Voters in Seattle will get a fifth opportunity to vote on whether the city should have a monorail line, after supporting the project the first four times.
The board of the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority voted to place the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot because of pressure from Seattles mayor, Greg Nickels, who said he would withhold construction permits for the planned 14-mile, $2 billion elevated monorail system without another vote.
While voters have supported the monorail four times, this Novembers election will be the first since the monorail projects management ran into a hail of criticism for a proposed bond financing plan that would require a half-century to complete repayment. That plan was withdrawn, but monorail board members insisted they can build the entire proposed project with relatively minor tweaks to the financing proposal.
Nickels and the City Council disagreed, forcing the monorail authority board to the ballot with a measure that will ask voters to approve construction of a shortened, 10.6-mile system.
If the measure were enacted, the board would build the first phase of the Green Line and commit to building the rest of the Green Line when the Seattle Monorail Project and the city conclude that sufficient funds are available, said a news release issued by the monorail authority. If the measure were rejected, no new monorail would be built.
