Sometime this spring, take a moment to enjoy your trip home to Lake Forest Park from Seattle.  As you leave the concrete heat-dome that increasingly characterizes urbanization and head down Bothell Way from 145th towards Town Center,  look out the window  of the bus or your car to appreciate the perennially green trees and shrubs that line the highway of this residential area.  Perhaps you’ll see a treetop eagle.  When you get home, enjoy an outdoor barbeque in the relative quiet as all those trees and shrubs insulate you from the traffic noise of Bothell Way.

Enjoy it while you can.  Because, without a significant design modification, Sound Transit’s ST3 SR522/NE 145 bus rapid transit (BRT) plan will alter the landscape significantly by this time next year.  They will be sawing down nearly 500 mature trees and clearing a similar number of shrubs to widen the highway.  They will have taken the backyards of dozens of residents along Bothell Way to erect a nearly mile long concrete wall as high as 18 feet.  They will move 90,000 cubic yards of dirt during two years of disruptive and noisy construction.  After construction, you will have a concrete corridor to welcome you to Lake Forest Park and the traffic noise radiated by that concrete wall will make your backyard barbeque less pleasant – if you still have a backyard. The picture above EXACTLY represents the TYPE of WALL with the EXACT type of Jersey Barrier that is in the plan for our corridor! Prone to graffiti, just like this image, taken from a local Freeway Off Ramp.

Despite the multi-billion dollar shortfall, Sound Transit will spend as much as $250 million dollars to create a dedicated North/Eastbound bus lane over our 1.2 mile segment of the 8 mile BRT route.  And all this to save 2 minutes of North/Eastbound commute time but only during evening rush hour and not until 2042.  If our recommendation were followed, the project would still save commuters 14 minutes over the entire route.  Regardless, there will be no improvement in our section for the South/Westbound commute since there is already a dedicated bus lane.

We are Citizens Organized to Rethink Expansion (CORE) – a small group of Lake Forest Park residents that have organized to raise awareness of the Sound Transit project and to advocate for design refinements.  We are not against transit and we’re not against growth.  We feel that design modifications can retain most of the commuter benefit while preserving the environment and character that we cherish in Lake Forest Park.  Our recommendation remains to support most of the benefits of the project while minimizing the environmental impact:

• Use queue bypass and signal priority as already designed on this project’s final 1.7 mile stretch along 145th to the light rail station. Taking this approach would dramatically decrease the impact through our City.
• Build smaller-footprint BRT stops at 165th. The standard, large industrial design is not the right fit for a residential neighborhood.
• Take a foot-by-foot approach to tree conservation that reduces overall impact on tree cover, noise and the environment.
• Reduce roadway width sidewalk to sidewalk as in Kenmore and Bothell. This could save up to 9 feet! This means saving MORE trees and MORE property takes!

We know that many of you care.  Many of us moved here because of the qualities of the lake, the forest, and the park promoted by the initial planners.  Over 800 of you signed our petition in our direct area!  You came and engaged with us at the Lake Forest Park Elementary School meeting.  We delivered to Sound Transit 178 of the letters you signed at the Brookside Sound Transit Open House – that’s most of the people who attended!  Many of you have written letters to Sound Transit and our city leadership.  THANK YOU!

However, Sound Transit didn’t grant the city’s request for a 90 day pause to study alternatives and we haven’t had any definitive response from Sound Transit that they have altered plans represented in the 60% design from 2021 despite CORE’s efforts to raise awareness in the community.  Despite the many people who participated, we’re still considered a "few disgruntled residents".  But, It’s not too late for the citizens of Lake Forest Park to make a difference. Even if you participated before, please do so again!  And if you didn’t, please help!

Here are some ways that you can contribute:

For those whose properties face acquisition, come to a meeting at the Sheridan Market on May 18th from 7-9 PM. 

CORE will be canvasing those highly impacted residents so they can work together to campaign for a lighter touch through our corridor.

Attend and comment at the April 13 Sound Transit System Expansion Meeting at 1:30pm, either in person or virtually.  April 13 Sound Transit System Expansion Meeting

Attend and comment at the April 13 Lake Forest Park City Council Meeting at 7pm April 13 Lake Forest Park City Council Meeting where the roadway width issue will be brought up.

Attend and comment at the April 27th: Sound Transit Board Meeting at 1:30pm  April 27th: Sound Transit Board Meeting 

Register your opposition to Washington Senate Bill 5466 which overrides Lake Forest Park for dense multi-family housing along transit corridors:

Register your opposition to Washington Senate Bill 5466 which overrides Lake Forest Park for dense multi-family housing along transit corridors

The next three months will be critical.  It’s crunch time and we need your help to make your feelings known to Sound Transit and Lake Forest Park city government!

For more background and hard to find documents from Sound Transit, please visit our website: https://www.lfpcore.org/