SeaTac lawmakers have temporarily halted building activity around the new light-rail station at South 154th Street and Highway 99.

The moratorium, which was imposed Feb. 28, applies to permit applications for land use, development, and building of commercial or multi-family structures near the station.

It is set to expire Aug. 1.

However, city planning director Steve Butler told council members his staff will present proposed interim standards by July for their approval.

Butler said staffers are preparing proposed permanent plans for the area, but those won't be ready until the end of the year.

The moratorium will halt any earlier development that might disrupt the plans, according to Butler.

Sound Transit’s light-rail station, now under construction, is located on the northeast corner of South 154th Street and Tukwila International Boulevard, just south of State Route 518.

While the station is just inside the Tukwila city limits, neighboring commercial and apartment construction is expected to spring up in SeaTac.

SeaTac's city limits are located south and west of the Sound Transit station.

Councilman Chris Wythe said a moratorium is "a better way to handle it than adopt quick interim standards."

Light-rail service is set to begin at the South 154th Street Station in the summer of 2009. The line should be extend to Sea-Tac International Airport/ SeaTac City Center by December 2009 -- in time to serve travelers on their way to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.

Lawmakers also approved a weapons screening program for the city's municipal court. About $46,000 would be allocated for the program.

SeaTac Police Chief Greg Dymerski said some people attending court sessions in city hall have been harassed and threatened.

In other business, lawmakers expressed support for the Highline schools bond measure that will go before voters on March 14.

The bond would provide the district with $148 million for construction of new schools and other upgrades.

SeaTac's McMicken Heights Elementary would be rebuilt using state matching construction funds if the bond passes.

School board president Phyliss Byers told council members, "We are grateful for the endorsement. The school district appreciates it."

But SeaTac resident Joe Dixon chided lawmakers. "I don't feel it's right that public officials should tell us how to vote,” he said. “They should encourage people to vote, but not how to vote."

Later, Dixon added that he had voted by absentee ballot in favor of the bond .

Earlier, SeaTac lawmakers approved standards for landscaping around Sea-Tac International Airport.

The Feb. 14 agreement with the Port of Seattle, operators of the airport, will set definite standards for where and when landscaping is required, according to Planning Director Steve Butler.

A landscape committee with representatives from the city and Port will be formed as part of the agreement, he reported.

The standards protect a Port-owned parcel near homes in the Riverton Heights area from clearing or other construction activity unless the city and Port sign a formal letter of agreement.

The “L-shaped Property” is bounded by South 148th Street on the north and State Route 518 on the south from 24th Avenue South to 28th Avenue South.

Deputy Mayor Ralph Shape expressed concern about a provision that allows the standards to be superseded for airport safety and security concerns raised by the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Safety Agency.

Shape said the exemption “gives them free rein to clear all property” in the 55 acres of North SeaTac Park owned by the Port.

Butler replied city staffers don’t expect the Port to take an extreme position on the exemption.

“There is a presumption of reasonableness,” Butler noted.

City Manager Craig Ward added because safety and security concerns are so important, the Port would not approve the agreement without the provision.

“We have to remember that this is an improvement on the existing standards,” Ward declared.

Councilman Chris Wythe, chairman of the council’s Land Use Planning Committee, said the standards are “the best we will get.

“We must hold our noses and trust the staff will negotiate well.”

Lawmakers also agreed to allow Port staffers to handle building inspections for about a third of the light-rail project between the South 154th Station in Tukwila and the airport/city center station.

Council members were told Port workers would be constructing the light-rail line in the area south of South 160th Street.

The council also allocated an additional $1.6 million for the Des Moines Creek Basin rehabilitation project.

Overruns occurred on the project because of required arsenic removal and higher costs for steel to rebuild the Marine View Drive bridge, according to Public Works Director Dale Schroeder.

The Port is expected to contribute another $1.6 million and the city of Des Moines, $700,000, Schroeder noted. The Washington Department of Transportation is also a project partner.

The state Ecology Department will likely reduce water detention standards for SeaTac businesses after completion of the basin stormwater management project, Schroeder added.

That would greatly reduce costs for new business developments.