How long does it take to build eight parking stalls? For Seattle City Light, the answer to that question remains a moving target.
Since 2022, Seattle City Light (SCL) has been trying to build a surface parking lot for electric vehicle charging in West Seattle's Morgan Junction neighborhood, on a former substation that had been sitting decommissioned for 20 years. The 4,500-square-foot site is set to see eight paid, fast-charging stations, which City Light touts as bringing EV charging "closer to neighborhood retail, services, and major arterial roads in Morgan Junction." But the project has faced numerous setbacks, with the publicly owned utility recently firing its contractor in the middle of construction.
Even in a city where timelines for public works projects often stretch longer than originally promised, the Morgan Junction charging lot has become a symbol of frustration with local government being able to deliver on promises. When the project was launched in 2022, City Light noted that construction could begin as soon as that year, and take approximately three months. Now, the lot doesn't look poised to open until September of 2027.
The West Seattle Blog has studiously chronicled the long saga of the Morgan Junction charging lot over its years of planning and development, either directly or by covering updates at monthly meetings of the Morgan Community Association. That reporting has shown timelines that continued to slip as the project advanced through design, even before being beset by issues during construction.
"Morgan Junction is our largest and most ambitious EV-charging station project to date requiring more time, engineering, and permitting than one of our more typical EV charging station projects," a former SCL spokesperson told the WSB in late 2024, when the lot was still in design. "We’ve also experienced significant delays with procurement of the chargers and other electric service equipment. This is likely due to the rapid increase in transportation electrification costs nationwide."
In early 2025, District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka announced that his office had taken "decisive steps" to "accelerate the timeline" for the project, publishing an internal SCL memo laying out a schedule that would allow the city to start construction that October. But it wasn't until February of this year that contractor Zenisco Inc. did actually start work.
Five months later, construction work was halted on the site after the city found an issue: the east wall of the site needed a redesign due to work-quality issues and site conditions, in order to maintain the barrier between the lot and the adjacent alleyway.
"While crews worked on site during the FIFA construction moratorium, City Light construction engineers identified a significant structural design issue," SCL said in an update to the West Seattle Blog in July. "This required a complete work stoppage and will further delay the project so the project team can develop a solution. We will provide an estimated completion date for the charging station once the solution is approved by permitting authorities."
Just a few weeks later, after the design issue was resolved, SCL fired Zenisco, a decision that looked to stem from those aforementioned site quality issues.
"This project has taken longer than we planned, and we understand the frustration that comes with that. We’re committed to completing this work and opening the station for the Morgan Junction and all who visit," SCL posted in an update to the project website in September.
As of that time, the City was still waiting on next steps when it came to securing a new contractor, but did set the new completion date of September of 2027. Another schedule slip likely wouldn't shock anyone following this project, however.
The Morgan Junction site is far from the only site where City Light has run into issues implementing a standalone EV charging lot. In 2021, SCL proposed to convert another decommissioned substation along NW Market Street in Ballard to a charging lot, but backed off after doing early planning work.
"A soil test determined that on-site drainage options would not work and the only viable drainage option was to install a connection to the municipal stormwater sewer on the south side of NW Market Street," a 2022 SCL update on that project stated. "Seattle City Light decided that the added cost and disruption to vehicle traffic and King County Metro trolley bus operations on NW Market Street made this project unviable. Seattle City Light may resume work if a less disruptive method of providing site drainage is found."
After abandoning that project, SCL turned its attention to a site in Belltown, a leftover parcel owned by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). Originally eyed as a spot for a potential public playground as part of the Waterfront Park redevelopment, a potential land swap for a nearby SCL property on the future site of Portal Park opened up the opportunity for EV charging.
In the face of significant concerns about using such a high-value site near Pike Place Market as another surface parking lot, SCL abandoned that project as well, citing "unforeseen delays and funding constraints."
For now, City Light appears to be pivoting away from the idea of building more standalone lots, according to SCL spokesperson Kate Jacobs.
"Our planned expansion does not include comparable sites that would require new lots," Jacobs wrote via email.
The utility has had much more success in adding curbside charging in the public right-of-way, aiming for 200 on-street charging locations by 2030 via funding from the 2024 Seattle Transportation levy.
And as for the Morgan Junction lot, where work is expected to soon resume? Jacobs said that SCL will be learning from its stumbles there as soon as the ribbon is cut.
"We will conduct a comprehensive review of all phases of the project as soon as we’ve delivered this important asset to the community," Jacobs wrote. "Implementing lessons learned is part of our standard process, and lessons from Morgan Junction and past projects will improve how we deliver public charging as we expand our network to meet growing demand."
Ryan Packer
