On April 27th the
Shoreline Hearings Board is scheduled to begin Primary Hearings of case number
S14-025 filed by Dr. Don Davidson et al. “Appeal of Shoreline Development
Permit and Variance issued by the City of Bellevue for construction of East
Link light rail extension”.
It should be an
easy case for the board to decide. Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act precludes
approval of a transportation project that adversely affects waterfowl and
wildlife refuges unless the impact is de minimis. Surely the
Mercer Slough Natural Park falls into that category.
The Sound Transit
response to that requirement is included in the East Link Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact (SDEIS)
document they submitted to the Federal Transit Administration and Federal
Highway Administration. The FTA and FHA used that document as the basis
for their approval via Record of Decision (ROD) later that year. Chapter 3,
"Environmental Consequences" included the following regarding
the current light rail route into Bellevue:
1) Preferred
Alternative B2M would not impact noise levels in the park.
2) Preferred
Alternative B2M would not substantially affect park use, the park’s features,
activities, and attributes, or diminish the park’s value.
Sound Transit
presumably used that same document to demonstrate compliance with the State
environmental Policy Act (SEPA). Given these inputs about lack of light
rail noise impact, its no surprise the FTA, FHA, and SEPA all agreed East Link
would comply with federal environmental law (and presumably similar state
law).
Apparently all
three organizations neglected to consider Appendix G in the SDEIS. It goes
into explicit detail about all the mitigation efforts for all the properties
along Bellevue Way and 112th Ave. They
include:
1) Sound Wall on
structure
2) Sound wall on
west side of tracks (up to 12 ft high)
3) Sound
insulation, if required
Surely the millions
Sound Transit is promising to spend shielding homes across a major roadway and
hundreds of feet away from tracks belies their claim light rail noise impact on
Mercer Slough would be de minimis. Thus, it
should be an easy case to convince the Shoreline Hearings Board to disallow the
East Link Shoreline Development Permit.
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