Terminal 91 Neighbors Advisory Committee
Annual Report 2013
The Terminal 91 Neighbors' Advisory Committee (NAC) is pleased to provide the
Port of Seattle Commission with this report of its activities for the year 2013.
Composition of NAC 
NAC community representation is comprised of eight voting members, four from
each community. Representatives serving their communities for the 2013 term
were:
Magnolia Community Club             Queen Anne Community Council
Steve DeForest, President              Ellen Monrad, Chair
Nancy Bainbridge Rogers              Don Harper
Fred Rapaport                    Jim Smith
Tom Tanner                   Glenn Avery
Bruce Carter, Alternate
Carol Burton, Alternate
John Kriese served as NAC Chair 2013. His service was provided through 501
Commons, a non-profit organization.  Pam Xander, of SoundEarth Strategies,
Inc., provided environmental consulting services and prepared summaries of
each NAC meeting. Rosie Courtney is the primary Port representative and staff
support for NAC. Additional Port staff that attended one or more meetings in
2013 are: Fred Chou, Joseph Gellings, Paul Meyer, Ellen Watson, and Christine
Wolfe. Marni Heffron, Heffron Transportation, briefed NAC on traffic studies
prepared for the Port.
Meetings
NAC met monthly on the third Wednesday of the month. The principal activity
was dialog among NAC members and between NAC and Port staff regarding
Terminal 91 including the North Bay area.  NAC also discussed issues
geographically adjacent, or outside NAC's purview, that could affect Port
operations within the NAC area. Staff participation included briefings, updates,
and responses to NAC questions and concerns. Detailed summaries of each
meeting are available in the Minutes posted at
http://www.portseattle.org/Supporting-Our-Community/Community-
Engagement/Pages/NAC.aspx.
General Value of NAC
The Magnolia Community Club and the Queen Anne Community Council affirm
that NAC has a constructive and positive value to both the Port and neighboring
communities.  Participants all view the committee and its meetings to be
informative, cooperative, and a desirable forum for discussion and consensus

building. The underlying Short Fill Redevelopment Agreement (NAC Agreement)
has proven effective for its purposes to date.
Ongoing Issues for NAC 
During 2013 the issues below were the most significant to NAC.
1. Traffic.
a. The Port's traffic experts explained and the NAC community members concur
that traffic engineering methodology to test level of service at area
intersections has evolved in the decades since the 1985 Shortfill Agreement was
signed, but that level of service appears to generally continue to meet the trigger
levels set in the Shortfill Agreement. However, the Port staff and the NAC
community members acknowledge that the measured traffic trigger counts at
T91 entrance/exits have consistently broken the traffic triggers set in the Shortfill
Agreement, for a variety of reasons. The Port staff and the NAC community
members also acknowledge that the current Shortfill Agreement provides little to
no mitigation or cure for violations of the level of service or of the traffic
triggers. The Port's traffic experts suggested opening the Shortfill Agreement to
be amended to update the traffic engineering methodologies and to update the
traffic triggers to reflect modern methodologies and the reality of today's traffic
counts.
b. NAC community members appreciate the Port providing an expert contractor
to explain and interpret traffic measurements, including assistance in
understanding the similarities and differences in level of service measured by old
and new methodologies.
c. NAC community members spent time both in NAC meetings with Port advice,
and on their own outside NAC meetings, evaluating proposed amendments to
the Shortfill Agreement. NAC community members proposed amendments to the
Port that would both (a) update the traffic engineering methodologies and
update the traffic triggers, and (b) also include provisions to assure real
mitigation or cure for any violations of those updated level of service standards
or traffic count triggers.
d. Port staff and experts explained their concern that it would be difficult to craft
or agree upon meaningful mitigation or cure provisions at this time, given that
the cause of a future violation of any updated level of service standard or traffic
count trigger is not yet known; i.e., it is difficult to define a fix to a problem
when the problem is not yet known.
e. The NAC then agreed to not open the Shortfill Agreement to any amendment
at this time, and instead wait until more is known about any future redevelopment
of the "uplands" (North Bay) covered by the Shortfill Agreement.
2. Ballard Interbay Land Use Corridor Study
a. NAC continues to follow City of Seattle Planning studies that may impact Port
activities. The City's Ballard Study encompasses a 3-mile corridor along Elliot

Avenue W and 15 Avenue NW from Interbay to Ballard. The NAC is concerned
the City is piecemealing its approach to a comprehensive plan. As a
consequence, the plan may fail to identify traffic and other issues that are
covered by the Shortfill Agreement.
3. Smith Cove Park
a. The transfer of the West Yard from the Port to the City of Seattle will benefit
the Magnolia and Queen Anne communities. The City plans to construct a park
on the land and the NAC is closely following plans for how the park and the colocated
Combined Sewer Overflow Facility will function. In particular, the NAC
supports a plan that provides unimpeded foot-traffic movement through-out the
park area.
4. Smith Cove Events Permit
a. NAC appreciates the Port's resolution of a NAC question about a possible
inconsistency in expectations for land use at the Smith Cove Events Terminal
located at Terminal 91. The Port and the City of Seattle determined that a
particular entertainment use was not allowable under the existing permit. The
City agreed to include the particular entertainment use in the Shoreline Master
Program as long as the Port committed to place a maximum number of times for
use and pay using the ecological restoration fees. The Port agreed to a
maximum of 45 days during the non-cruise season and contributed to the City's
in-lieu fee program (ecological restoration).
5. Upland Re-development.
a. The NAC remains highly interested in any actions by the Port to initiate redevelopment
of the uplands at T91. Little action was taken in this regard during
2013. But it remains the issue of paramount importance to the committee and
the NAC community members.
6. Other Topics (See Minutes for details)
a. King County CSO construction details
b. Port clean air strategies
c. Tank Farm cleanup activities
d. Existing Fish Processors

Of Specific interest to the Commissioners.
NAC community members urge the Commissioners to continue to engage with
City of Seattle leaders and to advocate for a more holistic approach in the city's
planning activities. In particular, planning for the Ballard Interbay area should
include potential impacts on T-91 and traffic flow on adjacent streets.

Other Matters
We invite each and all Commissioners to attend a NAC meeting at your
convenience. Meetings are usually on the third Wednesday of each month at
4:30 PM in the Port's third floor east conference room. 
NAC thanks the Port Commissioners for the opportunity to provide this annual
report on behalf of the Magnolia and Queen Anne communities. We will be
happy to respond to any questions or concerns you might have.