David Upthegrove, a King County Council member who also serves on Sound Transit’s board, told the Kent Reporter, a local weekly newspaper, he’ll recommend to the full board that the Dick’s Drive-In site along Pacific Highway South be removed from a list of six potential sites for an operations and maintenance facility.
“There will still be a good mix of sites even without that one,” Upthegrove told the newspaper.
The parcel in question also includes a much larger retailer — Lowe’s — but it’s the presence of Dick’s that has some officials, including Kent’s mayor, riled up. While the Seattle-based chain of hamburger stands is 65 years old, the Kent location (just the seventh) opened in December 2018.
Upthegrove said he decided to recommend dropping the site from consideration for three reasons: His constituents have told him they don’t want it there, the facility (which requires at least 30 acres) would displace residents of a mobile-home park, and it would discourage transit-oriented development in an area Kent is trying to encourage it.
Upthegrove said he’ll present his proposal to drop the site from consideration at the board’s meeting in May, when it’s due to narrow down the list of sites from further evaluation. Those will then go through a two-year environmental impact review.
In the meantime, Sound Transit has the second of two public-comment meetings scheduled for Wednesday March 20, at Highline College. The public written-comment period closes April 1.
Dick’s Drive In or not, the reasons were stated to find a new spot regardless.
“the facility (which requires at least 30 acres) would displace residents of a mobile-home park, and it would discourage transit-oriented development in an area Kent is trying to encourage it.”
People can cry about the marginal cheeseburgers all day, but the facts seems to be winning the day, not emotions.