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HomeMy WebLinkAboutM_Background_on_Parking_Garage_and_TOD_240607_v1 STRIDE Bus Rapid Transit South Renton Transit Center (SRTC) Site Plan Review, Conditional Use Permit, Master Site Plan Review, and Lot Line Adjustment Application Attachment 25 Background on Parking Garage and TOD June 2024 Prepared by the I-405 BRT BT305 SRTC CUP/Master Site Plan/Site Plan Review Attachment XX – Background on Potential Future Parking Garage and TOD The Central Puget Sound Transit Authority, commonly known as Sound Transit, operates under chapters 81.104 and 81.112 RCW for the Pierce, King, and Snohomish Counties region by action of their respective councils pursuant to RCW 81.112.030. Sound Transit is authorized to construct and operate high-capacity system of transpiration infrastructure and services to meet the regional public transportation needs. The high-capacity transit constructed by Sound Transit, including this proposal for a bus rapid transit (BRT) transit center, is an essential public facility as identified in RCW 36.70A.200 and WAC 365-196-550. In 2016, the voters approved the Sound Transit 3 Plan (“ST3”) to connect 16 cities with light rail, 30 cities with BRT and Sound Transit Express bus service, and 12 cities with commuter rail. Of relevance to this proposal, ST3 stated that “a new [Bus Rapid Transit] transit center and parking garage will be built in south Renton.”1 In 2021, the Sound Transit Board took action commonly known as “realignment” in response to a $6.5 billion budget shortfall. The Board’s realignment action is available in Sound Transit Resolution R2021-05 (the “Resolution”). Informed by public and stakeholder engagement, the Board passed the Resolution to ensure continued affordability of ST3 and to best achieve the ST3 plan objectives. The Resolution classifies ST3 projects as Tier 1 through Tier 4. Tier 1 and 2 projects may proceed without delay, while Tier 3 and 4 projects are delayed. As affordability gaps are eliminated for Tier 1 and Tier 2 projects, the gaps on Tier 3 projects will be assessed, and then the gaps on Tier 4 projects. The realignment Resolution identifies the BRT transit center as Tier 1, while the parking garage is identified as Tier 4 with an estimated “10+ years of delay” subject to Tier 1, 2, and 3 project affordability.2 Thus, Sound Transit is submitting a CUP and a Site Plan Review for the BRT transit center, including a surface parking lot that is an opportunity to “deliver flexible, innovative and affordable methods to get people to transit stations, if structured parking facilities have to be delayed,” in an area of the SRTC site that would otherwise be vacant. While Sound Transit is also submitting a Master Site Plan under RMC 4-9-200.2.a for a phased proposal, the Master Site Plan identifies only a “potential future location of a parking garage.” No parking garage design sufficient for land use entitlement exists, and future Board approval of the parking garage project is required as a prerequisite of any future land use entitlement application. Thus, the Master Site Plan identifies only a “potential future location of a parking garage.”3 1 Sound Transit 3: The regional System Plan for Central Puget Sound (June 2016), p. 5. Available at: https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/project-documents/st3-system-plan-2016.pdf. 2 Resolution No. R2021-05, Exhibit A (Affordable Schedule). 3 Phased development under a Master Site Plan “shall not exceed ten (10) years.” RMC 4-9-200.J.2.a. Thus, a Master Site Plan may expire before Sound Transit estimates it can deliver a Tier 4 parking garage project with an estimated “10+ years of delay.” Sound Transit and the City acknowledge that there is no commitment to deliver the parking garage project within the time the Master Site Plan is in effect. The Master Site Plan also identifies a “potential future location of transit-oriented development.” The Sound Transit Board may declare property not needed to construct and operate a transit facility as surplus property. Once approved by the Board, surplus property would be disposed or transferred consistent with RCW 81.112.350 and controlling Sound Transit policies. To date, the Board has not authorized TOD at this site.