The Protect Seattle Now organization that collected 28,929 signatures to bring the deep bore tunnel project to a vote in Seattle, over twice the required threshold, filed the signatures with the Clerk's office, then was sued one hour later by City Attorney Pete Holmes, was told by a judge today the suit will not stand.

King County Judge Laura Gene Middaugh ruled that the project was in some ways a legislative, not just administrative, decision, as Holmes protested because of the City Council's agreements with the state on utilities, right-of-way, insurance and other issues. The judge said that if the City Council just voted to approve the agreements, then that vote would have been an administrative action following the 2009 policy decision and not subject to referendum.

UPDATE Friday, 2:30 p.m.

Ben Schiendelman is with the Protect Seattle Now communications team, and also writes for www.seattletransitblog.com.

"We just got together to celebrate a little and talk about what we're going to do to move forward," he told the West Seattle Herald. "We had a game plan either way, holding our breath. Now it looks like we're going to go to the ballot. We're not sure what the wording will look like yet. This affirms the right of 29,000 voters to say we want to have a referendum on this decision. This is a great day.

"Personally, originally I thought we had a snowball's chance in hell after the city and the state came out (backing the law suit against the referendum). The fact that they went forward with this tunnel shows that there is already some measure of corruption here. When I started to see the briefs our attorney was putting together my opinion flipped and I realized we had a pretty bulletproof case."

Gary Manca is the attorney for Protect Seattle Now.

"It feels like a victory for Seattle," he told the West Seattle Herald. "The judge said this is really a big decision and the voters should have a say. The judge ruled that she thought a portion of the agreements dealt with preliminary design work of the tunnel, decisions already made. I think she said the agreement also includes a pretty significant framework for how to build the tunnel. That kind of law is a policy decision that the voters should have a say on. She's asked us to come back (next) Friday and say how we will move forward. Does the whole ordinance go on the ballot? Do certain pieces go on the ballot?

King County Courthouse downtown

"We were in the courtroom for about two and a half hours, a really long hearing with the judge," Manca added. "When it was all over she gave her ruling orally from the bench. The attorneys for the other parties were there, the Assistant Attorney General, lawyer for Let's Move Forward, people from WSDOT."

Manca said he was not intimidated.

"You just get in there and talk about your position," he said. "I was representing 29,000 voters. It really was an honor to stand up and represent them."