Seattle's Mount Baker light rail station opened in 2009, but two sites that Sound Transit acquired for construction staging are finally moving forward with redevelopment plans that could add hundreds of homes.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and Tukwila Mayor Thomas McLeod have been sticking up for a pair of infill light rail stations that have been on the books for a long time, with a clear goal of making sure they don't fall through the cracks as Sound Transit makes budget cuts.
As one of the region's most exclusive cities, 3,000-resident Medina's building code is already very restrictive about what can be built. The new regulations add setback requirements and fully eliminate a height bonus program that had existed for years, all in the name of improving "bulk and scale."
All day for three Saturdays in May and June, one block of Seattle's University Way NE will become pedestrian-only, as a first step toward implementing a goal that advocates have been pushing for decades.
While broad agreement exists over the need to provide funding for King County's Road Services division, the issue of kicking back a portion of a new 0.1% sales tax to local cities caused more consternation. A one month delay is set to translate to six months of lost revenue.
A total of 205,000 transit riders hopped on light rail trains on the first day of full 2 Line service between Seattle and the Eastside. It was the second busiest day in Sound Transit history.
Mayor Katie Wilson's library levy proposal would maintain services, but advocates contend significant needs would go unmet without more funding. At least one Seattle councilmember has drawn a hard line against increasing the levy size, but others are pushing to go bigger.
A safety project along a busy four-lane road in West Seattle would be a catalyst project for neighborhood accessibility. But it's run into significant push back from residents wary of losing a lane of traffic.
The Low Income Housing Institute's plans for 90 units of workforce housing have been in limbo since the appeal was filed in September. Ultimately, the project appears unlikely to advance until Bainbridge Island updates its overall housing growth plan.
Tens of thousands of riders came out to ride the 2 Line across Lake Washington Saturday, as Sound Transit inaugurated the light rail link between the east and west metro.