Nearly 25,000 people took an online survey to help shape future projects for Sound Transit and a November 2016 ballot measure to pay for the expanded light rail, train and bus service.
The response was double the amount of feedback heard when the agency engaged Puget Sound residents in June 2014, according to a Sound Transit media release on Monday. In addition, a total of 1,025 people submitted written comments at meetings across the region and by email and mail, and more than 70 local governments and organizations sent comment letters.
Sound Transit plans to ask voters to fund nearly $15 billion in additional projects through higher sales taxes, property taxes and motor vehicle fees. The exact costs would be determined for the November 2016 ballot measure.
Current projects are funded through 2023, including the expansion of the light rail route from SeaTac to Kent. The agency also wants to fund light rail to Federal Way as part of the projects after 2023.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the Draft Priority Projects List was a good list of projects to study, and approximately 5,000 people responded to an open-ended question seeking input on other potential projects to study.
Based on this feedback, next month the Sound Transit Board will discuss potential updates to the list. Staff are reviewing specific feedback on the list pertaining to “what is missing” to offer those themes for board consideration in updating the list.
This fall and winter studies of the identified projects will support further narrowing by the board to shape a draft ST3 measure for public input in early 2016. Sound Transit 3 is the next step toward expanding the regional mass transit system, and will be on the ballot for voters to consider in November 2016.
In the coming months as studies are completed and the Sound Transit Board discusses options, find the latest at soundtransit3.org.
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