Kirkland could soon become the owner of a 5- 3/4-mile rail corridor that city officials hope to turn into a biking and hiking trail that has limited views of Lake Washington.

The City Council is scheduled to decide Monday whether to pay $5 million for the portion of the Eastside Rail Corridor that starts not far from Highway 520 and connects with the Totem Lake area of Kirkland.

If the council approves the deal, Kirkland would buy the abandoned rail line from the Port of Seattle, which two years ago purchased BNSF Railway's full 42-mile corridor connecting Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, Redmond and Snohomish.

"It's very exciting. It's something that I've been involved in and listened to the conversations about for over 20 years," Mayor Joan McBride said.

The city's purchase of the corridor would initially be funded by $1 million from surface-water utility funds and a $4 million loan from utility-capital reserves. The loan could be repaid from park funds, nonmotorized-transportation money, real-estate excise-tax proceeds and other sources.

No general-fund dollars would be used to buy the land, McBride said.

It is unclear how soon the city might build a bike-capable trail, which could cost between $2.4 million and $82 million, depending on materials and whether it is designed to also accommodate bus or light-rail use.

A 40-plus-member Park Facilities Exploratory Committee chaired by City Councilwoman Amy Walen is studying whether to urge the council to fund a Cross-Kirkland Trail along the rail corridor and other park projects through a bond or levy issue that could go to voters next year.

Walen said she will respect the wishes of the committee and the community at large, but hopes to build a trail sooner rather than later. "Sometimes I think we need to be bold," she said. The trail offers "a wonderful opportunity" to connect bicycle commuters with the South Kirkland Park and Ride, Google offices and Totem Lake, Walen said.

An advisory panel from the Urban Land Institute last summer urged the city to buy the rail corridor, saying it would help promote economic development in Totem Lake.

King County once intended to buy all of the rail corridor south of Woodinville from the Port of Seattle but has struggled to come up with adequate funds and reach a final deal with the Port. Redmond bought a segment of the corridor for $10 million.

Kirkland City Manager Kurt Triplett said the City Council authorized him to negotiate a deal with the Port, in part because neither King County nor Sound Transit "has any money or plans to do anything with the corridor anytime soon."

"If we want to see anything happen, we have to control our own destiny," Triplett said. "Our hope is that we start getting this going and it catalyzes the rest of the line, people see what a nice connection it is in Kirkland, and Bellevue says, 'I'd love to connect up to that,' and Woodinville says, 'I'd love to connect down to that.' "

Triplett worked for years to put the Renton-to-Snohomish rail corridor into public ownership, first as chief of staff to former King County Executive Ron Sims and then as the appointed county executive.

Sims originally promoted the corridor as the future "granddaddy of all trails," but subsequent discussion led to a consensus among public agencies that it should eventually be used both for trails and transit.

One transit option under discussion in Kirkland is putting a paved roadway beside the trail for exclusive use of buses and shuttle vans. Triplett said that is one way the state Department of Transportation could reduce congestion on city streets if the state, at some point, were to impose tolls on Interstate 405.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com