Bellevue City Council members last week put the Light Rail Best Practices Committee on a fast track to finish a nearly year-long effort that will help the council prepare for a proposed light rail system in Bellevue.

Officials want to use recommendations based on a Light Rail Best Practices Report to help them amend the city’s comprehensive plan before Sound Transit releases a draft environmental impact statement on East Link, which would extend light rail from Seattle to Bellevue. Having the amendments in place could help Bellevue influence future decisions by Sound Transit.

At their May 27 study session, council members mapped out a tentative schedule that would have the Light Rail Best Practices Committee conclude its work and issue a final report by June 17. The Planning Commission would hold a public hearing on July 9 and forward its recommendations to the council by July 23. Council members hope to take comments on the report until July 28, then adopt comprehensive plan amendments on Aug. 4, before their summer break.

Formed in July 2007, Bellevue’s Light Rail Best Practices Committee was a response to community concerns about what Sound Transit’s proposed light rail extension could mean for Bellevue. Since then, the council-appointed committee has conducted monthly meetings to take comments from people interested in the issue and observed first-hand the light rail systems in Portland, San Diego and San Jose.

The purpose of the Best Practices project has been to learn from the experiences of other cities and to create a set of “best practices” for developing light rail in Bellevue. The committee’s report contains recommendations on a range of actions, including draft comprehensive plan amendments.

A “Roads and Transit” measure that would have extended light rail through Bellevue to the Overlake area of Redmond was voted down in November 2007, but a transit-only measure could appear on the ballot in November of this year. Sound Transit’s board will decide by the end of July whether to seek voter approval for an East Link project.

For more information about the Light Rail Best Practices project, visit the city of Bellevue Web site at www.bellevuewa.gov/light_rail_best_practices_info.htm. For information about Sound Transit and East Link, visit www.soundtransit.org/x3245.xml