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(Image: City of Seattle)
A Seattle City Council committee Tuesday morning will take up a handful of amendments including a proposal from District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth as it finalizes the city’s new long-term transportation plan.
CHS reported here on the proposed 20-year transportation plan for transit, street, sidewalk, and bridge projects across Seattle that will serve as the framework for the city’s planned transportation levy renewal.
Tuesday, the committee could move the plan forward to a full council vote after debate on a roster of amendments including downtown representative Bob Kettle’s push to remove funding from the so-called “Pike Place Event Street project” and amendments that seek to help better address the estimated 27% of Seattle streets that do not currently have sidewalks.
D3 rep Hollingsworth will also bring an amendment to the committee that would prioritize the route and “identify safety improvements for Lake Washington Boulevard as a Council priority for the levy renewal proposal.”
The boulevard has been a focus for the city as it has experimented with dedicating more of its streets to uses beyond automobiles. In response to the pandemic, during summer 2020, the city began periodically closing 3 miles of Lake Washington Blvd to cars and opened it for people to walk and bike.
The committee amendment does not specify what those safety improvements to be included in the levy proposal would entail.
If approved by the committee and the full council, the transportation plan resolution would adopt an updated plan that shapes plans for multiple modes of movement and travel including transit, vehicles, bicycles, freight, pedestrians, Vision Zero, and more, “and will likely inform the investments in the upcoming Seattle Transportation Levy.”
CHS reported here earlier this month on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s $1.35 billion transportation levy proposal. If passed by voters in November, the funding and spending plan will replace the $930 million previous levy approved in 2015.
The levy will increase costs for Seattle property owners. Under the expiring Levy to Move Seattle, the “median assessed value Seattle homeowner” currently pays about $24 per month,” the city says. “This levy proposal would increase the monthly cost by $14 per month for a $1 million home, by $12 per month for a $866,000 home (median Seattle assessment), and by $7 per month for a $500,000 home,” the city said in the announcement of the new plan.
Under the new transportation plan and with the power of the new levy, the 23rd Ave corridor is an example of the type of transportation investments the city will focus on in coming years with reconstruction and paving, a corridor safety analysis, additional transit investment, and crossing improvements, sidewalk repair, and neighborhood greenway upgrades.
The levy will also provide funding for Seattle to continue to purchase extra bus hours from the county to boost service in key areas of the city.
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