We might have witnessed that plot twist in the battle to block an elevated commuter-railroad track Sound Transit wants to build through Tacoma’s Dome District south toward Lakewood.

Last week, the chairman and vice chairman of Tacoma’s Planning Commission and a small band of devoted business leaders pleaded with the mayor and three City Council members to stop the train.

It shouldn’t have worked. For years the council has accepted whatever Sound Transit wanted to do.

Not this time.

Jake Fey, Tom Stenger, Bill Evans and Bill Baarsma – members of the council’s Environment and Public Works Committee – voted to hire an independent expert for two primary duties.

 • Investigate whether Sound Transit’s preferred route would violate one or more provisions of the city’s planning and zoning policies.

 • Look for a preferable alternative route connecting Tacoma and Lakewood that preserves the economic development potential of the Dome District.

Baarsma got most fired up over how Sound Transit off-handedly rejected an alternative train route around the fringe of the district – proposed by local architects and popular with business groups – that would leave the area’s development potential intact.

“They said it was impossible” financially, Baarsma said, and left Tacoma with the “least objectionable” of a handful of objectionable options.

Evans declared that Tacoma had evolved in the 11 years since voters approved the creation of Sound Transit – and the new Tacoma deserves a transit strategy more befitting a renaissance city than an Industrial Age one.

“I’m getting upset here about our treatment,” Stenger added. “How do get we Sound Transit’s attention? I feel snubbed.”

Them’s fightin’ words. Finally.

They came as Tom Smith, chairman of the planning commission, and David Boe, vice chairman, argued that Sound Transit’s chosen route might violate multiple provisions of Tacoma’s planning policies.

Boe also contended the original voter-approved legislation that created Sound Transit indicated future commuter rail would run on existing railroad tracks. In Tacoma’s case, Sound Transit has proposed building a track where none exists.

A technicality? Certainly.

But one that might help lead to a better solution.

“There’s no perfect solution,” architect Jim Merritt told the council committee. “But this budget thing kind of nauseates me, frankly, because if the city’s looking for the 100-year vision, why are we so concerned about a budget that’s all we can do right now?

“We’re letting this rail blast through this area. There aren’t many places in the world that would allow this,” he said.

“Where is your passion? Where is your stewardship for the future? And what kind of legacy do you want to have for the southern end of our” downtown?

Darrell Bowman, CEO of AppTech, a software and networking company; Grace Pleasants, principal of Heritage Properties, a development company; and Pierson Clair, president and CEO of Brown & Haley, the candy maker, all endorsed the hiring of an independent consultant to advise the council on alternatives.

After years of mostly going along with whatever Sound Transit offered, at least this faction of the Tacoma City Council has decided enough’s enough.

“Tacoma has been at a crossroads for a period of time,” Councilman Fey said. “In the past, we’ve been in the position – when somebody wanted to do something – we just jumped up and down just because somebody want to do something.

“I think we’re in a position (now) that we can pick and choose, that we have something to offer in this community that is the envy of other communities. And we ought to pick and choose and make sure that we get the very best kind of development in this community for the people who live here now and the people we want to encourage to live here in the future.”

Can I get an “Amen!” from the congregation?

Emboldened by the planning commission and business leaders, the coalition of council members might not hold it together long enough to win this battle. Both Stenger and Evans leave the council at the end of the year. They also need at least one more council member to get the five votes necessary to push back against Sound Transit.

And, Fey wondered aloud, does the city have legal authority to stop Sound Transit or can the agency, ultimately, override whatever Tacoma’s council prefers?

Will the plot twist again?

Well, not all the best adventure stories end with the good guys sipping margaritas on the beach in Mazatlan.

In “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid,” the charismatic train robbers Butch and Sundance, wounded and trapped in a cantina with a regiment of Bolivian soldiers surrounding it, count their bullets and plan their ultimate escape. They don’t make it.

But they did go down with a fight. And it looks as if our train story will too.

Dan Voelpel: 253-6597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com

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