A proposal, the “Kirkland Compromise,” by the Kirkland City Council to postpone adding mass transit on the Cross Kirkland Corridor but prep the site for future transit use drew criticism from an organized opposition group, Save Our Trail (SOT).

The proposal, which came in a March 16 letter to Sound Transit, supports the addition of Bus Rapid Transit along the CKC, but opposes the installation of a light rail system.

The proposal would dump $250 million into rebuilding the trail in a more permanent form — $100 million in improvements to the trail from Totem Lake Mall to the South Kirkland Park and Ride, and another $100 million for construction of a similar trail connecting the Kirkland portion to the Wilburton Park and Ride.

The improvements would move the trail off the raised railbed, add separate biking and walking paths and prepare an ‘envelope’ for transit to run alongside the pedestrian area.

The interim trail is built along the six-mile stretch of the Eastside Rail Corridor, a former BNSF rail line running through Kirkland, and was opened in January, 2015. The interim trail project cost more than $2 million, roughly half of a $4 million project to remove the old rails and build the trail.

“Leaving the interim trail is not best for our future,” Kirkland Mayor Amy Walen said. “It’s already filling up with people. We want to make the interim trail more permanent.”

SOT rejected the idea of any transit running alongside the 15-month old trail in a March 17 letter to the Kirkland City Council.

“They don’t want any transit, ever,” Walen said.

From the outset, the trail was intended to be an interim solution to promote citizens’ use of the corridor: phase one. A more permanent trail and the inclusion of transit on the corridor has been part of phase two from before the trail was constructed.

“Save Our Trail sees this latest tactic as simply delaying building transit on the trail and is firmly against the City Council’s proposed ‘Kirkland Compromise,’” the SOT letter stated. “The group feels that, once again, the Council has acted without hearing from its community.”

The timeline for submitting another proposal — Kirkland has submitted several, but each has been rejected by Sound Transit — has been shorter than the council would have liked, Walen said, and there simply hasn’t been two years to get feedback from the community.

In the letter, SOT stated it was against the idea of using funds to make changes to the trail instead of paying for other vital transit needs, and questioned the expense of converting the trail to a more permanent format.

Environmental hurdles, such as destruction of wetlands and erosion, were also among the list of concerns.

The letter pointed to what SOT said were suggestions by the Council that Kirkland would not get transit dollars if those dollars were not spent on the trail, and pointed out billions in investments in other projects in the area.

SOT suggested a handful of alternate solutions to adding mass transit along the trail. The park and ride along I-405 at Northeast 70th Street could be rebuilt into a multi-level parking lot, which the group says could serve as a major transportation hub in lieu of the proposed mass transit hub along Northeast 85th Street.

The group also suggested additional surface transit routes parallel to I-405, and the addition of more circular routes around the city of Kirkland.

But Walen contended surface routes wouldn’t do enough to reduce congestion. Sound Transit’s main idea when it came to transit projects is to connect urban centers, not put more buses on the streets.

While SOT did oppose transit on the trail through Kirkland, the group supported the extension of the Light Rail Transit system slated to stretch from Bellevue up through Redmond. Per the group’s suggestion, the system would extend along Willows Road north to 124th Street, then travel to the former Totem Lake Malls site and avoid the Cross Kirkland Corridor altogether.

The opposition group may be wasting air, though, as Walen said the chances of Sound Transit accepting the Kirkland Compromise were low.

“They haven’t formally said anything, but that’s the feeling we’re getting,” she said.