The City’s plan to connect the Burke-Gilman Trail along Shilshole has come up against yet another challenge.

For over a decade, the City has tried to connect the missing 1.4-mile segment of the trail between the Ballard Locks and Ballard Bridge. Their preferred route would be to build the trail along Shilshole Ave NW, but that plan has been challenged again and again by several industry and business owners in Ballard, known as the Ballard Coalition. The Coalition instead want the trail to be built on NW Market Street and Leary Avenue, away from the industrial traffic of Shilshole.

SDOT’s preferred trail alignment along Shilshole

Now, the Coalition has successfully challenged the City’s shoreline substantial development permit.

Josh Brower, Ballard Coalition’s lawyer, says the Washington State Shoreline Hearing Board has revoked the City’s permit, which means the City must apply for and obtain a new permit before proceeding with construction.

“The Coalition will closely monitor the City’s actions in applying for and obtaining any new permit and will likely again appeal it to the SHB because the Missing Link is incompatible with Ballard’s working maritime and industrial waterfront and the water-dependent and water-related businesses that have been there for decades if not a century, providing family-wage and union-wage jobs for Seattle,” Brower said in an email to Coalition members.

Ethan Bergerson from the Seattle Department of Transportation says they’re waiting for the written order from the Shorelines Hearings Board to inform the department’s next steps.

“We remain committed to completing these critical safety enhancements along the missing link as part of our larger goal of building a safe connected city for everyone and for all the ways that people get around,” Bergerson said via email to My Ballard.

SDOT will continue to work on aspects of the Ballard Multimodal Corridor, including the improvements along NW Market St.