Politics & Government

Bellevue Decision on East Link Agreement Pushed to Mid-November

The Bellevue City Council will make a decision on a binding agreement with Sound Transit after a Nov. 7 public hearing.

Bellevue City Council members voted 5-2 Monday night to ask Sound Transit for more time to decide on a binding agreement that would outline how the city and public agency would split the cost for a downtown light rail tunnel.

The council set a public hearing on the memorandum of understanding for the Nov. 7 council meeting. The draft memorandum of understanding was made available to the public on Friday.

Sound Transit originally had set an Oct. 25 deadline on the memorandum of understanding and plans to take up the matter at its Thursday board meeting.

Find out what's happening in Bellevuewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The council also included in the letter that they expect to take action by Sound Transit's Nov. 17 meeting and that they remain committed to the negotiations process regardless of the results of the election.

The binding memorandum of understanding would outline how the city and the transit agency would cover the additional $276 million that a tunnel through downtown Bellevue would add to the $2.5 billion cost of the East Link project.

Find out what's happening in Bellevuewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Deputy Mayor Conrad Lee and Councilman Kevin Wallace dissented from the decision.

Lee said that he was not satisfied that the letter contained enough "off-ramps," or clauses that would explain how Bellevue could back away from the agreement.

But among the amendments that the city council wanted Sound Transit to consider was to keep the track off the street level between Interstate 90 and the tunnel, and to disallow any partial takes of single properties. Councilwoman Jennifer Robertson proposed the additions to the letter, which was approved 6-1 with Deputy Mayor Conrad Lee dissenting.

Residents in the Surrey Downs neighborhood had .

Partial takes "are really unfair to people and the impacts cannot be fully mitigated," Robertson said.

Sound Transit in July approved a light rail line that included a downtown Bellevue tunnel for its East Link project, which connects Seattle with the Eastside through Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond.

, with the condition that the city cover $160 million of the tunnel cost with through tax breaks, property acquisition, cash and other actions and that the city also sign a memorandum of understanding with the transit agency on how the costs would be split.

, Bellevue city officials have also angled to include provisions on how the transit agency will minimize the impacts to the Surrey Downs, Enatai and other neighborhoods that fall along the above-ground path of the East Link line.

You can download a copy of Monday's East Link materials, including the review memorandum of understanding, at Bellevue's city council web page.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Bellevue