Environmental Review

The City reviewed Sound Transit’s Final EIS and provided a response. The City supports the West Seattle Link Extension Project and endorses the preferred alternative that the Sound Transit Board approved. The City’s response letter acknowledges Sound Transit’s tremendous effort on this project and highlights a number of issues requiring continued coordination to resolve.

The West Seattle Link FEIS captures project design at a certain point in time; however, some project details were not known at that time, and project engineering, design and mitigation measures will continue to be refined. Sound Transit’s project and proposed mitigation measures to avoid, minimize, or compensate for adverse effects caused by its project must comply with all City codes, regulations, policies, and permitting requirements. Specific design elements and project mitigation measures may be different or more specific from those in the FEIS. Sound Transit has committed to ongoing coordination with the City through final design and construction and the City will actively collaborate on outstanding project design and compliance issues.

The City requires Sound Transit to secure various permits to construct the West Seattle Link Extension. The City and Sound Transit have been actively working together for years to streamline permitting to support delivery of light rail on time and within budget.  The City has not had a light rail specific set of codes. As a part of our ongoing work to create an efficient process with clear regulatory requirements, the City will amend the multiple codes to address light rail transit facilities. For instance, the Seattle Land Use Code will include light rail specific development standards.

The City prioritized support for an alignment that had significantly fewer impacts on residents and worked with Sound Transit during preliminary engineering to continue to reduce those impacts. Sound Transit selected a preferred alternative with fewer impacts on maritime businesses in order to minimize these hard-to-relocate industries. 

Sound Transit provides mitigation to residential and business property owners and tenants in compliance with the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 and Sound Transit’s Real Property Acquisition and Relocation Policy, Procedures, and Guidelines.

Sound Transit’s process for acquiring real property is described in its Property Acquisition and Residential Relocation Handbook  and its Property Acquisition and Non-Residential Relocation Handbook and provides more information on its website.

Sound Transit cannot officially begin the process of relocating residents or businesses until the Federal Transit Administration has issued the Record of Decision (ROD) and Sound Transit board authorization has been granted, though they have been engaging community members on this topic in advance of the FEIS.

The City has heard from community that the uncertainty created by Sound Transit’s required environmental review process has been frustrating for businesses and residents alike. The City’s letter encourages Sound Transit to proactively engage impacted property owners, and business and residential tenants, providing up-to-date information about benefits and tailoring mitigation to the unique circumstances of each displaced business or resident. The City, in partnership with Sound Transit, has reached out through elected officials, engagement staff and the economic development office to residents and businesses who might potentially be displaced. 

 If you are a potentially affected property owner, business or resident and have questions about Sound Transit’s real property acquisition and relocation processes please contact Sound Transit’s Community Outreach team at westseattlelink@soundtransit.org.

Both Pigeon Point and Longfellow Creek are designated environmentally critical areas due to the presence of steep slopes erosion hazard areas, landslide-prone areas, flood-prone areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, and/or wetlands. These areas are protected by the City’s Environmentally Critical Areas Ordinance and Master Use Permits will be required.  The City is working with Sound Transit to design and sequence the construction of the project to avoid and minimize impacts. The City and Sound Transit are also coordinating on how unavoidable impacts are mitigated, and that ecological functions are replaced, so that the Critical Areas Ordinance requirements are met at the time of permitting.  

In addition, Sound Transit’s Preferred Alternative proposes acquiring approximately three acres of park land at Pigeon Point. Pigeon Point is Seattle Parks and Recreation land that is protected by Section 4(f) of the U.S. Department of Transportation Act and Seattle Ordinance 118477, both of which protect and preserve public parks. Under these regulations, Sound Transit and the City must agree to appropriate replacement property “of equivalent or better size, value, location and usefulness in the vicinity, serving the same community and the same park purposes.” The City and Sound Transit continue to work on identifying appropriate park land.

The SODO Trail will be detoured while West Seattle Link is in construction. We are working with Sound Transit to determine the location and sequencing of the detour. 

The West Seattle Link Extension’s project requires permanent closure of the SODO Busway. Sound Transit has proposed relocating buses from the Busway to 4th Avenue South.  Seattle’s Department of Transportation, the Port of Seattle, the Northwest Seaport Alliance, and King County Metro have been working together with Sound Transit to collaborate on and inform proposed design improvements to 4th Avenue South to accommodate the additional bus traffic and pedestrians at bus stops, while allowing for the continued operation of industrial businesses and freight.

This means prioritizing bus and freight traffic, making improvements at bus stops, sidewalks and crossings to improve pedestrian safety, upgrading traffic signals, and improving truck access to businesses. This collaboration and design work for 4th Avenue South is ongoing and the timelines for completion of the various improvements will be coordinated between Sound Transit and City of Seattle.

Please refer to the Sound Transit website for project timeline and milestones. According to the current timeline, Sound Transit will begin submitting permits in 2025 with construction set to begin in 2027. The City reviews permits to ensure that Sound Transit's designs comply with Seattle Municipal codes and standards. 

Sound Transit published a Draft EIS for the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions in January 2022. Given additional environmental review needed for project refinements for the Ballard Link Extension (BLE), environmental review for the two extensions is moving forward on different timelines.

Sound Transit will complete a new Draft EIS for the Ballard Link Extension to reflect action by the Sound Transit Board in March 2023 and additional Board action in July 2023. The FTA issued a Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS for BLE and there was a 45-day scoping comment period between October 24 and December 9, 2024. The Ballard Link Extension Draft EIS publication is anticipated in 2025 with the Final EIS anticipated in 2026. For more information on BLE scoping and the project, see Sound Transit’s Ballard Link Extension website.