The City of Seattle has quietly begun notifying neighbors and neighboring businesses around ten Capitol Hill locations where planners have applied to place stations for the new Pronto bike share system slated to begin service across Seattle later this year.

UPDATE 7/22/14 4:50 PM: Pronto planners say the addresses listed in the SDOT permit database aren’t quite accurate. More at bottom of this post. UPDATE x2: Executive director Holly Houser tells CHS the locations we mapped did, indeed, have Pronto station permits filed with the city but that all of the locations may not end up being part of the service. “We applied for 75 permits for the 50 stations we need,” Houser said. “Some are secondary in case the first choice doesn’t work out.” She said the city has already come back asking for alternatives for around 10 planned stations that would “displace too much parking.” In addition to the SDOT public comment period, Houser said Pronto has an “outreach team” talking with businesses in the area of each planned station. “We’re going to every single business within a block radius,” she said.

A permit notice from the proposed station near 14th and John is below. The ten locations where permits have been submitted are spread across the core of the Hill with an apparent focus on grocery stores — four of the ten are located near Safeway, two QFCs, Central Co-op and a Trader Joe’s. There will be a station adjacent Cal Anderson Park but not Volunteer Park.

With concerns about how an open, point-to-point bike share service will perform on Seattle’s hilly terrain, seven of the ten planned Hill stations are located at Broadway-elevation or higher. All are planned to replace at least one street parking space to make room for the rental racks and service kiosk installations.

Boosted by a major sponsorship from Alaska Airlines, Seattle’s system lags behind programs in several other major cities. Seattle’s new system will begin with 500 bikes. Each station will have docks for 12 to 20 bikes and will feature a kiosk where non-members can sign up for 24-hour, or multiday passes, and or access bikes using a code. Those who pay $85 for an annual membership will be able to bypass the kiosk and check bikes out directly from their docks. In order for Pronto to operate in compliance with Washington helmet laws, each station will also have a “helmet dispensing” device, and a helmet return bin. Helmets will be available to rent for $2, will be sanitized after each use, and cycled out after a certain number of uses. A 24-hour pass will cost $8 or you can get three days for $16. Planners are collecting feedback on possible station locations from the community but have not yet announced the permit applications.

The permit notices include a September 1st start date.

UPDATE: Pronto director Holly Houser says the planned station addresses from the permit database we published aren’t completely accurate:

“Not only is it inaccurate in regards to specific locations,” says Pronto Cycle Share Director Holly Houser, “but it also shows both primary and secondary sites, so is somewhat misrepresentative of what the final network will look like.”

UPDATE 7/24/14: Pronto has released an updated list of planned Capitol Hill locations and a description of how the system will keep the community up to date on changes here:

Pronto! Emerald City Cycle Share, Seattle’s bike share system, has been authorized by the City under a program term permit. In accordance with the term permit, the non-profit operator of the system has submitted the following Street Use permit applications to install and maintain bike share stations in the right-of-way. Applications have been submitted for both primary and alternate station locations. Each station would feature bicycle docks, a solar-powered kiosk, and a helmet vending machine. Public notices of these applications have been posted at the proposed station sites in locations visible from the sidewalk. The system vendor, Alta Bicycle Share, has also conducted direct outreach with properties adjacent to the proposed bike share station locations.

The following tables are updated every Monday and Thursday afternoon.

Here’s the Capitol Hill portion of the table, below. We’ve updated our map at the top of this post and will add adjacent neighborhoods soon.