Sno­homish Coun­ty lead­ers have expressed dis­agree­ment with pro­posed light rail routes that would skip the region’s air­port, Paine Field, reports Ben Watan­abe for Her­ald­Net.

Accord­ing to the arti­cle, “Pri­or pub­lic com­ment and the Everett Link com­mu­ni­ty advi­so­ry group had asked for those options to be stud­ied. They cit­ed con­cerns about dis­place­ment and gen­tri­fi­ca­tion through south­west Everett, devel­op­ment and rid­er­ship poten­tial, as well as get­ting light rail built ear­li­er than the pro­ject­ed start in 2037 or 2041.” But some local lead­ers refuse to study the options, say­ing the air­port-omit­ting options were not what vot­ers approved when they vot­ed to sup­port the project. 

“The Sound Tran­sit board, at the time, chose an align­ment that extends north from the Lyn­nwood Tran­sit Cen­ter to Alder­wood mall, 164th Street SW, Ash Way and 128th Street SW, then west along Air­port Road to the South­west Everett Indus­tri­al Cen­ter that includes Boe­ing and Paine Field,” Watan­abe writes. “Sound Tran­sit staff analy­sis of the High­way 99 and I‑5 align­ments showed low­er cur­rent pop­u­la­tions, pro­ject­ed pop­u­la­tions and jobs for both, com­pared to the align­ment that runs west toward Paine Field, north cor­ri­dor devel­op­ment direc­tor Eric Wid­strand said Wednes­day.”