Bellevue will ask Sound Transit to hold off on its final decision on the location of light-rail through south Bellevue until additional analysis on the Bellevue City Council’s desired route is developed.

The council began framing its official comment letter on Sound Transit’s East Link Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement at Monday’s council meeting and will finalize its comments next week, a day before Sound Transit’s comment period ends.

Bellevue and Sound Transit favor different alignments through south Bellevue, and several Bellevue council members felt there wasn’t a fair comparison between the two alignments, so in October they voted in the first of a three-part study to further analyze their alternative.

The first portion of that study, for which the city budgeted $670,000, will be finished in June, two months after Sound Transit’s final decision on a preferred alternative. Several Bellevue council members would like to see Sound Transit hold off at least until June. To some, it seemed like the current phase of the project was being rushed, despite the time already spent on it and its implications for the future.

“Delaying doesn’t hurt the project as long as we get the perfect project done,” said Bellevue Mayor Don Davidson, one of the four council members who supports the B7 alignment that uses the BNSF rail corridor and avoids Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue. “I think we can do a better job of decision making, but we need some time before that.”

Sound Transit’s B2M option taking the rail down Bellevue Way through several neighborhoods sits at a more advanced stage of design, and Bellevue wants to see Sound Transit pump the brakes slightly until more is known about the B7, specifically whether estimates of higher costs and lower ridership from Sound Transit hold up under greater study.

The takeaway from Monday’s discussion is that much remains unknown about the two options with a potential final decision a few months away. Would the modified B7 with a new Park & Ride structure drive down cost and increase ridership? What kind of lane closures and traffic effects will result from going down Bellevue Way and 112th?

“We just flat out don’t know,” said council member Grant Degginger about the possible effect of a new park and ride station in the Enatai neighborhood. Degginger’s statement of uncertainty paralleled council thoughts on economic benefit effects, traffic and impacts on nearby parks, as well.

Despite these issues, the City Council reiterated its support for light-rail through Bellevue, and several council members wanted to include a statement of support for the project in general in the letter to Sound Transit.

Aside from the lingering issue of B7 vs. B2M, the council is together on one thing, support of a tunnel through downtown. As mentioned in the letter, (which can be seen below) Bellevue is unanimously opposed to any at-grade (tracks on the street) option through downtown.

Sound Transit and Bellevue continue to work on an agreement to fund the tunnel, which could cost in the $300 million range, splitting the cost approximately 50/50.

The final major issue to be addressed was noise. With bells, screeching tracks and other issues, council members worried that wherever the rail goes, problems would arise.

“The city remains concerned about the potential negative impacts of the East Link project,” Davidson wrote in a draft of the letter to Sound Transit. “We are encouraged that the SDEIS promises comprehensive mitigation, yet are skeptical of its effectiveness.”

Davidson said today that all routes the rail could take will have noise impacts. But because many condos built near the B7 route are already adjacent to Interstate 405, they were insulated with sound-proofing as part of construction. Homeowners on the B2M route have no such guarantee that noise won’t permeate the neighborhoods even with sound mitigation.

Nat Levy can be reached at 425-453-4290.

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