Drafter
Clerk 04/12/2016
Title
A MOTION approving the 2016 work plan for the Eastside Rail Corridor program.
Body
WHEREAS, the Eastside Rail Corridor ("the ERC") is a forty-two-mile rail corridor that extends from Renton to Snohomish and from Woodinville to Redmond, creating a contiguous land connection through Snohomish county, King County and the cities of Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and Woodinville, and
WHEREAS, in May 2007, the Puget Sound Regional Council completed a technical study, titled the BNSF Corridor Preservation Study, of the ERC identifying desirable potential uses and impacts, the comparative costs of those potential uses and the legal or institutional issues associated with preserving or acquiring the ERC, and
WHEREAS, the BNSF corridor advisory committee, made up of local jurisdiction, transportation interests and potential users and beneficiaries, recommended in that 2007 report, for the ERC portion south of Woodinville, that an interim regional multipurpose trail be developed, while assuring that the rail corridor right of way is preserved for future transportation uses, and
WHEREAS, through a series of property transactions, King County, the cities of Redmond and Kirkland, Puget Sound Energy and Sound Transit now hold property interests in the corridor, and King County and Redmond are the interim trail users under federal law, and
WHEREAS, the King County council has declared the Eastside Rail Corridor to be a corridor of regional significance, and has found the transportation, regional trail and county wastewater facilities in the corridor to be essential public facilities, in concert with the region's implementation of the Growth Management Act, and
WHEREAS, the King County council created the Eastside Rail Corridor regional advisory council for the purpose of initiating a regional planning process in support of the corridor's potential to assist in the implementation of the Puget Sound Regional Council's vision 2...

Click here for full text