Times/News

SeaTac's hearing examiner - not city lawmakers - will decide on a conditional use permit for the light-rail link to Sea-Tac International Airport and SeaTac city center.

Sound Transit is planning to extend the light rail line 1.7 miles from Tukwila's South 154th Street Station to a station adjacent to the airport parking garage.

A pedestrian bridge would connect to International Boulevard at South 176th Street. Light rail is scheduled to reach the airport in December 2009.

By a 6-1 vote on Sept. 27, SeaTac council members delegated the decision to their hearing examiner instead of appointing the council as the permit's hearing body.

Mayor Frank Hansen, Deputy Mayor Terry Anderson and councilmen Gene Fisher, Chris Wythe, Joe Brennan and Don DeHan voted to designate the examiner. Councilman Ralph Shape opposed the move.

The council acted after City Attorney Mary Mirante Bartolo warned lawmakers that if they chose the council as the hearing body in the quasi-judicial matter, they would have to maintain "an appearance of fairness" and could not discuss the light rail project with Sound Transit officials or constituents.

Bartolo also noted they would be required to base their permit decision only on the hearing record.

DeHan said having the hearing examiner handle the permit would allow council members latitude in lobbying for changes to the light-rail alignment and station design.

Added Brennan, "It frees us as individuals to deal with the issue."

However, Shape argued, "I believe it is such an important decision that it would be a mistake to turn it over to the examiner."

He noted that a new examiner had been appointed recently.

Fisher initially supported Shape's position but changed his mind after Wythe declared, "I don't pretend to be neutral" on the light-rail issue.

Fisher said the council needed all seven members to hear the issue, but Wythe had disqualified himself by his statements.

The council's actions mean the lawmakers have given up control over the conditional use permit.

If the hearing examiner's decision is appealed, the matter will go directly to a King County Superior Court judge.

The light rail project is categorized as an "essential public facility."

However, council members will decide on a development agreement for the light-rail project, while the city's planning staff will handle construction permits.

In other business, council members set Oct. 25 as the date for a public hearing on vacating the former South 154th Street/South 156th Way from Des Moines Memorial Drive South to 24th Avenue South.

The hearing will begin at 6 p.m. at city hall, 4800 S. 188th St.

Vacating the street would give the property to the Port of Seattle, operators of the airport.

Workers have moved the former street to the north to accommodate the construction of the third runway.

Lawmakers indicated they would not vote to vacate the former roadway until the city gains ownership of the reconfigured street.

Eric Mathison can be reached at hteditor@robinsonnews.com or 206-444-4873.