From District 1 City Councilmember Lisa Herbold's newsletter:

Sound Transit will hold a West Seattle neighborhood forum and open house on Saturday, September 8, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Seattle Lutheran High School gym at 4100 SW Genesee Street.

This meeting is held as part of Sound Transit’s “Level 2” alternatives analysis for the ST3 West Seattle/Ballard light rail line approved by voters in 2016.

The Level 2 analysis includes more detail than before. It includes “high”, “medium” and “low” evaluations for 50+ measurements, which derive from 17 criteria that reflect the Purpose and Need statement. 

There ratings include construction and operation cost estimates, ridership estimates for each station area, potential for southern expansion of the line, construction impacts, transfer potential with buses, potential resident and business displacement, and numerous other evaluation criteria.

Costs estimates are based on a “baseline” cost for the “ST3 Representative Project” elevated alignment included in the 2016 ballot measure. The cost estimates for West Seattle tunnel options range from an additional $500 million to $1.2 billion; a second elevated alignment has a similar cost as the representative alignment.

Sound Transit’s project website includes sections on the alternatives in each of the geographic areas; here’s a link for the West Seattle alternatives. You can click on each of the alternatives for additional information and comparisons, and offer comments. Separate sections are included for Ballard/Interbay, Downtown, SODO and Chinatown. These include alternatives that are also more expensive, and some that are less expensive than the baseline.

Here’s a link to the Level 2 Evaluation Results presentation. It’s a long document, and the West Seattle/Duwamish results begin on page 88, so here’s a link to just the West Seattle/Duwamish section. When the Sound Transit Board decides on a preferred alternative, it will be considering the line as a whole, so it’s useful to review this in the context of the entire line.

The next step for consideration of Level 2 alternatives will be the Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) meeting on September 26th; after that the Elected Leadership Group will meet on October 5th to consider the recommendations of the SAG. Here’s the overall timeline for developing a preferred alternative, with a target of April, 2019.

Thanks to Sound Transit for their responsiveness in scheduling the neighborhood forum well before the SAG meeting on the 26th, to allow the SAG members to hear and consider community input.

Sound Transit will also hold open house neighborhood forums Downtown on September 11 at 5:30 p.m. and in Ballard on September 17th at 5:30 p.m.

Sound Transit has indicated they will be producing visualizations.