The Issaquah city council on Monday ratified a joint interest statement that will be submitted by the cities of Issaquah, Sammamish, Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond regarding East Link light rail and other public transit under a  ballot measure currently under development by Sound Transit. The bill passed Issaquah city council 5-1. Sammamish was a late addition to the joint interest statement, signing on this week.

The future measure, dubbed Sound Transit 3, is intended to expand transit networks to accommodate a regional population expected to expand 30 percent by 2040. A finished measure could go before voters as early as November 2016.

The joint interest statement requests that the ST3 measure fund Eastside needs, connect the Eastside’s regional growth centers, connect the Eastside with the larger region, provide a regional transit system integrated into bus and other transit services, and provide support for future expansion of the transit system.

Particular to Issaquah, the statement asks Sound Transit to build light rail from Totem Lake to Issaquah by way of Bellevue within the ST3 timeline or, alternatively, to establish rapid bus transit.

“I’m grateful we’re doing this,” Council President Paul Winterstein said. “The region has been and will continue to grow. The idea of creating a regional center — which we do have now in Issaquah — and connecting that to other regional centers, giving people today and tomorrow into future opportunities for travel that don’t involve single occupancy vehicles… our region is continuing to grow. We’re on a footing to manage that better than we ever have before.”

Nina Milligan cast the sole dissenting vote against the joint interest statement, saying future rail construction would foster what she called “chronic commuterism.”

“It expands economic imbalances between us and other jurisdictions, it defeats our housing goals and it promotes suburban sprawl,” Milligan said. “Regarding economics, as our citizens commute to jobs in other cities, say Bellevue or Seattle, we suffer a brain drain every morning. We don’t benefit from having these citizens as full-time members of our community and we send our economic engines to another city to benefit. I venture to say the vast majority of our citizens would rather stay in their home town.”