back a month if necessary.  Figuring out how to provide the most people with safe and convenient access to the station is the last remaining scope issue Sound Transit needs to resolve.  In addition, construction activities in the Northgate Station area are scheduled to begin in late 2013.

Was the public involved in reaching this decision?

Kind of and no.  The North Link project has had extensive public outreach over the last decade.  Throughout this public outreach process the community and the Northgate Stakeholders Group have asked for investments that would align with their vision of transforming Northgate into a walkable, bikeable, and transit-rich community.

At the March 21, 2012 open house on 30 percent design for the Northgate station, Sound Transit staff included a shared-use parking garage as one of a number of potential options for providing people with access to the station (though they buried it at the bottom of their potential options).  Then, at 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) improvements that would benefit the 92 percent of people who will get to the station on bike, foot or transit.

Until a group of community leaders and advocacy organizations sent a joint-letter and over four hundred people emailed the Sound Transit Board expressing their deep concern with this deal (and Sound Transit subsequently scrambled to schedule an open house), Sound Transit did not have any plan in place to solicit public feedback on this decision before making it final.

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Northgate’s 92 percent deserve a fair deal.  Sound Transit should spend at least as much on making it safe and convenient for the 92 percent of people who will access the station on bike, foot or transit as they are for the 8 percent.

Please join us tonight, Monday, June 4, at a Sound Transit open house on the Northgate station from 6-8pm at the Olympic View Elementary School, 504 NE 95 St, Seattle and stand up and speak out for Northgate’s 92 percent. 

[UPDATE 5/22: This post has been updated to include a letter from coalition of Northgate neighborhood leaders and advocacy organizations, expressing our concern about the direction Sound Transit is taking on a planned parking garage at Northgate.]

Michelle lives less than a mile from the Northgate transit center and wants nothing more than to ride her bicycle there and catch the bus to her job in Bellevue. But she doesn’t ride because she just doesn’t feel safe.

Sound Transit should make it safer for Michelle to bike to Northgate, not more dangerous

Instead, Michelle is forced to drive less than a mile to catch the bus, or pay $11 every day for tolls and gas driving to work. There are tens of thousands of people just like Michelle living near Northgate who would love to have the opportunity to safely bike or walk to the transit center. But we haven’t made the investments necessary to make it possible.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The construction of the light rail station at Northgate provides a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is our chance to transform a 1950’s auto-dominated part of the city into a bikeable, walkable and transit-rich community where everyone who wants to can safely bike or walk to the station.

But right now, Sound Transit is poised to spend around $40 million on a 900-stall parking garage that will actually make it more dangerous to bike and walk in the neighborhood.

Sound Transit needs to hear from you that they should make it safer for the tens of thousands of people like Michelle to bike to Northgate, not more dangerous.

For a fraction of the cost of the parking garage, we could make hundreds of small shovel-ready improvements that would make it easier and safer for people to bike, walk or take transit to the station. We’d even have enough money left over to build a bicycle/pedestrian bridge across I-5 so the seven thousand people who attend and work at North Seattle Community College – and the thousands of other people who live in the neighborhood – could easily access the station.

So why on earth would Sound Transit want to spend $40 million on a 900-stall parking garage that the community doesn’t want, the station doesn’t need, and would make it more dangerous for the tens of thousands of people like Michelle who want to safely bike or walk to the station to do so?

Honestly, we have no idea. What we do know is that Sound Transit reached a backroom deal to build a parking garage without any public involvement, none. A backroom deal that a prominent neighborhood leader described as “repulsive and offensive,” because it was reached without any consultation with the community and does not align with anyone’s vision for the future of the neighborhood.

Sound Transit doesn’t have to build a parking garage. They can choose to step back and do the hard work necessary to get this once in a lifetime opportunity right. But they’re not going to do the right thing unless they hear from you.

As you are surely aware, Link light rail is on its way to Northgate. We’ve talked about it before – here and here. But enough talk – let’s go for a walk!

This Saturday, April 28, please join your friends at Cascade Bicycle Club, Feet First, and Futurewise for a walking tour of Northgate, the biking, walking, and transit neighborhood of the future.

Fifty years ago, Northgate’s expansive parking lots and auto-oriented design was an accurate reflection of how we lived, worked, and got around. But times are changing. With light rail and other improvements coming to the area, we’re investing in transforming Northgate into a vibrant, livable community where it’s safe and easy to ride a bike, walk down the street, and take transit.

Please join us for a morning of walking and discussion:

When: Saturday, April 28 / 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: Thornton Creek Plaza (319 NE Thornton Place)

RSVP here and let us know you’re coming!

It’s going to take a lot of care and coordination between the agencies involved – Sound Transit, King County Metro, the City of Seattle, and the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) – to recreate Northgate as a “transit-oriented community”. But what would it take to transform Northgate even further, into a “bike-oriented community”? Here are some ideas you could bring to the walk (scroll down for talking points).

Bring your ideas and questions, as there will be staff from Seattle Department of Planning and Development (DPD), King County Metro, Sound Transit, and PSRC on hand to address them. A short reception will follow the walk.

Hope to see you there!