Sound Transit likely to approve Roosevelt tunnel

The Roosevelt neighborhood will likely get its wish for a light-rail stop underground instead of an overhead station.

Sound Transit's executive board is expected to choose a tunneled station at busy 12th Avenue Northeast today to be part of its proposed "North Link" line from downtown to Northgate, even though the costs are $35 million to $40 million more than the alternative of building elevated tracks along Interstate 5.

Backers of a tunneled station hope it would promote a populated "town center" where residents could walk between trains, grocery stores, restaurants and homes, said Jim O'Halloran, president of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association.

Instead of merely griping about elevated tracks, neighborhood groups schmoozed politicians by saying they welcome a tunnel. They printed stickers saying, "Yes, in my Front Yard."

The site could attract riders from Roosevelt High School and high-rise housing next door. A QFC store and parking lot would be demolished, along with four recently built townhouses and a few businesses. Once a station opened, the area could be redeveloped.

By comparison, an elevated stretch would wipe out 35 homes — including a pair of log cabins built in the early 1900s — as well as trees at Ravenna Boulevard. Despite living near a freeway, some homeowners joke about road noise as "the ocean," saying they'd rather stay than be relocated in a transit-agency buyout.

"It's the first neighborhood I've lived in where we know our neighbors and people talk," said Jules Landis.

One drawback of the 12th Avenue site is that it would provide no apparent park-and-ride access, while a freeway site would be served by an existing commuter lots and bike lanes.

Jon Beahm, whose Shears hair salon on 12th would be condemned, questions the notion of an "urban village" station there without parking. Roosevelt residents at a light-rail forum Tuesday filled a church parking lot with automobiles, he noticed.

Beahm said he learned only a week ago that Sound Transit had altered its station layout, making use of his property, instead of going through a 76-unit condominium project on the same block.

The entire light-rail line running north from downtown will remain only a concept unless voters approve a tax increase.

Sound Transit has provided partial-cost estimates for its proposed North Link from Westlake Center to Northgate totaling $2.1 billion to $2.35 billion. Those numbers don't include inflation, project reserves, financing costs, $110 million already allocated for design work, and the cost of some of the trains, administration and engineering.

Given the huge scale, the $40 million difference for a tunneled station is relatively small.

"The quality of life differential is much greater than that," transit board member Dwight Pelz, a King County councilman, told 370 people at a forum Tuesday.

Sound Transit wanted to choose a site before new developments at the 12th Avenue site drive the costs beyond reach.

New studies bolstered the tunnel-station proposal by narrowing the cost gap from its original $80 million to $40 million. This month, Doug MacDonald, head of the state Department of Transportation, opposed the I-5 station because it would hinder future freeway widenings.

Transit tunnels are an emotional issue in city neighborhoods. The first segment of light rail, now under construction from downtown Seattle to Tukwila, includes a surface stretch in Southeast Seattle, after the agency rejected local demands for a tunnel there as too expensive.

Reporter Eric Pryne contributed