As I reported yesterday, Bellevue City Council member Kevin Wallace pressured his fellow council members last week to support his proposed “Vision Line” alignment for the eastern portion of light rail, which would run east of I-405, bypassing downtown homes and businesses and forcing people to walk nearly a mile to Bellevue’s downtown core.
Wallace, elected earlier this year as part of a Kemper-Freeman-backed slate of city council candidates, has been a consistent, vocal opponent Sound Transit’s preferred light rail alignment, which would run on surface streets through downtown Bellevue.
A review of properties owned by his company, Bellevue-based Wallace Properties, reveals a potential reason why. Wallace Properties, of which Wallace is president, owns more than a half-dozen properties along the proposed light rail alignment through Bellevue. Altogether, the properties, which house dozens of businesses including the headquarters for Wallace Properties, are worth nearly $50 million.
Wallace hasn’t yet returned a call to ask whether his opposition to Sound Transit’s preferred alignment is related to the fact that his company owns so many properties along the route.
Wallace has said the alignment would have “disastrous impacts to our homes, businesses and roads,” a common complaint of light-rail opponents like Freeman. He also believes that it would would create too much noise.
“If we have an opportunity to run East Link through town without impacting residential neighborhoods, then we should take that opportunity,” he told the Bellevue Reporter in September.
Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray says it’s too soon to tell how many, if any, of Wallace’s properties will have to be condemned for light rail construction. However, at least four of those properties are within a block of Sound Transit’s preferred alignment, and one is directly adjacent to the proposed Ashwood/Hospital station, just east of I-405.
Sound Transit has already studied a version of Wallace’s proposed alignment, finding that it would have significantly lower ridership and cost more than the route through downtown Bellevue. However, last week—under pressure from the new anti-rail majority on the Bellevue City Council—they agreed to study the “Vision Line,” a process that will take at least a month and cost $15,000.
