Light rail is coming to Issaquah. And the sooner the better.

That is the view of a number of Issaquah and Sammamish elected officials involved in transit and transportation planning for the Eastside.

The Reporter spoke with Sammamish councilmember Kathy Huckabay and Issaquah councilmembers Joshua Schaer and Fred Butler last week, to discuss the latest effort by interest group the Eastside Transportation Association (ETA) to prevent Sound Transit from building a light rail network in Western Washington.

Huckabay and Schaer are voting members of the Eastside Transportation Partnership (ETP), a group of elected officials from Washington cities and counties which was formed in 1987 to implement coordinated transportation plans in the area.

The ETP is currently chaired by Mayor of Issaquah Ava Frisinger, with Mayor of Sammamish Don Gerend serving as vice-chair.

Butler is one of three East King Country representatives on the board of Sound Transit.

He believes that light rail could well be the backbone of the transportation system in the region into the future, and confirmed that the idea of a light rail station in Issaquah was being considered.

In November of last year, voters in the central Puget Sound region approved the Sound Transit 2 ballot, to fund a series of transit improvements, including light rail, to be delivered between 2009 and 2023.

According to the Washington State Department of Revenue, the improvements will cost about $69 per adult per year.

The estimated cost to implement Sound Transit 2 is $17.9 billion, and includes a 17 percent increase in express bus service beginning in 2009, a 65 percent increase in Tacoma-Seattle commuter rail capacity, and, of course, 36 new miles of light rail.

“Sound Transit 2 included $3 million to study high capacity transit (HCT) options on I-90 that would look at potential routes and stations,” he said. “Issaquah is a part of that planning study.”

Butler also said that beyond Issaquah, areas like North Bend and Snoqualmie Ridge could be on the light rail horizon, given their readiness for growth.

“You can’t build enough roads to satisfy the 1.2 million people who are expected to move to the Puget Sound area between now and 2025,” he said. “It just cannot be done. People are going to need other options.”

The issue of whether our transportation future will include more roads or more public transit options has been a hot topic over recent weeks, with the opening of Sound Transit light rail service from Seattle to Sea-Tac airport last month, and the temporary closure of Interstate 90 lanes for bridge work.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has been discussing the possibility of tolls, or paid express lanes, on Interstates 405 and 90, and State Route 520, to pay for needed bridge and improvements and to better regulate traffic flows.

Traffic congestion in the area is now recognized as among the worst in the country, as the growth of regional centers such as Redmond and Bellevue has been coupled with insufficient investment in transit alternatives and poor roadway planning.

“This community has been so divided by roads and transit,” said Huckabay, referring to the troubled passage of transit measures in the past and an inability to come up with a functioning regional plan. “The ETA has been at the center of that, with its opposition to transit moves. They have been using every obstacle they can find to prevent light rail coming to the Eastside.”

The Reporter broke the story two weeks ago that the ETA, under the leadership of former Senator and famous opponent of light rail Jim Horn, had launched a Writ of Prohibition against Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, claiming that Sound Transit’s plan to use some lanes of I-90 for a light rail line is in violation of the 18th Amendment to the Washington State Constitution. The 18th Amendment states that roads built by the collection of fuel taxes can be used for road traffic only.

Huckabay said this opposition from the business owners and residents which now make up the ETA had been going on since she arrived in the area in 1984.

“Any investment that will encourage people to move from their cars, they are opposed to,” she said.

Schaer agreed with Huckabay that the ETA’s anti-transit focus was hindering long term solutions to commuter congestion.

“As a lawyer, I understand the legal logic of their argument, but I’m not sure I understand its merits,” he said. “You can’t keep increasing roads capacity again and again and again. At some point you are going to build a 10 lane highway, and it is going to be congested — look at L.A. and Atlanta. At some point capacity is not the answer, you need to change the modes.”

Schaer said that the City of Issaquah was very supportive of bringing light rail to the Eastside, a plan which Sound Transit has outlined as part of its Vision 2040 plan.

“It’s probably not in anyone’s short range plans, yet,” Schaer said. “But in terms of trying to provide light rail for the people of Issaquah, I would love it to be sooner rather than later.”

Frisinger has been a big supporter of light rail on the Eastside, and last month authored a submission to the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) which urged the inclusion of Issaquah in future light rail plans.

“Issaquah has consistently supported rail as the preferred mode for HCT (high capacity transit) in the I-90 Corridor because it is most consistent with the long term regional growth vision presented in Vision 2040 and the Cascade Agenda,” she wrote. “Construction of additional HOV direct access ramps could present significant engineering challenges, redundant public investments, or possibly even preclude rail in the I-90 Corridor.”

Schaer and Huckabay both said that with the economy as it is, and with other pressures on people’s minds, they could understand that the public probably didn’t have much of an appetite for another transit bill. Huckabay said that for light rail to come to Issaquah, voters would have to approve a transit ballot in about 2020.

“But when the economy rebounds, we know that there is tremendous support for light rail and transit initiatives,” Huckabay said. “People are looking for alternative ways to commute.”

Schaer hoped groups like ETA did not de-rail what he sees as beneficial long term plans.

“The idea of ditching these transit initiatives, just so we can pave more roads, I don’t think it makes any sense.”