Local light rail activity is nearly a year away and discussions continue to roll along the proverbial track.
With the Mercer Island East Link station scheduled for a spring 2025 opening, city councilmembers reviewed the initial site concept for the Town Center long-term regional transit commuter parking project at its Feb. 20 regular meeting.
City management analyst Robbie Cunningham Adams led the presentation, which focused on a proposed parking configuration at the former Tully’s coffee shop building location and the adjacent area. At the conclusion of the project preview, council unanimously voted to approve the site concept and direct City Manager Jessi Bon to proceed with the design.
Out of the $10.05 million from a settlement agreement with Sound Transit to place toward projects to offset the impacts of the light rail project, the city has dedicated $4.41 million for the long-term parking projects.
The remainder of the settlement funds have gone toward temporary construction parking, traffic/safety enhancements, the Aubrey Davis Park master plan, last mile solutions and emergency training for Interstate 90 response.
In the long-term parking section of the settlement funding “buckets,” the city will contribute 51% of the project cost while Sound Transit will pitch in with 49% of the funds, according to Cunningham Adams. For its portion of the funds, the city intends to go the property match route with the value between the combination of the city’s different parcels in the long-term parking realm.
The city’s three-parcel property assemblage on this project includes the former Tully’s site (along with the associated parking lot that is currently in use), the cul-de-sac situated on the former Sunset Highway and another parcel that is part of the Greta Hackett Outdoor Sculpture Gallery. The latter two parcels include portions of greenspace that the city aims to keep intact as much as possible.
On the former Tully’s property, Cunningham Adams provided some insight into the city’s view of the 12,242-square-foot site, which is contaminated and features a dilapidated building: “The city and staff did evaluate whether the building could be used as a satellite city facility, but determined the building is too poorly sited and it just prevents the efficient use of the property. Furthermore, estimated costs to repair the existing building far exceed the cost of replacing it with a new building.” (An amount of $500,000 that city council earmarked in its 2023-2024 budget for the possible Tully’s conversion will be utilized for this project.)
According to Cunningham Adams, the initial site concept includes the removal of the former Tully’s building and the adjacent impervious hardscape parking lot; the inclusion of approximately 40 parking stalls, along with bike racks and lockers and other amenities, trail connections and more; and improved safety and accessibility for all on Southeast 27th Street. There is space for ADA parking stalls, along with compact and standard-size vehicle stalls.
While there is some proposed conversion of greenspace to parking stalls, there is also added landscaping following hardscape removal.
“We really do view this as a gateway to Town Center. It’s a very beautiful entrance to the city and we want to maintain that, but also fix some of the current conditions,” Cunningham Adams said.
Staff’s work on design, preparing the engineer’s cost estimate, reviewing project costs, project bidding and construction is anticipated to occur over the next three quarters of this year.
Due to issues that arose in 2022 with the cast-in-place concrete plinths that support the tracks, the original projected East Link opening of mid-2023 was delayed until the spring of 2025, according to a previous Reporter article.
In this graphic, there’s the former Tully’s coffee shop site on the lower left and the other two parcels above, all of which are proposed to be utilized in the Town Center long-term regional transit commuter parking project. Courtesy of the city of Mercer Island
