After weeks of threats, days of bickering and long nights of negotiating, a road-building package that includes substantial funding for Pierce County’s cross-base highway sailed through a regional transportation board Friday.
Now comes the hard part: persuading voters to spend billions in new taxes to build roads and expand light rail in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.
By a vote of 19-2, the Regional Transportation Investment District board approved a $6.9 billion road construction plan that tackles big projects like replacing Seattle’s 520 bridge and Pierce County’s Highway 167 extension.
But it was the cross-base highway that required last-minute negotiations and nearly derailed the roads package in Pierce County.
Under a compromise finalized nearly two hours after Friday’s meeting was supposed to have started, the cross-base received an extra $100 million in the roads package. But $60 million is contingent upon mediation talks among county and state officials and environmental, business, equestrian and veterans groups.
Environmental groups have agreed to support the transportation ballot measure and to drop for now plans to file a lawsuit over the highway’s construction. But the groups aren’t ready to concede a cross-base highway is necessary or will ever be built.
“We feel like we have a medium to address the environmental issues that have so far been ignored,” said Bryan Flint, executive director of the Tahoma Audubon Society. “I’m confident that we will find a solution that does not include building the cross-base highway.”
Still, County Councilman Shawn Bunney, chairman of the investment district board, hailed the compromise as a significant breakthrough.
“I think it gives everyone a piece of what they want and some assurance that their interests will be protected,” Bunney said.
The cross-base highway would connect Interstate 5 and Highway 7 on a route between Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base. It’s long been a top priority of county leaders, who believe it would alleviate traffic congestion and improve freight access to the Frederickson industrial area.
But environmental groups object to the highway, saying it would destroy rare oak prairie and wildlife habitat and encourage sprawl. Horse enthusiasts fear it would cut off their access to Fort Lewis. And some veterans fear it would encroach on the military bases, making them targets for future rounds of base closures.
The groups had threatened to lobby against the ballot measure if funding for cross-base construction were included.
Fearful of a confrontation, the investment district recently pulled key funding for the highway from the regional roads package. That prompted a veto threat from Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg.
Weeks of sometimes heated negotiations followed, culminating in early morning meetings and phone calls Friday.
The compromise contains key elements of a proposal put forth by a majority of County Council members earlier this week. It includes an additional $5 million for environmental mitigation for the cross-base highway and $50 million for trails and other features.
In the end, all seven Pierce County Council members supported the plan.
“I didn’t think it would be this hard,” Councilman Terry Lee said of the negotiations. “But it was very hard.”
Ladenburg was out of town Friday but issued a statement supporting the compromise plan.
The compromise doesn’t guarantee the cross-base highway will be built. Even with funding from the ballot measure, the project would still need $200 million from other sources. If mediation fails, the $60 million tied to the talks could be used to widen 176th Street East to address traffic congestion in Frederickson.
The mediation wouldn’t begin until January 2009, and the timing is no accident. That’s when a new county executive takes office.
Bill LaBorde, program director of Environment Washington, said Ladenburg’s negotiating style made progress difficult.
“Things got a little ugly,” La-Borde said. “It became very personal for Ladenburg and other executive officials.”
In addition to the cross-base highway, the roads package includes money to extend Highway 167 and to improve the Highway 162 interchange at Highway 410. It also includes money to rebuild the I-5 interchange at the Tacoma Mall.
Before it goes to the ballot, the roads measure must be approved by the county councils in all three counties. Based on Friday’s vote by the combined 21-person membership of those councils, approval at the local level seems likely.
The roads measure will be paired on the ballot with a Sound Transit expansion plan that would add 50 miles of light rail, including an extension from Sea-Tac Airport to the Port of Tacoma. The transit price tag is $10.8 billion.
Voters in November must agree to raise sales taxes by six-tenths of a percentage point and motor vehicle excise taxes by eight-tenths of a percentage point. The combined cost of roads and transit improvements would cost the typical household an additional $150 in sales taxes a year, according to the transportation agencies. The owner of a vehicle valued at $10,000 would pay an additional $80.
David Wickert: 253-274-7341
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