Ballard’s long-running battle over the Missing Link may be nearing a conclusion.
Last month the Seattle Hearing Examiner heard another appeal from the Ballard Coalition, a collection of businesses challenging SDOT’s environmental impact statement that clears the way for the trail to run along industrial Shilshole Ave. (above).
Last week attorneys for SDOT, Cascade Bicycle Club and the Ballard Coalition filed their “response briefs”, setting the stage for the Hearing Examiner’s decision. (You can read all the filings here).
Then this Wednesday, Councilmember Mike O’Brien and representatives from Cascade Bicycle Club and other groups are holding an event “to show our new mayor, Jenny Durkan, our support and commitment to breaking ground on the Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail in 2018.”
The event at Peddler Brewing will feature “the original organizers who 50 years ago took action to build the Burke-Gilman Trail,” the invite explains. It will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
For its part, the Ballard Coalition is pushing for the trail to travel up Leary to Market St., avoiding the industrial area. During the hearing, the Coalition argued that SDOT’s final environmental impact statement (FEIS) overlooked the dangers of a path that crosses “55 industrial driveways and intersections in just 1.5 miles.” In its post-hearing brief, the Coalition claimed “SDOT repeatedly directed its consultants to downplay the environmental impacts of its proposal.”
SDOT argued it “completed a thorough and comprehensive environmental analysis”, and in a filing after the hearing, stated “the Coalition has not met its heavy burden to sustain its challenge.”
Now the decision rests with the Hearing Examiner. We’ll keep you updated…