Please take less than a minute to complete WSDOT’s survey on saving the Montlake Blvd Market. Responses are due February 14th at 5 pm. The Montlake Community Club is urging neighbors to tell WSDOT that the market is worth saving for 45 extra days of construction. WSDOT has also estimated that keeping the market open could add $20 million to the project budget, and we say it’s worth it.
We also know their $20 million estimate is designed to be intentionally misleading and ignores the social impacts and other costs of eliminating the neighborhood’s only market and gas station. This was presented without any discussion of the cost for a full condemnation of the property, which could carry a price-tag of more than $30 million. Despite proving that construction impacts to the property can be avoided, WSDOT is still pursuing a full condemnation and pushing plans to use the site as a staging yard for the next decade.
Take the survey today and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same. And please leave comments when prompted. Many of these questions are misleading and based on limited information.
Survey link: https://survey.participate.online/s3/SR520-Montlake-Market-indv
Lana Pierce says
The community doesn’t need another DOT takeover of a beloved and neccessary store. You already ruined and destructed the Mohai property. You should not take away a neighborhood jewel.
Pete DeLaunay says
Hello everyone – I encourage everyone to take the WSDOT survey about the Montlake Market. I would like to put the survey in perspective for what it really is… – Having been in the marketing field for many years, the survey questions WSDOT so cleverly constructed are flawed in many ways – the questions were leading and based on information that no one would have any real knowledge about. Do you want construction to last longer? Do you want WSDOT to spend $20M or more? My responses to their leading questions were largely ‘unsure’ for that reason…and in the comment box I stated how ‘the market property was not needed for staging as other options were not credibly explored such as staging from barges as the original SR520 bridge was constructed in 1962’ ; and lastly in the final comment box I stated how ‘the survey was flawed with leading questions that are intended to give WSDOT the answers they wanted. Clever by half’…. The survey is just another way for WSDOT to ‘check the box’ in response to the legislative proviso that required WSDOT to address all options to avoid the market property condemnation. That’s why we are pushing for the City Council to establish an ordinance to establish an SR520 oversight board so all these issues can be put on a one-stop-table-top with community engagement: nighttime noise variance, construction sequencing, haul routes, damage to adjacent properties AND vetting all options to avoid condemning the market property for staging over a decade. While Mayor Durkan was supportive of the oversight committee idea at our candidate forum in 2017, her office has thus far been unresponsive to our letter of 12/2/18 requesting a meeting along with follow up emails and calls. Please take the survey with these perspectives in mind.
Pete DeLaunay