Capitol Hill Complete Streetcar Campaign
The First Hill Streetcar is a future streetcar line that will run from the International District through First Hill to Capitol Hill.
After broad outreach and discussion, CHCC Complete Streetcar Campaign has identified two principles we’d like to see implemented as part of this project:
Complete The Streetcar
- Extend the streetcar North of Denny
- Serve the Entire Broadway Business district
- Connect to Volunteer Park + the Asian Art Museum
- Secure funding to complete design work for the extension now
Complete the Street
- Reclaim the right of way on Broadway for pedestrians bicycles and transit
- Eliminate the center turning lane except at major intersections
- Cycle track line
- Intersection bulb line
- Broadway is not a thoroughfare; it is a destination. Our streetscape should reflect this.
Benefits of the plan
The plan offers the ability to:
- Calm Traffic
- Maintain existing levels of on-street parking
- Provide narrow pedestrian crossings
- Provide world-class bike infrastructure
- Consolidate streetcar and metro bus stops saving resources and making the system easier to understand and use.
- Decrease costs and construction impacts by doing streetscape improvements and streetcar construction at the same time.
This project will fundamentally transform the character of Capitol Hill. The Capitol Hill Community Council welcomes this change and believes this project can make a significant contribution to Capitol Hill’s long-standing neighborhood goals and values. It is critical that we do not miss this once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring a transformative change to Seattle’s largest, densest and most vibrant urban neighborhoods.
Planning history
In spring of 2009, Mike McGinn, then executive director of the Seattle Great City Initiative, kicked off Great City’s Streets for People campaign. Many Capitol Hill residents were inspired by this bold vision and began to discuss how we might apply these visionary concepts to Broadway. As one of Seattle’s most vibrant pedestrian‑oriented retail streets at the heart of one of Seattle’s densest neighborhoods, Broadway is the ideal place to push the boundaries with this bold vision.
The City funded a $30,000 consultant report as part of Capitol Hill’s ongoing planning effort around transit-oriented development. A key recommendation of this report was to “reclaim the streets”. It specifically identifies pedestrian and bicycle improvements on Broadway as a vital part of making any transit‑oriented development plan successful.
In the fall and winter of 2009 the Policy and Planning Committee of the Capitol Hill Community Council put together a set of proposals for reclaiming the street on Capitol Hill. In January of 2010, a packed meeting of the Community Council unanimously approved these recommendations in the form of a letter to the City Council and the Mayors office. The CHCC also formed the Complete Streetcar Campaign in order to coordinate our outreach efforts to public officials, businesses, and community groups. Already one of our recommendations, that of keeping the streetcar on Broadway North of Union has been adopted by SDOT. With your help we can achieve our other goals of completing the streetcar and completing the street.