At last night's Bellevue City Council meeting, council members moved a step closer to approving an agreement to build a tunnel through downtown Bellevue, but voted to hold off three more weeks before making a final decision on an agreement with Sound Transit to build a tunnel through downtown Bellevue, the Bellevue Reporter reports . The proposal endorsed by the council includes an elevated crossing of 112th Ave. SE, where light rail skeptics on the council have argued an at-grade crossing would produce intolerable noise.

The agreement between Sound Transit and the city would require Bellevue to pay for as much as $160 million of the $300 million tunnel.

Council members also voted 6-1 in favor of a motion by Kevin Wallace, the council's most vocal opponent of Sound Transit's preferred route, to do a "total take" of about 50 homes along the alignment instead of taking a sliver of some properties for rail right-of-way, KING 5 reports.