Since news first broke of Sound Transit filing suit against the Rescue Mission I’ve withheld from posting many updates on how things are progressing in resolving the conflict. Largely because there hasn’t been much movement towards resolution, but also because we were waiting for more professional documentation from the sound engineers that we hired to study the potential impacts on the Rescue Mission.
For those that need a quick update on the facts of the situation, here is a link the News Tribune article referring to the suit and the editorial from the Tribune on the same subject.
Here is where the situation stands today from the perspective of the Rescue Mission. (Sound Transit may characterize the situation differently, as would be expected)
1. Impacts on the Building – Both Sound Transit and the Rescue Mission have hired engineers to study the potential impacts the train will have on the services of the Rescue Mission. Sound Transit engineers have recommended mitigation on a limited number of rooms on the north side of our building (the side directly parallel the tracks), while feedback from our engineers suggests that there will be impacts on our learning center, office/conference spaces, and dormitory. Therefore we have requested that they extend their mitigation to include the additional habitable spaces in our learning center and offices, as well as the shelter dormitory. This is essentially a restatement of our previous position, that every inhabited space that is in line with sound of the train be mitigated due to the proximity of the train line, and the 24/7 usage of the building, but augmented with documentation from the engineering study.
Sound Transit has now taken this data and is preparing a response.
2. Property settlement
Sound Transit’s original offer for the property settlement was based upon an assessment of the property. To confirm the value of the assessment we hired an appraiser to evaluate their proposal. There was a gap between the two professional opinions which was significant, with Sound Transits offer only a third of what our appraiser recommended. We forwarded this review to Sound Transit, which has thus far rejected the review.
Summary: Our desire is to see a swift resolution of these matters so that the impacts of delay on Sound Transit will be minimized. Nevertheless, it is my responsibility to ensure that the Rescue Mission, both as a private property owner and a advocate for the vulnerable population that we serve on behalf of the community, is not harmed by the railroad extension. There is no doubt we will be impacted. It is our position that we can only respond to the offers that have been made thus far, which we have done with the augmentation of the aforementioned review of appraisal and engineering report. Until counter offer that is fundamentally different from the first offer which was we deemed insufficient is made, we’re a an impasse. If the impasse remains, unfortuntely it will have to be settled by a jury in a court of law.
Thank you so much to the many people who have been encouraging and are concerned about how the work of the Rescue Mission will be impacted by the train.
Questions: Write any questions you may have and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.
David Curry
