Judge rejects monorail-recall initiative, says it can't be revoted

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

Tim Wulf

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King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez called the anti-monorail Initiative 83 an "end run" around state and city land-use laws, two years after Seattle voters narrowly approved the 14-mile line.

"It is not something that can be re-voted," he said.

The initiative seeks to ban city construction permits for any new monorails on public right of way.

Gonzalez said the initiative violates the state Growth Management Act, which is designed to protect "essential public facilities" — transportation routes, airports, colleges, landfills or prisons — that are proposed to serve a growing population, yet are difficult to site.

The monorail has been defined as an essential facility by the Legislature and the Seattle City Council, though critics question whether the route connecting Ballard, Seattle Center, downtown and West Seattle would ease major traffic snarls.

Monorail Recall has already filed a request with the state Court of Appeals to hear its arguments in mid-September, right before a Sept. 17 deadline to forward initiatives to the county elections department.

"The Seattle Monorail Project was created by citizen initiative. It got access to our streets by citizen initiative, and it can be stopped by citizen initiative," said I-83 treasurer Liv Finne. "The question is, will the courts allow the voters to decide on this project or not?"

Monorail officials intend to break ground late this year on the $1.75 billion Green Line, scheduled to be completed by mid-2009.

Peter Sherwin, spokesman for the Monorail Now lobbying organization, said the alternative to elevated transit service is more sprawl.

"This kind of initiative, if allowed to go forward, could stop the city from going forward on anything at any time," he said.
 
When the 2002 Legislature authorized Seattle to create a monorail tax, it laid out a specific method for citizens to dissolve the monorail agency. But it is relatively difficult, requiring 54,000 petition signatures in 90 days, plus a finding by the Seattle city attorney that the project faces significant financial problems. (The city attorney is Tom Carr, a former monorail chairman.)

Instead, monorail foes opted to challenge city permits using the city initiative system, requiring just 17,229 valid signatures.

"Aren't we really talking about, in the vernacular, a 'do-over,' because we didn't like the results of the last election?" the judge asked Bruce Babbitt, an attorney for monorail opponents.

Opponents say voters didn't know the details in 2002. Since then, car-tab taxes have fallen far short of predictions and proposed track layouts require larger columns than the 3-foot width promised in the campaign.

Canadian train builder Bombardier and its partners were unable to provide stringent financial guarantees to qualify for the project, leaving one team left to bid.

"We clearly know so much more now. What is the recourse of the people?" asked Monorail Recall founder Tim Wulf.

The deputy director of Seattle Monorail Project (SMP), Anne Levinson, replied that voters have approved stadiums, libraries and transportation projects based on far less detail than monorail planners offered two years ago. The plan requires that the full 14 miles be built and sets a debt limit of $1.5 billion.

On Monday, a team of companies led by Washington Group International, Fluor, and train supplier Hitachi will deliver 1½ tons of bid documents to the SMP. The agency plans to keep details secret until its review and design negotiations are completed, a few weeks later.

City Council President Jan Drago, a monorail backer, said the judge's order means that the council will not forward I-83 to the ballot on Monday as previously scheduled.

"We're done," she said.

In a separate case, SMP is asking the appeals court to throw out thousands of Monorail Recall petition signatures collected before June 18, when Gonzalez clarified the ballot title. If those earlier signatures were eliminated, I-83 would fall short.

The monorail agency needs to win only one of the two appeals cases to thwart Monorail Recall.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com