A King County Superior Court Judge put the brakes on SDOT’s Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link project, ruling Thursday that the Environmental Impact Statement is incomplete and deficient.
Judge Samuel Chung sided with the Ballard Coalition, agreeing that the EIS failed to adequately disclose the economic impacts that the Shilshole Avenue section of the bike trail will have on longtime businesses in the area. Judge Chung ordered the City to redo the analysis to disclose the impacts.
For two decades the City of Seattle has focused solely on routing the last 1.4-mile section of the Burke-Gilman Trail along Shilshole Avenue. Shilshole is one of just two industrial zones remaining in Seattle, and the only location with sufficient access for the water-dependent maritime industries that have been there for a century or more. Judge Chung ruled that the bike trail would put these companies – and the family-wage jobs they provide – out of business for good.
The Ballard Coalition a large collection of labor, business owners, employees, union members and residents who support moving the Missing Link two blocks north to Leary Way – the best and safest rout, and one with strong community support.
“Judge Chung vindicated what the coalition has been saying for 20 years, that the EIS failed to disclose the economic impacts the project will have on the area and these businesses,” said attorney Joshua Brower, representing the Ballard Coalition. “Shilshole Avenue is simply the wrong location. The Coalition isn’t against the bike trail, it just wants it in the right place; it is time for SDOT to tell the truth that putting the trail on Shilshole will put these businesses out of business. .”
Since 2008, Seattle’s Department of Transportation has spent nearly $10 million in taxpayer money and years of staff time on four versions of its environmental review and designs for the Missing Link on Shilshole. Now the judge has ordered the City to go back and redo the analysis for a fifth time.
The Coalition will continue to closely monitor the City’s actions to make sure it complies with the judge’s ruling. The Coalition will be ready to challenge any false steps in order to protect Ballard’s maritime industrial businesses and the community.
“We aren’t going to back down, this is a life and death matter to us,” said Scott Anderson, co-owner of CSR Marine in Ballard.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan can step in at any time and save taxpayers millions of more dollars by simply moving the final section of the trail to Leary. The City Council can easily do the same by quickly passing a resolution selecting the Leary route.
