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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | Bellevue actress returns home for Seattle leg of ‘Porgy and Bess: The Musical’ [8]
SPORTS | Newport alum Fisher part of NCAA Tournament team for Husky baseball [14]
BUSINESS | Lincoln Square expansion begins [16]
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014
Businesses wants Sound Transit rail yard someplace else BY BRANDON MACZ BELLEVUE REPORTER
Bellevue residents and business owners told Sound Transit on June 5 that a 25-acre maintenance facility in the city's Bel-Red Corridor could remove them from the map permanently, and urged its board to look somewhere else — anywhere else. Sound Transit is in its 45-day public comment period for a draft environmental impact statement that analyzes four options for siting an operations and maintenance satellite facility for its expanding light rail fleet on the Eastside.Three alternatives are
proposed in Bellevue and one in Lynwood. The comment period ends June 23, and the transit board plans to select its preferred route in July before beginning work on the final environmental impact statement. The cheapest alternative for Sound Transit is to use Eastside Rail Corridor property, along with the old International Paper building it acquired last year, to site the facility east of the train tracks and west of 120th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue. Jorge Gonzalez said that option could cost him a portion of his Barrier Motors property on 120th Avenue Northeast, used for vehicle inventory and employee park-
ing. Former city planning director Matt Terry said industrial use there conflicts with the Bel-Red redevelopment plan and will not fit with the future mixed-use, highdensity area. Another alternative using the rail corridor would place the facility on the east side of the tracks, with storage tracks sited to the west. Most residents at Thursday's public hearing said it's just as undesirable as the other. Jeff Myrter, general manager for Wright Runstad, said formal comments soon would be filed with Sound Transit opposing Bellevue options that would place the facil-
ity just outside of the developing Spring District, which will be a $2-billion, 20-year investment in transit oriented development. Jeanne Muir for Security Properties, which is developing the first 300-plus apartments in the Spring District with an option to double that figure, said siting a maintenance facility on the rail corridor will greatly reduce the company's interest in future development. Rob Aigner, senior vice president for Harsch Investment Properties, was joined SEE SOUND TRANSIT, 18
Residents feel misled by PSE on energy project
STROLLING TO STOP SIDS
BY BRANDON MACZ BELLEVUE REPORTER
People of all ages walked and pushed strollers on Saturday, June 7 to raise money to fight Sudden Infant Death Syndrome the leading cause of death among infants 1 month to 1 year old that claims the lives of about 2,500 each year in the United States. The second annual Strollin’ to Fight SIDS had raised about $12,500 by the start of the 5-K walk at the Newport High School track course, exceeding its $10,000 goal. Funds raised go to the CJ Foundation for SIDS. BRANDON MACZ, Bellevue Reporter
Opponents of Puget Sound Energy's proposed Energize Eastside project spilled out of council chambers during a Bellevue City Hall forum on June 3, which is just one part of the city's growing involvement in the controversial undertaking. The Bellevue City Council has committed to tracking down answers to myriad questions coming from neighborhoods that say their property values will be diminished should large power poles be erected near them as part of the 18-mile transmission line project from Renton to Bellevue. Many residents said June 3 they're wary of the answers they've been receiving from PSE. They said they feel they're being misled by the energy company, which states the project is critical to meeting Eastside energy demands as soon as 2017, when capacity is expected to be reached. Todd Andersen, chairman for the Somerset Community Association technical committee, claims PSE is inflating its projections for future demand while understating what percentage of energy generated by the project would go to Canada. He said PSE states 5 percent, while his estimates are at least 38 percent. SEE PSE, 18
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