A group of Ballard businesses and maritime and trade associations calling themselves the Ballard Businesses Appellants has taken another step to halt the completion of the Missing Link, the uncompleted section of the Burke-Gilman Trail that stretches from 11th Avenue Northwest to the Ballard Locks.

On July 3, the Ballard Business Appellants filed an appeal in the Division 1 Court of Appeals challenging the city's State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review of the Missing Link, the completion of which, they claim, will cause unsafe conditions for bicycle riders and have dire consequences for the businesses along Shilshole Avenue Northwest.

The Ballard Business Appellants filed their first appeal of the Missing Link in December 2008 over the Seattle Department of Transportation's determination of nonsignificance on the environmental impacts of constructing the trail. The city's Hearing Examiner ruled in favor of the Department of Transportation in June 2009.

Less than a week later, the appellants filed a lawsuit against the city challenging its decision not to conduct a SEPA review of the future trail. On April 16 the King County Superior Court ruled in favor of the Department of Transportation except on one point, that the city must conduct an environmental analysis of the trail portion between 17th Avenue Northwest and Northwest Vernon Place.

The current appeal from the Ballard Business Appellants stems from this ruling.

“We are happy with the court’s decision in that it validates what we have been saying all along – the city’s envrionmenal review is grossly inadequate," Paul Nerdrum, vice president of Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel, said in a Ballard Business Appellant press release. "But until the city includes a comprehsnvie study and a review of the entire trail’s compatibility with existing maritime and industrial land uses, its environmental review will continue to be inadequate.”

The Ballard Business Appellants want the city to study safety and land-use compatibility of the proposed trail in order to create one that is safe and does not undermine the viability of businesses, Josh Brower, attorney for the appellants, said in the press release.

He said the appellants agree with the April 16 ruling directing the city to study the portion of the Missing Link between 17th Avenue and Vernon Place. They are challenging the rest of the ruling because it does not require the city to study the rest of the trail, Brower said.

In the April ruling, the judge asked the city to analyze that section of the trail because it was not included in the city's original study. The city did not include the section in its study because no trail is currently planned for that stretch.

Under the most recent plans for the Missing Link, there would be no trail along Shilshole between 17th Avenue and Vernon Place for the foreseeable future. Instead, the city would construct a temporary trail along Ballard Avenue as part of a compromise with nearby maritime and industrial businesses.

Cascade Bicycle Club was a party to the the most recent lawsuit, siding with the city.

"Although we're deeply disappointed by their obstructionism, it's been clear to us since the outset that the appellants will use every tool at their disposal to prevent safety improvements for workers, customers and other travelers in south Ballard," said David Hiller, advocacy director for Cascade Bicycle Club.

In the press release announcing the newest appeal, the Ballard Business Appellants are pushing for an alternative design of the Missing Link. They would like the city to scrap plans for a trail along Shilshole Avenue and instead create a cycle-track along Leary Avenue and Market Street.

A cycle-track, which is separated from traffic by a barrier, would be safer partly because it would not be located on roads used by heavy industrial trucks, according to the press release.

In the press release, Brower said the cycle-track would not harm Ballard industrial and maritime businesses that provide family-wage jobs.

The Ballard Business Appellants are: Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel, the Ballard Chamber of Commerce, Ballard Oil, the Ballard Interbay Northend Manufacturing and Industrial Center, the North Seattle Industrial Coalition and the Seattle Marine Business Coalition.