A CPA who works from home, Scott Rodgers’ condo in Carriage Place along 112th Avenue is in a prime location. He’s within walking distance of downtown Bellevue, has immediate access to I-90 and I-405. And when he first moved there in 2006, with East Link alignment discussions still underway and a preferred route running behind the Hilton Hotel, he thought he’d find himself conveniently close to light rail.
“It’s not that we’re eager to go,” explains Rodgers, president of the Carriage Place Condominium Homeowners Association, who lives there with his wife. “It’s that a lot of people need to get on with their lives. Now that it’s coming down to the acquisition, we’re thinking, where else can we live? What will we be able to buy?”
Rodgers’ unit is one of 41 in Carriage Hills and Carriage Place condos that faces full acquisition by Sound Transit, now that an East Link alignment has been approved. When the Bellevue City Council certified a land use overlay in February of this year, ST made a special appeal to speed up the course, initiating property acquisitions within 60 days of approving an alignment.
“I certainly understand property owners’ trepidations about going through such a process,” reads a letter presented by ST CEO Joni Earl to the council, “and I commit that Sound Transit staff and consultants will work in earnest, fairly and expeditiously, with all property owners throughout the acquisition process.”
Concerns remain about certain aspects of the alignment and design, but many community members feel that a quicker turnaround would help preserve property values.
First up are the Carriage Hills and Carriage Place condos. At the end of May, the Sound Transit board approved a motion to acquire all 41 units. The remaining 112th properties of the South Surrey Downs neighborhood would follow in June.
As East Link design nears the 60 percent completion mark in late 2013 and early 2014, a more accurate image will appear of light rail’s imprint on surrounding neighborhoods. Though it’s likely to be refined in the coming months, environmental studies indicate there will be up to 161 full and partial property acquisitions, including up to 62 residential displacements and up to 90 business displacements.
But even to get this far has been a grueling process. In 2010 as the city council and ST debated alignment options, Rodgers conducted an informal survey among his fellow residents. Eighteen of the 24 homeowners wanted to sell. Though Carriage Hills had been home since 2006, Rodgers recognized that a light rail alignment along 112th would dramatically change the quality of life in the neighborhood.
“The train is coming and there’s literally nothing we can do to stop it,” he says. “We decided we’d rather sell and leave, then sit through construction.”
Rodgers considers himself and his fellow condo residents relatively lucky, but he explains that the burden of East Link began as early as 2008. Nobody has been able to sell at market price.
“I know several owners that have wanted to sell since 2009, but can’t” he said. “That’s a direct effect of the East Link project.”
Rodgers also points out that more than half of the condo owners are retired. Many did not expect to have to move again.
“You’ve got several people in their 80s and 90s that are going to have to move at a very inconvenient time in their lives,” says Rodgers.
Rodgers is still unsure where he’ll end up, though he and his wife have begun looking at places in Surrey Downs and other Bellevue neighborhoods.
