Tacoma, Wash.'s City Council, in its latest move to advance plans to extend the Tacoma Link streetcar line an additional 2.4 miles, approved an additional station site and the study to relocate a second station at its meeting Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014.
A seventh new station has bee identified as "MLK/Division Avenue Station."
The Tacoma Link Expansion also includes expanding the existing operations and maintenance facility located at 802 E. 25th Street near the Tacoma Dome Station.
The adjusted site would relocate the existing Theater District Station about 400 feet to a new location, identified as Old City Hall Station (see map at right).
The Council's approval of up to seven stations clears the way for regional operator Sound Transit to apply for a $75 million federal grant for the extension, currently pegged to cost $165 million.
Last January the Tacoma City Council informally endorsed an extension along Stadium Way, as preferred by a plurality of city residents weighing in on the matter. Voters approved an extension in November 2008. Tacoma Link began operating in August 2003.
A Sound Transit document notes: "The City of Tacoma identified 11 economic development opportunities within a five-minute walk of the corridor, with an estimated value of $321 million."