Give your opinion about where to put a new parking garage in Kent for Sound Transit’s Sounder train riders.
Sound Transit will have an open house from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21, at the Kent Station Platform, 301 Railroad Ave. N. People will have a chance to:
• Review and comment on proposed parking garage sites and non-motorized, pedestrian and bicycle improvements
• Learn about the process for identifying and evaluating station access improvements
• Ask questions of project staff
Potential improvements include a parking garage and pedestrian, transit and bicycle improvements. After outreach in early 2017 to identify potential improvements, Sound Transit staff has been evaluating parking garage sites and pedestrian, transit and bicycle improvements to move toward identifying a preferred alternative.
This fall, the Sound Transit Board will identify a preferred set of improvements. The project will then move in to environmental review and preliminary design.
Sound Transit officials revealed during their latest update to the Kent City Council on Aug. 15 that costs are up to an estimated $65 million for the 500-plus stall facility. During a February report, agency staff still used the estimated cost of $35 million, the price used during the ST2 ballot measure.
Voters approved the Kent Station Access Improvements Project in 2008 to expand mass transit throughout the region. Funding was suspended in 2010 because of the economic recession, but the Sound Transit Board restored funding in 2016 to improve easy and reliable access to the station for all users as ridership and service increase.
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