By Joe Veyera
The latest in a long line of monorail proposals will go to Seattle voters this November. As reported by our news partners at The Seattle Times, Magnolia activist Elizabeth Campbell and her allies collected around 9,000 signatures, well more than the 4,582 signatures needed to send her Ballard-to-West Seattle monorail proposal to the ballot. As for why the signature threshold is much lower than for other initiatives:
It takes signatures from only 1 percent of registered voters to reach the ballot under the “city transportation districts” law from 2002, which the state Legislature passed to enable a populist monorail movement.
If approved, Proposition 2 would form the Century Transportation Authority (CenTran), a new government entity controlled by an independent board of directors, with the ability to put taxpayers on the hook for bond debt. The proposition would also institute a $5 car tab fee across the city, raising approximately $2 million per year for planning work for the 16-mile line.
According to the CenTran website, if the proposition is approved, “the newly created Authority will then create a master plan to design and engineer the elevated rail system, and will complete the required environmental review for Phase 1, leading to the construction of the elevated rail system.” The actual construction of the monorail line, which is estimated by CenTran to cost around $2.4 billion, would be funded by a separate ballot measure at a later date.
To read the full story from The Seattle Times’ Mike Lindblom, click here.