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SEATTLE: The Washington State Public Stadium Authority today issued the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for what will be a state-of the-art sports and exhibition facility.
As approved by a statewide vote last June, the PSA's Stadium and Exhibition Center is to be built in the greater Seattle area. It will house a National Football League team and be available for soccer, as well as a wide variety of trade and consumer shows and special events. The Stadium will also conform to Olympic Committee standards for soccer.
The FEIS reflects comments from over a hundred individuals, governmental agencies, and public and private organizations from across the state, made in response to the project's Draft EIS, released January 21, 1998. It includes:
- Revisions to the transportation section, in response to public testimony and comments. It integrates an analysis of traffic impacts during a weeknight football game, a proposed Transportation Management Plan (TMP) for the Kingdome site, and a TMP for temporary use of Husky Stadium. The FEIS transportation section describes methods to reduce parking demands, increase transit ridership and reduce congestion in the neighborhoods surrounding each alternative site.
- Close examination by the technical team of other sites in the south downtown Seattle area suggested for the Stadium in comments made in response to the DEIS. All were found to either involve greater environmental or economic cost than building on the Kingdome site or were too small to accommodate NFL football.
- Greater clarity on the Orillia Road alternative's wetland mitigation and compensatory flood storage, including a commitment to avoid the forested wetland on the southwest portion of the site.
- Additional information on implosion of the Kingdome, indicating it can be conducted without damaging neighboring structures in historic Pioneer Square, and that noise and dust involved in removing the debris can be significantly mitigated.
"There is interest in this project well beyond the greater Seattle area," noted PSA Executive Director Phil Kushlan. "We've heard from citizens and organizations from all over the state, from Spokane and Vancouver, from tribal governments, the Public Facilities District, to state and local governments, and potential users of the facilities, such as consumer show operators and potential patrons, including the disabled community."
In this legally required process, a team of technical and scientific experts studied how the construction and operation of the new facility would impact the environment, as well as what mitigation measures could reduce, compensate for, or eliminate those impacts.
Four alternative sites were evaluated for the project, including a "No Action" Alternative, which assumed there would be no NFL football in the Kingdome in Seattle beyond 1999, with that facility used for events other than football and baseball (which by that date will have moved to the new ballpark).
"Decisions about siting, mitigating, building and operating a $400 million facility need to be based on accurate information. The FEIS has quantified what we may have known intuitively about each alternative, but could not know absolutely until we subjected them to this careful scrutiny," explained Kushlan.
The three alternatives evaluated for construction of the Stadium and Exhibition Center and its associated parking were:
- The Kingdome/South Parking Lot. This would entail building the 325,000 square foot Exhibition Center and a parking garage on the south lot, the Stadium on the site of the Kingdome after that structure's demolition, with additional parking and event staging on the north Kingdome parking lot.
- The Kingdome/North Parking lot. This would be similar to the above alternative, except that the Exhibition Center would be built on the north Kingdome parking lot. Two smaller parking garages would be constructed, one on the North and one on the South Lot.
- Orillia Road. This site is a 134 acre property located in unincorporated south King County in the vicinity of S. 200th Street and Orillia Road near Kent and adjacent to Interstate 5. At this location, the Exhibition Center would have less square footage than at the Kingdome site, and both garage and surface parking would be provided.
Kushlan will present the FEIS and the PSA staff recommendation for a site at the PSA Board Meeting Thursday, April 23, 12:30 PM, at the Port of Seattle Commission Chambers, Pier 69, in Seattle. The Board is scheduled to make its decision on the project's site at a Special Meeting April 30, also set for 12:30 PM at the Port of Seattle Commission Chambers, Pier 69. As usual, each Board meeting will begin with a public comment period.
Copies of the four-volume FEIS will be available on Thursday, April 23, at Seattle and King County Branch Public Libraries and are available now at the PSA office.
Copies of the Executive Summary containing the FEIS Cover Memo, Fact Sheet, and Summary will be mailed to those who request it by calling the PSA office at (206) 205-8600.
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