Drafter
Clerk 12/18/2007
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AN ORDINANCE approving a memorandum of understanding between the county, the Port of Seattle and the BNSF Railway Company relating to the acquisition of the Woodinville Subdivision Eastside Rail Corridor.
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BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings. The council makes the following findings:
A. In 2003 Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad ("BNSF") announced its intent to divest itself of the Woodinville Subdivision and Redmond Spur, which together are referred to as the Eastside Rail Corridor ("ERC"), a one-of-a-kind forty-two-mile corridor vital to the economic future of King County and six separate Eastside jurisdictions;
B. In 2005, the Puget Sound Regional Council in partnership with Washington state Department of Transportation obtained federal grant funds to conduct a study of this vital corridor, which was released in 2007;
C. In June 2005, the county council appropriated 3.8 million dollars to further the acquisition of this corridor;
D. On May 16, 2005, the King County executive announced that King County entered into exclusive negotiations with BNSF Railway to acquire the ERC for use as a trail and preserve its potential for future transportation;
E. On July 11, 2005, the metropolitan King County council unanimously approved Ordinance 15233, authorizing the ERC acquisition project for the preservation of transportation right-of-way in eastside King County cities;
F. In 2006, the Puget Sound Regional Council ("PSRC") established a broadly representative BNSF Corridor Advisory Committee to review, discuss and deliberate on the technical analysis of the Eastside Rail Corridor and identify its most desirable and feasible uses. In 2006, the PSRC BNSF Corridor Advisory Committee held six intensive public meetings in various communities all along the corridor from March 2006 through January 2007;
G. On October 25, 2006, the King County executive and Port of Seattle chi...
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