Monorail gets green light to continue

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Monorail supporters George Allen, left, Peter Sherwin, center, and Bob Derry celebrate after early result show voters rejecting Initiative 83, the monorail-recall measure.

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Seattle voters have decided to push ahead with construction of the nation's longest monorail, dismissing the "Monorail Recall" Initiative 83 by a wide margin.

The pro-monorail victory was far greater than two years ago, when a new car-tab tax to fund construction of the 14-mile Green Line squeaked by with a mere 877 votes.

"They recognize we can't keep second-, third- and fourth-guessing every project, or we can't get anything done around here," said pro-monorail campaigner Peter Sherwin.

Project critic Howard Anderson, who owns the historic Doyle Building near Pike Place Market along the route, was baffled by the show of support, considering that the Seattle Monorail Project's tax revenues are below projections and the agency has yet to release a detailed design.

"I think the average voter can't follow the complexities of a transportation project like this," he said.

I-83 would have banned construction permits for new monorails, including the Green Line.

Only one team of contractors has bid on the project, and negotiations have stalled in part because of the political uncertainty. Also, the Seattle Monorail Project asked the team to do additional technical work after it already spent $10 million preparing the bid — an indication the two sides have not agreed yet on design issues. Patrick Kylen, political liaison for the 29-firm Cascadia Monorail Co., said builders will be more comfortable making a commitment now.

"We think the city will aggressively be behind the project, more than if it's a close vote," he said. The next battleground will be a mandatory financial review by the City Council to certify there is enough money to build the $1.75 billion line connecting Ballard, Seattle Center, downtown and West Seattle.

Another obstacle is a recently filed class-action lawsuit alleging the car-tab tax is based on inflated vehicle values.
 
The initiative emerged last winter as a revolt against the car-tab tax, which is the sole funding source for construction. The movement was joined by architects and downtown developers who worried its support structures would be unsightly.

Monorail opponents tried to woo pro-transit swing voters by arguing that the project's demise might free up tax money to extend the Sound Transit light-rail project from downtown to Northgate. Supporters received endorsements from Democrats, environmental groups and labor unions, which would supply more than 600 workers at the peak of construction.

The skirmish was so heated that campaigners alluded to Iraq. Anti-monorail debater Charles Royer, a former Seattle mayor, called the monorail "a go it alone, Iraq kind of thing, where this is the wrong system, in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Some members of the monorail's governing board wore "Recall Bush, not Monorail" stickers.

I-83 was the latest challenge to the controversial proposal to replace Seattle Center's historic one-mile monorail, a novelty built for the 1962 World's Fair, with a longer elevated line. Voters in 1997 and 2000 passed pro-monorail propositions, but those included no taxes. In 2002, Seattle residents approved the current plan and a car-tab tax.

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