Seattle Press on Line - Burke-Gilman Trail through Ballard: Can the Shilshole Speedway be Tamed?

There From Here

Burke-Gilman Trail through Ballard: Can the Shilshole Speedway be Tamed?

By Tara Peattie

Dec 06, 2001 -- The Burke-Gilman Trail recently drew one step nearer connecting to its final rest stop at Golden Gardens Park in Ballard, at least on paper. In October, City Council adopted a resolution for SeaTran to study options for extending the Trail from its current terminus at 11th Avenue NW to the Chittenden Locks.

It's taken over 25 years to reach this point for one of the longest urban trails in the U.S. The Burke-Gilman extends from Redmond to Bothell to Kenmore to Lake Forest Park, and rounds its final stretch in Seattle through Lake City, Sand Point, View Ridge, the University District, Wallingford, and finally, a hard-won gasp through Fremont to an abrupt end by the Fred Meyer in Ballard. The trail is part of the Mountains to Sound Greenway, which extends improbably to the John Wayne Trail, along a disused railway that heads east toward Spokane along the I-90 corridor. It may take a bit of John Wayne spirit to blaze this last half-mile piece to the Ballard Locks.

Of several routes under study, the first focus will be Shilshole Avenue and what Seattle Strategic Planning Department staff calls "not 54th Street," a city-owned rail right of way that is not officially a street. This is the route recommended in the Ballard Neighborhood Plan. The residential and commercial vote was for it, with industry along the route at least 50-50 toward a majority for it. Local group Friends of the Burke Gilman Trail (FBGT) have set their sites on this route. Comprised of cyclists, some Ballard residents and others, they emphasize that Shilshole is the natural route for the trail to follow. It's the most direct, with the least street crossings and fewer hills, but there's a catch. The Ballard Terminal Railroad Company has a 30-year lease in this section. They currently only operate at most a few runs a week; and while a lease is a lease, FBGT contends that the property was originally sold to the city for the purpose of a public trail, and that there's room enough to accommodate all parties.

More information and maps are available at:

http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/planning/AreaWideStudies/Ballard/Ballard.htm
http://www.burkegilmantrail.org/

Several other businesses along the route object to the trail on safety grounds, since they often have large trucks pulling in and out. Safety is a real issue, and this section of trail that brushes up to Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel and Ballard Oil Company may never be as safe as more residential and waterfront sections without an expensive grade separation. To address this, FBGT hired an architect and planner to draw a plan to safely accommodate rail, parking, and trail users. The plan successfully accommodates all in the 66 - 100 foot city right-of-way, and has just won an award from the Washington Society of Landscape Architects.

Davidya Kasperzyk, a principal architect of the plan and a trail advocate, says he took the job based partly on the safety challenge. "This is very doable. They can do one rail plus parking and trail, or two rails with trail and no parking. In terms of traffic and parking, we are only talking about three or four businesses that would have to modify their operations a bit."

Are safety and losing the ability to park wherever the only issues for those businesses that oppose the trail? Kasperzyk believes not--it's partly a turf issue.

"They see this as an elitist recreation thing; I see it as community building. Far more people currently use the Trail to commute than to recreate, except on sunny weekend days. I grew up in Flint, Michigan. Some of these guys who have worked the waterfront for three generations have me pegged as some yuppie who has no respect for what they do, but that's not the case. What we envision for Shilshole is just good design; it's not rocket science. We have to plan shoreline use in terms of trains, industrial access, public access, and shoreline habitat. It's not just a private stronghold."

Currently, the railroad track areas are notoriously dangerous for cyclists, who can get a tire caught in the flangeway and flip the bike, but the route is convenient and popular.

Separating trail, parking and rail, adding signals and crossbars, and possibly creating a frontage road for truck access are all ways to accommodate the trail through Shilshole. SeaTran is looking at other options too, such as Ballard Avenue to Market Street. The Project Advisory Committee will come up with recommendations by December 31, so be sure to get your comments to the project manager: Eric.Tweit@ci.seattle.wa.us; (206)684-8834.

Planning the route is mostly a neighborhood task, but creating pressure to finish the trail is a city-wide issue. The 4,000-member Cascade Bicycle Club recognizes this. They recently hired an advocacy director and one of the first projects they've put him on is helping Friends of the Burke-Gilman push for trail completion. Clearly, momentum is there and the City Council is open to getting this done. SeaTran's planning will be complete by May 31; so it will go to City Council vote this summer.

Tara Peattie can be reached at peattie@drizzle.com.

Reader Comments

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Anonymous	Dec 07, 2001
Catchy title. Shouldn't it have someting to do with the story.


Anonymous	Mar 05, 2003
Every member of the 4,000-member Cascade Bicycle Club, Davidya Kasperzyk, and the City of Seattle better get good liability insurance. I smell litigation.