More streetcar lines? Report mentions 5 potential routes

As Seattle's new South Lake Union streetcar went through some final driver-training runs this morning, a pair of professors released a report that five other neighborhoods provide ideal conditions for more streetcar lines.

The areas are:

• Westlake Center to Broadway and First Hill.

• Along the waterfront to Interbay.

• South Lake Union to the University of Washington, via the Eastlake neighborhood and University Bridge.

• Lower Queen Anne to Seattle Center and South Lake Union.

• The Chinatown International District to the Central Area using South Jackson Street.

The $40,000 study, requested by the Urban League and the Seattle Streetcar Alliance, did not estimate the cost.

But it did find that several neighborhoods will develop quickly and could pay a share of the project costs, said University of Washington Professor Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington State Transportation Center. He co-authored the report with Anne Vernez Moudon, a UW professor and expert in urban design and planning.

Sound Transit has proposed a north-south line from the Chinatown International District to First Hill and Capitol Hill, but that was part of a failed regional ballot measure last month. King County Metro Transit owns a waterfront streetcar line, but it's been dormant since 2005, when its maintenance base was razed to make room for the Olympic Sculpture Park.

The $51 million, 1.3-mile South Lake Union project broke ground in July 2006 and opens Wednesday from the Westin Hotel to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

"That's only 18 months," said city transportation director Grace Crunican, demonstrating that tracks can be built relatively fast.

John Dolan, a longtime First Hill resident, said there's no time to lose, as $1 billion worth of construction is under way on the hill. Already, there are 23,000 jobs and 7,000 households, he said. "It's a 24/7 residential and work environment," Dolan said at a news conference along the South Lake Union line.

Both private and public money would be needed to create a citywide streetcar network, said Tomio Moriguchi, chairman of Uwajimaya supermarkets (which has a store in the Chinatown ID).

Hallenbeck described four strategies to help pay for streetcars: "tax-increment financing," in which the city finances the line based on an expected boost in tax revenues from property development near the line; "local improvement districts," in which a special streetcar property tax applies in a neighborhood; parking fees funneled from new parking meters to nearby streetcars, in a redeveloped area; and contributions by employers.

The city government will use the report, along with its own upcoming studies in 2008, to create a streetcar plan, said City Councilmember Jan Drago.

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