[This was originally published this morning.]
Learn to trust the Fizz: A couple of days ago, we reported on a rumor that Mayor Mike McGinn planned to propose a ballot measure to pay for a replacement to the crumbling waterfront seawall, which is vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake.
This morning, at a press conference on the seawall’s southern end at Alaskan Way and S. Washington St., McGinn proposed a $241 million ballot measure to fund seawall replacement. The replacement, which McGinn hopes could be built on an accelerated schedule of four years, would be funded by a new property tax of 12 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, costing the owner of a $400,000 home about $48 a year.
“We are confident, given the public safety issues associated with the seawall … that we will get support from the citizens of Seattle,” McGinn said.
“We are not waiting. We are acting now.”
The measure would have to be approved by the city council, and would require approval by 60 percent of the population. McGinn said his conversations with council members have been “encouraging.”
“The city council recognizes the public safety issues with the seawall and I hope the council wants to see this move forward.”
(The council is in retreat all day today; I’ll have more on their responses to McGinn’s proposal later this afternoon.)
Although the seawall was initially part of the larger Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project (the seawall was going to serve as one wall of the cut-and-cover tunnel), it’s been a stand-alone project ever since the city and state chose a deep-bore tunnel to replace the viaduct instead.
McGinn deflected all questions about the implications of his proposal for viaduct replacement, saying, “We’re here today to talk about the seawall.”
McGinn said the design for the new seawall would be “the same as what would be used” under the old proposal. His spokesman, Aaron Pickus, says that while “the design phase still has to happen,” there are “a lot of environmental factors that we have to take into account, and I’m sure [sea level rise] will be one of them.”
The state’s original seawall replacement proposal would be high enough to handle approximately a three-inch rise in sea level. Current projections for sea level rise in Seattle anticipate an increase of as little as six inches or as much as two feet by 2050. By the end of the century, some scientists believe seas could rise as much as seven feet. I have calls in to the city and state transportation departments to find out if their latest seawall plans are higher than the original proposal to take potential sea level rise into account.
McGinn wouldn’t speculate on the impact a May ballot measure would have on a potential November levy to pay for light rail, calling “what we might do in November” irrelevant to today’s announcement.
