Realpolitiks Bellevue

If there was a mandate from voters in this year’s Bellevue City Council election, it was a call to re-think East Link routing.

The Bellevue City Council in February recommended a line that would run along Bellevue Way Southeast and 112th Avenue Southeast on its way from South Bellevue to downtown. Sound Transit’s board of directors  chose that route as its preferred alternative in May.

But voters just appointed a cast of candidates who oppose that option in favor of a route along the abandoned BNSF rail corridor.

Conrad Lee and Don Davidson are both incumbents who won re-election, and they supported the BNSF line when the council was deliberating early this year. Lee even went so far as to testify to the Sound Transit board on behalf of the BNSF option after the city council had already made its decision to support the Bellevue Way/112th Avenue route.

Newly-elected Kevin Wallace and Jennifer Robertson support the BNSF alternative as well.  Wallace is working on plans for a new routing alternative that would place East Link along the abandoned rail corridor through South Bellevue and then on elevated tracks that hug the west side of I-405 to skirt the downtown core.

Add it all up and you have a new council majority that favors a different route through South Bellevue than the one already recommended. A switch would please folks residing in the Surrey Downs and Enatai neighborhoods near Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue Southeast, but certainly not the condo dwellers living near the abandoned BNSF corridor.

There’s also this to consider: what will the Sound Transit board think if Bellevue flip flops on its recommendation? Vicki Orrico, who challenged Lee and lost, said the city needs a unified voice on light rail.  Just how seriously will Sound Transit take a city that changes its mind deep into the East Link environmental-review process?

One thing seems certain: the debate over routing will continue, and all sides will be armed with valid arguments about which options are most cost-effective, which cause fewer impacts, which attract more riders, and which are even feasible.

Perhaps light rail becomes the laughingstock issue of Bellevue, much like the SR-99 viaduct matter in Seattle.  That was the fear Orrico expressed during her campaign.

There were other issues beyond East Link in this election.  I heard grumblings about helipad regulations, budget shortfalls, council transparency, planning for the Meydenbauer Bay Waterfront Park, displacement of businesses caused by the Bel-Red revitalization plan, and the possible installation of a controversial synthetic field at Newport Hills Park.

But the candidates glanced over most of these issues with standard campaign fare.  They talked in non-committal fashion about doing what’s best for everyone, listening, reaching consensus, and thinking about neighborhoods first.

It was East Link where at least some of the candidates took a stand.  It just so happens that all those candidates won.