Spring 2025 progress exhibition and related engagement
Overview
In the spring of 2025, Sound Transit continued partnering with the City of Seattle to share progress on the South Downtown Hub (SDH) plan.
Over the past year and a half, the project team engaged with community members to gather insights, concerns, and ideas about how to make South Downtown neighborhoods more accessible, safer, and better connected.
Through public workshops, small community-focused meetings, online surveys, exhibitions, and informational materials, we’ve heard top priorities and themes included safety, green space, and balancing continuity and transformation. These themes helped us create updated design concepts and potential improvement projects to bring back to the community.
The latest progress for SDH reflected the months of coordination with other agencies and public engagement efforts. The spring 2025 engagement included a public open house, a self-guided exhibition, a multilingual online survey, and a guided tour for older adults living in Chinatown-International District (CID).
These efforts, like earlier ones, aimed to involve the community in shaping the SDH plan, which focuses on practical improvements to streets, public spaces, and transit connections in the CID, Pioneer Square, and surrounding neighborhoods.
Spring 2025 engagement highlights
The spring 2025 engagement efforts began with an open house on April 2 at Union Station. More than 150 community members attended. Attendees were asked for their thoughts on whether the project concepts were headed in the right direction and if there were suggestions for further refinement.
The event also kicked off a six-week exhibition featuring the proposed SDH plan vision and updated project design concepts. The concepts reflected feedback from previous workshops and engagement, as well as technical analysis and interagency collaboration.
After the open house, the project team launched an online survey to gather more community input. It was available in English, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese, making it accessible to a broader audience. The survey gave people who couldn’t attend the event a chance to share their thoughts on the updated designs. More than 200 people responded. The project team also led a tour of the exhibition in Cantonese and Mandarin for 26 older adult residents in the CID and gathered their feedback. The exhibition at Union Station remained open to the public for further input through mid-May.
Overall summary of feedback
We heard the following major themes from all feedback gathered through attendees at the open house and tour, post-it notes on the exhibition, and the online survey:
- Support for greater transit integration that connects existing transportation hubs for light rail, bus, and regional transit
- Support for prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists with protected bike lanes, improved walkways, and more wayfinding
- Support for better lighting and other safety features around transit stations
- Desire for cleaner public spaces, including added greenery
- Desire for faster project implementation
- Interest in using Union Station for community activities
Next steps
The project team will utilize the community’s feedback, along with technical analysis and coordination with partner agencies, to inform the planning of how to implement the proposed improvements in the SDH vision. We will publish a final plan with project implementation details in early 2026.
Just like a stitch joins pieces of fabric, the concept for the area around 2nd Ave Ext S, 4th Ave S, and S Jackson St aims to strengthen connections between neighborhoods throughout South Downtown – which is why we are calling it the “Stitch.”
We heard universal interest in transformative changes to streets and public spaces in the Central Hub area during last year’s community conversations, including a plaza conversion of 2nd Ave Ext S between S Jackson St and 4th Ave S.
Further design development, traffic analysis, and interagency coordination revealed significant challenges of a complete closure of 2nd Ave Ext S to vehicles. The project team created a solution that prioritizes people walking, biking, and taking transit on 2nd Ave Ext S while permitting vehicular traffic. The proposed concept for the “Stitch” focus area also featured:
- Design for improved experience for pedestrians, including more greenery, expanded and more visible crossings, and revised signal timing
- New access and entry points to regional rail service
The Stitch feedback
The feedback received from the spring 2025 engagement showed support for the proposed plan in the Stitch focus area. When asked about changes or improvements to the concepts, participants shared:
- Support for prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists including protected bike lanes, wayfinding, and pedestrian-only areas
- Support for greater transit integration to make connections between Sounder, light rail, Amtrak, and buses easier
- Support for street reconfiguration by reducing vehicle lanes on 2nd Ave Ext S and S Jackson St and adding traffic-calming features
- Desire for safer and cleaner public spaces including added greenery and lighting and security cameras
- Desire for closure of 2nd Ave Ext S to vehicles in favor of more people-focused public space
We heard interest in transformative changes to streets and public spaces in the Central Hub focus area during last year’s community conversations. The proposed concept for the Central focus area featured:
- Improve safety and accessibility in and around Union Station
- More functional use of Union Station for large events and regular programming
- More walkable and safer neighborhood
Central focus area feedback
The feedback received from the spring 2025 engagement showed support for the proposed plan in the Central focus area. When asked about changes or improvements to the concepts, participants shared:
- Support for improving security through visible police presence, better lighting, and added safety features for pedestrians
- Support for increasing connectivity between transit lines (Link, Sounder, and Metro) with pedestrian tunnels and stations that offer seamless transfers
- Support for creating more pedestrian-only spaces, including pedestrianizing King Street and activating plazas
- Desire from older adult residents in using Union Station for community activities including dance practice, badminton, tai chi, mahjong, and more
We heard interest in transformative changes to the function and design of streets to create more public space and walkable connections in this area during last year’s community conversations. The proposed concept for the South focus area featured:
- Safer streets and sidewalks through added lighting and protected bike lanes
- Better east/west connections to Pioneer Square and Stadium District
- Realignment of streets to create more opportunity for public space and community-serving development
South focus area feedback
While we heard a range of support levels through the exhibition, the feedback received from the spring 2025 engagement showed support for the proposed plan in the South focus area. When asked about changes or improvements to the concepts, participants shared:
- Desire for seamless connections between light rail, bus, and other regional transit options
- Support for better walkways, bike lanes, and traffic calming measures
- Desire for equitable community and economic development, including affordable housing and support for local businesses
We heard interest in transformative changes to transit and public spaces in this area during last year’s community conversations. The proposed concept for the North focus area featured:
- Park activation at City Hall Park, as well as better connections to and from the park
- Improvements to how people can use and enjoy the plaza and park spaces
- Greater transportation hub connections on 4th Ave S
- Easier connections up hills through pedestrian hill climb
- Transit-oriented development, including housing for various income levels and community-serving retail
North focus area feedback
While we had some participants note that they did not support or felt neutral about the proposed plans in the North focus area, the general feedback received from the spring 2025 engagement showed support for the proposed plan. When asked about changes or improvements to the concepts, participants shared:
- Desire for better lighting and security measures near the potential future light rail station area
- Support for a designing the Midtown station to link directly with existing transportation hubs
Spring 2025 progress materials
- South Downtown Hub spring 2025 progress materials:
[English + Traditional Chinese]
[Simplified Chinese]
[Vietnamese]