By: Alwyn Scott
Puget Sound Business Journal
May 16, 2008
Link to original editorial
The Port of Seattle and King County recently signed a long-awaited deal to purchase a 42-mile strip of land on the Eastside.
It's a historic moment for a number of reasons. It preserves a rail corridor that was supposedly in danger of slipping out of existence. It shows the county and port actually getting along.
And it reaffirms the port's original purpose. When founded in 1911 by voters, the Port of Seattle's mission was to buy up waterfront land that had been monopolized by private owners and return it to public ownership, where it could be put to economic use to benefit the wider community.
An outgrowth of the progressive movement, the port and its mission have paid enormous dividends over the years, providing a conduit to trade with the world, well-paid jobs and an increasingly clean waterfront that citizens can enjoy.
More recently, however, the port has been criticized for failing to earn much return from this prime waterfront land. Critics contend that the companies operating on the waterfront get what amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to be there, because the rent they pay for the land doesn't cover the port's costs in maintaining and administering it.
The port also has suffered from the perception that it is out of touch, rubber-stamps its staff recommendations and spends liberally on big projects that could be completed at far lower cost. A state auditor's report last year endorsed that view by finding wasteful spending, efforts to evade bidding rules and mismanagement at the port.
So the deal to buy the Eastside rail corridor from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is a refreshing return to first principles: Buy back land and put it to use. We still question the $107 million price tag. It remains unclear why the land was deemed to be so valuable to BNSF, when the railroad said it was of little use. The port says that the land is worth more, and BNSF is donating that extra value to the taxpayers of King County. But at least by purchasing it, and agreeing to allow King County to create a public-access trail on part of it, the port "rail-banks" the corridor for future development. That prevents adjacent landowners from reclaiming the land and causing the corridor to disappear.
What remains troubling is that the port and county have different visions for the land's future. The county wants to make it bike trail. The port wants to move freight and commuters along it. There's debate about whether both can coexist.
So stay tuned.
It's lovely to be able to applaud the port and county for a deal done. What remains is for leaders to work together to ensure that the land can actually be used in a way that justifies the $107 million investment.
