Tonight: last chance to weigh in on Burke-Gilman Missing Link designs

Tonight (Thursday, Sept. 28) is one of the final design meetings for the Burke-Gilman Missing Link project. The meeting will be held at the Ballard Eagleson VFW (2812 NW Market St) from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. The workshop will include an updated design of the corridor and will provide for a check-in with community members for feedback, as the design team is working to finalize plans for the project.

There have been a few changes to the design plans, including reducing the number of parking spots that would be eliminated with the trail construction. The original plans had estimated that 344 parking spots would be lost, but the Seattle Bike Blog reports that the design team was able to fit in 186 more parking spots in the updated design.

“While the number of parking spaces is certainly not Seattle Bike Blog’s biggest concern with this project, the work to add spaces back is an example of how this community design process works,” Tom Fucoloro from the Seattle Bike Blog reports. “Parking was a big concern by many people opposed to the project. This is what compromise looks like in action.”

Fucoloro said one of the trickiest elements of the design will be the corner of NW Market St and 24th Ave NW, where they are suggesting a “mixing zone”.

Fucoloro:

The trail has many mixed corners already (Stone Way, 15th Ave NE, the Ave, 20th Ave NE, etc), but this one will be a little different because the trail can continue through while people on foot are waiting to cross the street. In most of the other examples, people on the sidewalks and trail users are all stopped at the same time. In this case, trail users will have to make their way through people who are waiting.

I don’t think this is an impossible situation, but it’s going to be especially necessary for trail users to be patient and yield to people on foot.

While design plans are ticking along, the lawsuit to delay the project is ongoing. According to Seattle Bike Blog, there’s a hearing is scheduled for Oct. 16. In the meantime, there will be another public meeting and a self-guided walking tour in October; we’ll update with more details when they become available.

For information about tonight’s meeting, visit the City of Seattle’s Missing Link website.