Deal would save Eastside rail corridor for trails

The county holds an option to buy the corridor, but it expires at the end of the year, and BNSF has said it will look for other buyers after that, county officials have said. In that case, the corridor could be sold off piecemeal to private buyers.

The long-term lease of the corridor that is part of the latest deal has yet to be negotiated, but County Councilman Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, said Thursday that the charge to the county would be "nominal." The cost of developing the recreational trail also is unknown; under the original version of the plan, which called for conversion of the full length of the corridor into a trail, that amount was estimated at $66 million.

The initial version was detailed in February by County Executive Ron Sims, BNSF Chief Executive Matt Rose and Mic Dinsmore, who has since left his job as port executive director. It called for the port to put up the $103 million to buy the corridor and the $66 million to develop it as a trail, with the county giving the port Boeing Field and selling the Harbor Island property to the port if the three parties succeeded in identifying a site for a major truck/train transfer yard that would include garbage handling.

But opposition to that plan on the County Council and the Port Commission led to its revision.

Phillips, the most outspoken council opponent of the original agreement, endorsed the latest version.

"I'm very pleased," he said. "The best way I can characterize it is turning lemons into lemonade."

Phillips strongly objected to giving the port Boeing Field, which he regards as a valuable county asset. And despite Sims' assurances, Phillips also thought the original proposal did not go far enough to allow for potential future use of the corridor for light rail or other high-capacity transit. The new agreement addresses both of those concerns, he said.

As for the giveaway of the 12 acres that cost the county $8.5 million four years ago, Phillips said, "They extracted a little blood from this turnip."

The county acquired the 12 acres to prepare for the closing of the county-owned Cedar Hills Regional Landfill in Maple Valley, which is expected to reach capacity in the next decade. But Phillips said new approaches may take care of the county's future waste-disposal needs, including extending the life of the landfill.

The search for a truck/train transfer yard is more of a state/port concern, Phillips said, while another element in the original plan -- support for enlarging the railroad tunnel at Stampede Pass -- primarily involves the state, the port and BNSF.

Port commission opposition to the original deal focused on the $169 million price tag and the financial liability associated with taking over a 77-year-old county airport that could become entangled in costly efforts to clean up contaminants leaking into the nearby Duwamish River. But the port does have in interest in what happens at Boeing Field: Worries about protecting its investment at Sea-Tac prompted the port to help lead the successful opposition to Sims' 2005 proposal to lure Southwest Airlines from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field.

Port Commissioner Alex Fisken, who was skeptical of the initial plan, said Thursday that the new proposal sounds good to him.

Although the revised plan truncates the originally proposed recreational trail, David Hiller of the Cascade Bicycle Club applauded the agreement.

"Our main concern was keeping as much of the corridor as possible intact, and in public hands," he said