Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and welcome to the February Parks and Community Services board meeting. Steve is unable to attend tonight's meeting, and Paul Clark is joining remotely. We are at quorum, and so this meeting is now called to order. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

I so move.

Thank you. A second? I second. Alright. Let's vote. All in favor to approve tonight's agenda, say aye.

Aye. Any

opposed, say no. K. The agenda is approved unanimously. Next up is the approval of minutes from the Park Board's January 2026 meeting. Is there a motion to approve the January 2026 meeting minutes? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. Let's vote. All in favor to approve the January 2026 meeting minutes, say aye.

Aye. Thank

you. Any opposed, say no. The minutes are unanimously approved. Next up is oral communications. The Parks and Community Services Board values community input and looks forward to hearing from you during its meeting.

Please be aware that in compliance with Washington state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during an election, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for an election, which includes your own campaign. Any speaker who begins discussing topics of this nature will be asked to stop. There are rules adopted by the City Council limiting the topics about which the public may speak during our meetings. Under Ordinance 6,752, the public may only speak during public comment about subject matters that are related to City of Bellevue government and are within the power and duties of the Parks and Community Services Board. Following the Board's bylaws, the total time allowed for oral communication shall not exceed thirty minutes.

Each speaker will be allowed to speak one time for up to three minutes. We will follow the order in which individuals signed up. If you do not get a chance to speak this evening, you are always invited to email your comments to us at parkboardbellviewwah dot gov. Now I'll turn it over to Cameron, who will read names from the online and in person sign in sheets.

Thank you. We have one person preregistered this evening. That's Neil Hines.

Good evening, and I wanna thank you for making the adjustment about what speakers can say at the meeting. I think that's a a great idea. I came to express two comments about parks matters that I wanted to deliver in person to the commission here. First is connection of the East Trail to existing Bellevue Parks. I think it's gonna be a critical matter to help pedestrians and bicyclists access the East Trail, which is making great progress.

I bike commute on it myself. Notably, Newcastle Beach Park is a very steep access to the to the East Trail, and I'm glad to see that it was paved over because last year, it had a lot of ruts in it, and the steepness is still there. Wilburton, I think, would be an ideal park also to have connection to the East Trail. It's gonna be a major thorough fail for runners, pedestrians, bikers. So I just wanted to put that out there.

And then the other point that I wanted to bring up to the commission here was encouraging the opportunity for groups to volunteer with parks. When I looked at the Bellevue webpage, I counted 12 activities that people can volunteer on, and only one of those I really saw as appealing to groups, and that was for seniors during work hours, probably because park staff want to have a presence during work hours, but I think there's a rich potential for support of Bellevue Parks in volunteer opportunities in weekends, and this would also help to reduce O and M costs for the park. Trail maintenance during the pandemic, I was amazed to see some of the degradation of the trails. I've seen that in other park systems, and I

know that Bellevue has a pretty active group of volunteers, very educated. I'm on

the Stream team myself. I see no shortage of hours there. It's a matter of the staff and the people power to connect hours to the the activities. So in summary, I think that's about it. Those are just my 2¢, and thanks for listening.

Thank you.

Online is in Zoom. I'll go over to to the room if there's anyone else who would like to

Thank you. Alright. That concludes oral communications. Next up on the agenda is, city council communication. So tonight, we welcome a new council liaison, council member Noreen Breyer. So welcome. And, oh, I kind of awkward. And one second. Sorry. And we also have the pleasure of having our prior council liaison here tonight, deputy mayor Hamilton. We're gonna miss working with you, Dave. Congratulations on your new role and all the support you've provided us. And I'll turn it over to you real quick for

Thank you. Sorry to, interrupt, but I didn't wanna miss the chance to come down and just personally thank all of you. Got a long, really fun and interesting association with the Parks board and had a chance to serve with many of you. Every two years, we do a little bit of shuffling on council and reassign liaison positions. Luckily for you, you've been upgraded with council member Breyer, who has already turned out to be just a really wonderful addition to the council, super engaged, super smart, right on top of things, really interested in in being engaged.

So you are gonna be well taken care of, by council member Breyer. And the rest of us too, on the council are always interested in what's going on with parks. We talk about it all the time, so it's really a main feature of the city. I've really enjoyed working with you and and being a part of this, and I'm gonna be moving over to transportation. But I think my heart's gonna always be with parks, and we we talk a fair amount about that.

So I think this is a wonderful group to be a part of, and I really appreciated all the chance that I had to be a part of it. So just wanted to be sure to have a little official goodbye. I'm not going very far. So, you know, anytime there's anything I could do for anyone, don't hesitate to reach out, and I'm sure I'll see all of you around it something or other. So that's

it.

Thank Thank you all.

Thank you, deputy Mayer. Thank

you. Yeah, Paul.

Good

evening, folks. It's an honor to be here. My name is council member Noreen Breyer. So quick intro, I was working at Facebook prior to joining the council, was doing AI ethics and policy there. Prior to that, was working on human rights work at an international level in Iraq and Syria. And, I'm particularly excited to be here because, I studied political philosophy in Boston. And when we're in Boston, we studied the inception of the first public park in The United States and what conditions led to the creation of it, the works of Frederick Law Olmsted and and others. So I really do firmly believe you're conducting god's work here. So deputy mayor said you'd be in good hands with me. I think it's the opposite. I'm in good hands with you all and and looking to to forward to learning a lot from you. So thanks for having me again.

Thank you, council member Breyer. Oh, and then just curious if there was any city communication you wanted to relay.

Yeah. Also, I should've started that. Well, I don't have any substantial updates from the council. Our recent focus has been the affordable housing strategy and the economic development plan. So nothing yet, but we'll update you accordingly.

Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much, and welcome to the board. And then during communications, we'll take a moment and everyone can introduce themselves to you as well. With that, let's jump into the director's report, and so we'll turn it over to assistant director Cameron Parker for the director's report tonight.

Thank you. Just a couple things to note. At your place, you have a copy of our 2022 levy, for parks and open space report. This was a presentation, several months back, when we talked about sort of putting this together and and thought we'd share the final product with you. This is available on our web page as well.

And then in the next edition of the It's Your City newspaper that's sent out to all Bellevue residents, there'll be a sort of a feature article as, as well about and with links to this report. It's something we're planning on doing, probably every couple years just to give, Bellevue residents sort of update on all the projects that are, benefiting from, from levy support. So if you have any questions about any of the content in there, you can, you let me know. On a related note, we have also just completed a project to get all of our active CIP projects mapped and available on our web page as well that was noted in the the CIP report in the the packet with a a link to that, which is just a great feature, not only for parks and community services, but other departments as well, transportation and utilities. You can kind of get a sense of what's going on geographically around the city with different projects, so it's worth a look.

Then you also have a it's just a little little in advance, but you can mark your calendars for sheep sharing, all always a a very popular event if you wanna see thousands of super excited children and more tired parents. That's usually what I witness when I go to sheep shearing, but a great community event and always looking for reasons to spend some time at Kelsey Creek Farm. Lastly, I did want to also just recognize we we had talked in previous meetings about the retirement of our director, Michael Shiyosaki. So he is we've sent him off. About a week after that, we had another retirement in Parks and Community Services, an employee by the name of Ted in our recreation division who worked for the city for over forty years in parks and community services.

So just wanted to note that Ted's gonna go spend a lot more time with his grandkids, but he was very much into bicycling and was kind of the architect of the lake to lake bike ride event that we've had for many years. It's an annual event as well as supervising a lot of our youth recreation programs. Just wanted to note that milestone. And, with that, I'll turn it back over.

Thank you so much, Cameron. Does anyone have any questions, Cameron? Oh, go ahead, Elizabeth.

Are we still planning the late to late

Oh, that's a good I should have been prepared to answer that with that not here. We'll find out.

Thanks get this year.

Oh, not this year. Okay.

Bummer. Well, thank you.

Yep.

Thank you.

Cameron?

Yes.

I noticed in the CIP, neat dashboard, that there is a piece of information on Ennetai Beach Park sorry. Ennetai Neighborhood Park about a tennis court renovation, and I was curious, if there was any sort of pickleball allocation there.

The plan I don't know if we have a set plan yet, but the court itself needs a fair amount of work and some reorienting.

It does. It does. Oh, some re some reorienting. That's interesting. So is it gonna be rotated?

If if you're aware with that park, there's a very narrow sidewalk, and the tennis court actually is extending into the right of way a bit. So we're gonna try and resolve that.

I see.

So there's some design work to do there, but we will certainly, as with all of our our courts, look at what the options are for for court sports, including pickleball.

Mhmm. Okay.

Thank you.

Mhmm.

Okay. Yes. Thanks thanks again, Cameron, for, yeah, recognizing Michael and Ted's retirement. And and then calling out the the ArcGIS map, it's really fun to zoom into what's nearby and what's going on near your neighborhood. And I thought it was very intuitive and interactive. So thank you for sharing. Alright. So the next item on the agenda is board communications. In addition to our normal communications, if maybe we could all provide a quick intro to council member Nareen about ourselves as well, I think that would be a fun way to kinda start our meeting.

Can I ask a question? Oh, go for it. Can you all tell me your favorite park and one thing that could enhance the parks as well? I'd love to hear that. Okay.

K. Might need a moment. Who and then who wants to go first? Parikh and then we go around this way? Oh, wait. Okay. Or okay. Alright. Sorry to put you on the spot, Eric.

Oh, that's me. Eric

Griever. Been on the board now for about seven months. Bellevue resident for about twenty three years. And favorite park, I'm gonna be boring with this one, and I'm gonna say Robbinswood. And I only say Robbins because it's so popular, but I have fond memories of it because I have two boys that played little league, played soccer in the Bellevue system, and they spent we spent so much of our time there in the rain, especially come soccer season. So so that would be probably my favorite park because I've got memories tied to it.

One thing to enhance our parks?

Oh, one thing to enhance our parks. Quite honestly, I think that Bellevue does a fantastic job of its maintenance program far better than any park system I've ever ever seen that part of their maintenance is always looking at ways to enhance like we just discussed, about, changing up the tennis courts and all that. So I don't know that I have any specific enhancements. As you know well, you may not know Robinswood right now is undergoing a bunch of construction and renovation and maintenance and enhancement. So, I would leave it with that. So thank you.

Great insight.

Alright. Hey, Noreen. Michelle Valverde. I'm originally from Puerto Rico, so I'm from Puerto Rico. I moved to The US. Boston actually spent ten years there, and I've been in Bellevue now for the last nine years. Been with the parks board, I think, a little over two years, but I might be completely forgetting how long it's been. I have two small girls, six and three. So I spend a lot of my times in all of the parks, especially the ones with, you know, kids play areas. Definitely a little bit biased towards those topics.

And, you know, I'll talk a little bit more about my ideas for enhancements, I would say, around that in particular, which, again, is kind of the feature that I use the most. I would say, I think more available lighting in different parks. And, you know, again, we do have a lot of rainy weather and then having play areas that are are also accessible, like, during the rainy season, which is a lot of season, would be so awesome for me so my kids can go to the park more when they want to. So other than that, I think we offer a lot of great programs, right, like summer camps, different, like, break activities. The demand is so high.

I want so much more. I was so very lucky to get my daughter into the art camp that's happening now in the NorthWorth Art Arts Center and, again, like, got a a waitlist spot. And, ultimately, I think, you know, there could be more opportunity to to offer more. So

thank you. Nice to meet you. Aileen? I'll go at the end.

Hi. My name is Aileen Cho. I've been living in Bellevue for almost twenty years. I think I moved in around 2006. Before that, I lived in Redmond and raised both my kids through the Bellevue School District, been on the board for two years.

Elizabeth and I started on the same time. So I was a graduate of Bellevue Essential of 2022. So that's almost two and a half or three years ago time. The first six months when I was on the board, I actually spent time to visit every park. Like, I went through the list of the website, and and I checked out the ones I already been to, and I think I've been to maybe a third just through my kids' activities and all that.

So now for the rest of two thirds, my husband and I just spend weekends or weeknights. We just plan out, you know, one spot and then plan around the parks around that area. So one thing I think I mentioned before is that, especially for the parks that are named after a certain individual, I would like to have more description in the park itself. So when people visit, like Zumbiac, for example, it has a name, but it doesn't quite have a description of what that means. And so I thought, since we already named like, for these names that has more meaning behind it, I think it would be great to kind of showcase this more to our residents.

So that's my my my suggestions. Oh, and another thing is actually there was an incident that I Hidden Valley Park, they have a tennis court, and then right now it's divided that you can also use for pickleball court. So a couple weeks ago, my friend called me because they saw damage on court. So I went over. Looks like some people probably used very heavy bike, and it was doing, like, loops and dug into the court.

And so you could see gravel on some of the the spots. So half the court I mean, it's still usable, but if the ball bounced on it, it it's gonna be, you know, kind of dead spot. So I already emailed a picture to Cameron and forward to maintenance. But I was thinking, like, you know, obviously, we don't know who did it. You know, I don't even know how to see.

But if we have some hot tip line or community report line, maybe some people could report in, things like that. Just disappointing to see a beautiful park being damaged like this. And, you know, it just it costs more money to fix it. And yeah. So so that's kind of another thing that was kind of on my mind, like, how can we I mean, I think Cameron mentioned that the maintenance department keeps track of this kind of behavior. If there's a pattern, then maybe we'll do something about it. But I just don't know what else we can do. But community line was something that I thought if we could implement something like that, like post in different parks if you see something suspicious or that

you could report. So thank you. Welcome. Okay.

I'll jump right in. Welcome, Noreen. Glad to have you. This is this is definitely the most fun community board in my opinion. I mean, it's parks. I've enjoyed serving on it. I've been on the board for, I think, about three years now since 02/2023.

Yeah.

We all joined around the same time.

Maybe May. February.

Yeah.

This coming May.

Yeah. Native of the Pacific Northwest. I moved to Bellevue in 2013. '13, so I've been here now about thirteen years in in Bellevue itself. And my favorite park is the park we live near, which is Weona Park. I love the name because Weona Park. I love the old growth. It is just a very special place. If you're there in the morning with a fog, it's it's gorgeous. One thing that I think we can improve, and this ties to what Aileen was saying as as well as helping people understand the value of parks and really making sure that they are making good decisions.

For example, keeping your dogs on leash at that park. It feels so wild, so why wouldn't a dog, you know, be its true wild self? And I get it, but there's a lot of other dogs. So we need to help people make good decisions, and signage, I think, is part of that. You know, just reminding people, hey, here's the consequence. Similarly, mountain biking I see increasing in Wiona Park, which seems harmless, but, of course, the bike has to seed way to the pedestrians. So there's really not a lot of fun to be had in downhill mountain biking in that park if you're really seeding to pedestrians. So just thinking about what kind of signage we could have would be great. And that that goes for all of our parks, you know, letting people know, hey. Here's the consequences, and this is your park, and how can you be a part of that?

So that's one thing I'd look for. I did have also my report. I wanted to talk this isn't specifically to your question about the weather. So there's very little snow in the mountains, and there's the macro climate change that's going on. And, you know, it could be a weird year, But this has led my one of my kids to develop a new sport, which is skateboarding. And very, very grateful for the skateboarding parks that we have here around Bellevue because this has really rescued the winter for her. And I just wanted to shout out to the different opportunities they have to skateboard around town. On the other hand, I have also seen a reduction in water in the stream. I mentioned this to Cameron before the call. It's very low.

It's lower now, I think, than we would typically see in early June. The water's just not flowing even when it's well above freezing. And so it's really concerning, and I wanted to learn more about xeriscaping and what we're doing to reduce the amount of water usage. We have quite a few green lawns, and they are awesome. I love the green lawns to have a picnic. But how can we start thinking about a lower water future so we're not putting all of that water in the summertime onto these spaces when we need it in our rivers and our lakes. So that's what I've been thinking about over this very dry and weirdly sunny February.

Thanks, Elizabeth. Paul, would you like to go next?

Sure.

So we we've talked a number of times. So I'll just say welcome, council member Pryor, and not bore you with the, bio. The I cannot echo enough, Elizabeth, board member Kronos, comments about off leash dog, noncompliance, at a number of our parks, especially downtown, as well as fast moving vehicles, whether they're ebikes, mountain bikes, whatever. I think it's creating a real anti inclusive element in those parks, that, require, I think, significantly more enforcement. I think we can we can do messaging.

We should do messaging, signage. Whatever else we can do is welcome, but I think that the carrot won't be sufficient in this case, especially and the surprises some people that we have significant, we we've gotten numerous reports of the the fact that there is a, informal grouping of folks at, downtown Park that run their dogs off leash and have essentially told each other that they'll pool resources if a ticket is ever, issued. So, I mean, we've we've got a tough nut to crack there. I think we need something that was proposed but didn't make it through the last budget cycle was additional funding for a full time King County Animal Control individual to to do more ticketing and enforcement, and I think that would be welcome. But, in addition to that, I didn't say favorite parks.

It's not all negative. I really love Ashwood Park. Really love what's gonna happen there. Lived over ten years within a stone's throw of the park and still live just about five blocks from there. So can't say enough good things about that as well as the changes that are coming and what I'm really looking forward to and the excellent job that the department has done in terms of designing and really meeting the community's expressed desire for for that space. So with that, welcome. Thank you.

Thanks, Paul. I'll go next. Hi. My name is Rowena Klima. I've been on the board for four years. Before I was on the board, I was, I had just, completed the Bellevue Naturalist Training Program, and it's a program by the natural resources division, where you learn about the local ecology. And then afterwards, you get to help rangers facilitate environment educate environmental education programs for kids or work on environmental stewardship projects. And then from there, I learned about and joined the parks board. And then and then I joined Bellevue's essentials along with Hailene and Paul. Let's see.

I was gonna oh, my favorite park is I live near Woodlawn Park, and I have a dog. So love taking my dog on the off leash area, and there's a fun trail north of it near, between the park and, the freeway that, it's pretty amazing. You kinda feel like you're immersed, like, out in the wild with it. So definitely recommend checking that park out. And then in terms of enhancement, I was gonna mention, I really I've heard a lot about, off leash dogs, and so I really appreciate the pop up off leash dog program where, the city is testing new sites for potential off leash areas.

And so I would love to see that continue. And then and then my Bellevue Naturalist side, if there was some way we could convince people not to plant invasive ivy because those that's really harmful for our parks. So, yeah, really discur I I think the the state of Washington recently banned the sale of it, which is good. But doing things to, yeah, discourage the use of or the plantings of invasive plants would be really awesome. And so that's kind oh, go ahead.

Can I add on to mine? I wanna make sure it makes sense to the minutes. I'm sorry. I forgot to mention, I received the volunteer resource guide from the human services folks before I came to this meeting, and I just wanted to say thank you. I've only had a chance to look through it, but it's awesome. And it has an email for all of those opportunities, which is just what we asked for. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. We kinda skipped a bit. Yeah. And

maybe this is more of a follow-up that we can do offline. But in terms of you know, typically, right, the parks where we have a goal, right, to, you know, have a particular percentage of, you know, communities have access to to parks, you know you know, walking distance. I know I'm not sure if the parks and the facilities included in schools is part of that measure or not or if, you know, how much we rely on particular school facilities to kind of cover certain areas of of what we we wanna have our community members, have access to. But I know that, recently in, some of our at least at Spirit Ridge and Phantom Lake, there have been some security incidents around campuses, and schools have are wanting to shut down access or public access to the facilities, right, like the playgrounds and stuff, like, after hours. So, ultimately, I know some family members are like, that was my that was my park or that's where you know, that's what I used and had my kids go to given, you know, access.

So I wasn't sure if, you know, there was something we could do or, you know, ultimately, you know, how do we know which parks remain open and accessible, from the community? I know this is a school kind of outreach. I'm happy to help follow-up on this. But I know that was a concern that somebody, or at least in a mom group chat, came up with parks being closed and not accessible. So

So for our the walkable access level service that we have, we do not include school district facilities just because that while they can be a great resource for neighborhoods, they aren't always guaranteed and and, don't have just the the same level of access as the the city park system. So we have at the same time, they do often provide that service at a neighborhood level, so that's, valuable. And, it is always a kind of a, area of interest for us to work with the school district in in making their facilities as open and available as possible, but still acknowledging that we we don't have a lot of control there.

Yes. Oh, and I had one small communication I wanted to ask. At our last meeting, during public comment, there were some children who talked about an asphalt bike park request. And, Cameron, I'm not sure if you have anything could share about that request.

Yeah. We we did reach out to them to get the copy of their of what they had shared at the meeting and, directed them toward our, upcoming update for our park system plan, which will be kicking off, in a few months, the second half of this year, sort of the best venue for them, to to advance that idea as a need within the community.

Thank you, Cameron. Did anyone else have any comment? Because we might have forgotten it during intros. Alright. With that, we'll we'll conclude board communications and then move on to the next item of the agenda, which will be the Bell Red West tributary master plan kickoff And presenting this oh, that was oh, yep. Presenting this is Zarian Smith, capital project coordinator and White Thompson, park planning and development manager. Thank you for joining us tonight.

Good evening, board. My name is Wyatt Thompson. This is my first opportunity to, introduce an item, for you this evening. So I appreciate the opportunity, to be here, and introduce our newest upcoming park and a new neighborhood park in the Bell Red Neighborhood. And so we're we're kicking off that planning process.

And through that process, we'll be looking to you to advise as as part of your duties on the board for the master plan as well as for the park naming. And so as we move through this process, we will eventually return to you with a a request for your recommendation for the master plan as well as the name to be forwarded on to the city council. And, certainly, as we move through our process, we'll have lots of opportunities for community engagement, and we would invite you to participate in as many of those, as you are able to. So with that, I will turn it over to Zarian Smith, our project manager, who is overseeing the planning process.

Thank you. Hello, everyone. So our agenda tonight, I'm just gonna briefly walk through a background of this project, followed up by our typical park development process and, public outreach and engagement, and then an estimated timeline, for this project and then next steps after that. Oops. Okay.

So we're looking at to the right. The map on the right is a vicinity map of the city with, the general Bell Red area outlined in black and the red star depicting the approximate location of the project site. The map to the left is a zoomed in, version of that map. The project site itself is located, roughly between 124th Avenue and 130th Avenue with, border border to the North by the sound transit line and to the South by some private businesses including the Coca Cola plant on Bell Red Way. The city originally acquired this property years ago for the purposes of providing and supporting services of multi multiple departments, including utilities, transportation, and future park development.

BellRed area also has a subarea plan that was recently updated in 2024. Portions of that subarea plan included a robust, parks and open space system, which outlines a framework for future development and goals, specifically in the Belgrade area. One of those goals was the development of a neighborhood park along the West tributary of Kelsey Creek, which is depicted by the, I guess, the leftmost stream and the red star over the project site and the N 2. This project is also supported by funding from the 22 twenty twenty two parks and open space levy. Our park development process.

This is a summary of our kind of the general, phases of our normal park development process. Typically, we start, kind of with the second bullet, which is the master planning and park naming process. But given, the attributes of this site, they're pretty, pretty unique. Therefore, we felt the need for some, to spend a couple of months developing feasibility studies for certain elements of the site to kind of, outline what we might be able to do and might not be able to do and inform future design when we do get into the master planning process. After the master planning process, we move into construction design and permitting and then eventually into construction.

Some of the potential design opportunities at this site, which we are, currently reviewing, through our feasibility processes include, the stream daylighting. On the graphic to the right, the blue line loosely depicts the path of, the existing stream, which is primarily underground. And we will be evaluating whether or not, we can daylight that and what daylighting looks like and how it would impact future park design. In addition to that, we'll also be evaluating, trail connections, some of which, were envisioned to run parallel to the to the outline of the stream. Others on the site might be able to extend to the, parcel to the north of the development parcel, which is, which is a utilities property and mostly wetland.

And then others may run along the path of a future right away that is planned to bisect the property on the northernmost parcel. There will also be considerations given to repurposing of the existing building on the site, which is depicted by the red star in the bottom left corner. This is a a very old, storage building. We, will evaluate, kind of what we might be able to do with repurposing it for some future park programming or, you know, whatever whatever, uses we might see being valuable to us with that building. But it speaks to the old history of the, of the area and the site in general.

It's industrial past, so it's something that we wanted to take into consideration with, conceptual design. And then lastly, site sustainability. Any design work that we will be moving forward with, we will, we will do so with, the city's sustainable plan in mind. I, personally, will hope that we would be able to also meet the, the newly incorporated Envision Sustainability Program and certification. As a part of the feasibility studies that we're doing, we're also evaluating how well this pro this project might align with, getting certification under the invasion program, and that will, determine whether we are able to go forward with that or not.

But I'm hopeful that we can because we have some, we have several elements that I think would qualify. Potential design challenges. Northeast Spring Boulevard Zone 3 design and construction. This is a transportation project for a new right of way that's going to connect, 1 24th and 1 30th. This is depicted by the yellow line that's bisecting the northern parcel of the park property.

We are working closely, in concert and collaborating with transportation, about this project and kinda determining how both of the projects align with one another so that we can help inform each other on different elements of design for both the transportation project and the parks project. I will have, or I do have a couple of transportation representatives on my project team for this project to help, facilitate that as we go forward. But, definitely, it will be, as we move along, it will be, there'll be some challenges in trying to satisfy both the balance of both projects, you know, for the benefit of both sides. Also, there are existing infrastructure on the site which will remain, as and basically become part of the park. These are, two two to three utility, sites depicted by the yellow the yellow diamonds on the picture.

It's, the bottom left diamond is a sewer pump station, that will remain, and the upper right one is a, kind of a weir that leads into the, the upper wetland parcel. So with both of those remaining, we need to come up with a design that will still allow access for operations and maintenance of, both of these both of these objects. And there's also a couple few that are underground, which we'll also have to take into consideration and continue, to allow access. And lastly, property edges. BellRed is a transforming, neighborhood.

So we will be tasked with coming up with a design that will, somehow integrate and support the changes to the surrounding neighborhood, especially our neighbors to the East and to the South. We don't know what that will look like in the future, but we do know something is coming and there will be change in what's out there today. So we'll be tasked with trying to come up with something that will, that that will integrate in a nice way between the park and the more commercial areas around it. Our public outreach and engagement, stages, as we as we typically do with master plan processes such as this, we'll offer, several opportunities to engage with the public and hear their thoughts on, on our, design options and things they would like to see in the park. I anticipate having, three to four, community meetings.

Also, potential pop ups and, tabling events, where possible. We will probably have, two two to three, additional park board meetings in addition to this one. And then, there will also be the ability for people to track the project process online through the project web page and, the I'm sorry. Not solicitation, but oh, jeez. Where are we where

do

you go if you wanna listen to if you would like to sign up and get updates on the project going forward?

You know, distribution.

Yes. Yes. Thank you. Sorry. So those will all be opportunities for public outreach and engagement going forward.

This is our estimated timeline. I touched on a couple of these items. We hope to have, in addition to this park board meeting, a couple more culminating with the the fourth quarter twenty twenty six park board meeting, which we hope at that time to have a preferred plan for you to review and make a rec recommendation to to counsel following year, probably 2027. And as I stated, there will be a series of community meetings, in q two and q three. Hopefully, we're aiming for the first one here in late August, early May, for our first introductory meeting to the public, which is our next steps here.

So so with that, if there's any questions or comments, I'd be happy to, take those now.

Thank you so much for your presentation. So, yeah, does anyone have some initial questions or comments about this process? Oh, go ahead, Eric.

In regards to the existing infrastructure that we potentially have to work around, I'm making an assumption here based upon past projects that we would do something to incorporate the way like, blend them in, hide them in, like, as compared to just having a water pump sitting in the middle of a field with road access for the I mean, we would do something to make it so it's appealing within the project itself.

Yes. To the best of our ability. I mean, some of the some of the infrastructures that that's there, like the pump station. I mean, there's only so much you can do to to hide a pump station, but some of the smaller things like some of the inverts for some of the utility areas, those things we could come up with some creative solutions to work around them, certainly.

Yeah. For, you know, for exist existing buildings in that, taking advantage of some of our local artists and beautifying the exterior as compared to just having a building sit in the middle of it, make it a a focal point. If it's gotta be there, make something of it. So I'd be interested in hearing ideas. And if those are relatively simple and cheap ways for us to beautify an existing structure that otherwise might be an eyesore. So

Yeah. The we are I guess one of the benefits of the location of this site, we're right next door to the the Art Dash art District there in Bell Red, and that's definitely one of the partner groups that I'm hoping to reach out and collaborate with on just for that reason. I mean, we'll have some elements that we can, you know, improve upon maybe through some artist installations or some other opportunities like that. So, yes, definitely. Thank you. I look forward

to it. Alright.

Does anyone else have a question? Elizabeth?

Yeah. I have a couple of questions. So the what an interesting project. It looks very, very challenging. I'm really interested to hear what the community has to say. So and this is more for Cameron, but, hopefully, we'll get information about those meetings ahead of time so we can attend and hear what the community's ideas are because I think they all probably have a lot of interesting ideas. There's so few parks in that space, so it's awesome that you got a big space. My question question is the the stream that says fish bearing, what challenges is that going to present? And can you tell us a little bit more about that stream? Because it looks like it's, like, literally going between two parking lots, and there's fish in there. Are they doing okay? Like,

what's going on?

Well, I can't speak to the health of the fish, but, hopefully, if we're able to, well, first of all, we're eval we'll evaluate whether we can daylight that or not. It's partially daylighted, at the current time, but you'll notice the line kinda screens out as you go further south because it's piped, and it continues to be piped between the buildings. One of the challenges is it does run off of the city property. We do not own any, any properties to the south of that, so, we'll kind of be limited in that regard. But, some of the things that we'll have to take into consideration is, given the fact once you daylight a stream, there's gonna be some buffer zones around that.

So depending on what we're told from regulators, how wide that buffer zone has to be and where it has to be, we'll have to make some design considerations around that. So it's some of those things. I mean, things like that, things like depth, how deep the pipe is in the ground, and how deep the water is in the ground. All that's gonna help tell the story about, how we might go about making it healthier in the condition of the potential condition of the fish and so on.

Thank you.

Yeah. So it's, you know, in terms of the fish bearing qualities, that's more of a a a system wide approach. And, certainly, with the amount of pipe stream today that it's not currently conducive to fish using it, but we can sort of do what we can in our design to improve our reach. And then as other redevelopment happens, those that also have pipe segments, we'll sort of consider what they need to do, with that goal of ultimately, having them be, successfully fish bearing.

Go ahead, Michelle.

Darren, nice to meet you, Wyatt. Thank you for the presentation. I think my question was around the location and the neighborhood. I was curious around, you know, understanding, you know, who was our intended target audience for the park. Right?

Like, looking at the images, there's so much commercial property around it, a lot of parking. So I'm just wondering, like, what are the neighborhoods and kind of the walkable residential areas or the potential folks that would kind of walk into this park just to try to understand, right, like, what park would better service, you know, that type of community member. Do we know, like, how far away would we have, like, a neighborhood or kind of a maybe residential area? Or would folks drive into this park from from other communities?

At the current time, there'll probably be more folks driving in, but Bell Red, is increasing its amount of residential, capacity. So there are, a number of dwellings that are being constructed, around the borders of Bell Red, if you will, apartment complexes, fairly large apartment complexes. So given the time that it would take us between now and reaching construction, I always expect those buildings to be full, and I expect those people to be probably the primary users of this park because they're all within walking distance. Also, we have the Spring District area just to the west of the park site, and there are a couple apartment complexes in the Spring District as well. So, I think those would be the main users of the site.

Given that this is a neighborhood park, again, we we would kinda lean more towards people walking to it than driving to it, because parking parking lot is gonna be limited. So, I think that the effort would be supported by, the incoming residential community. That's not quite there yet, but it's on the way within the time that we will be designing and constructing.

Awesome. Thank you. What did what's the distance, like, do you think from the park to the Spring District? And, you know, is there a possibility to connect that or to have, like, a walk like, walkable access to and from? I'm not again, there's there's so much development development happening in this area. You know, we're talking about buildings that are gonna be developed in the future, which we don't know what they will look like either, and how the roads and access around them is gonna change. So I know it's a very hard question to answer. But

Yeah. In terms of distance, I don't know

Too far away.

My head, but well, we can't have an idea from I know it's walkable.

You have one of your bats.

Don't know. Maybe there's an image we can take a quick look.

It's it's pretty easily walkable.

Yeah. It's easily walkable? Okay. Yeah. So there could be a potential to connect or to have, like, you know, a corridor or, you know, some preplanned connecting point between them. If that was the case, that would

be Well, the new the right of way connection that transportation is working on, that actually could help connect the Spring District to, this site. I mean, that's one of the reasons that it's, being built as, like, a connection pathway. It's kinda hard to see from the map, but kind of in the center of the parcel there, it is where Northeast Spring Boulevard comes in, from the Spring District on the left hand side there. Yeah. Maybe if I go to think a

a walk shed analysis is something that we can do as part of the initial planning study to understand what radius around the park within a third mile Mhmm. You know, based on today's infrastructure as well as based on what we anticipate future sidewalk infrastructure would look like so we can get a sense of which parcels, whether they're residential today or they're industrial or whatever they are today, we could assume that there's gonna be some sort of change in the future. And then, you know, maybe not all of it would be residential, but we could at least see the impact to, I think, to address your question of, you know, could people walk from their residence, from their place of work, from a restaurant, from whatever might happen in the future, could they walk to this park? I think we can find out what that geographic area looks like.

Yeah. Think that would be fascinating. And, I think I'm not able to place myself and, with the images, kind of see it visually, so, you know, apologies about that. But I think that's something that we can, you know, in future presentations, just, you know, what would that look like and kind of show that to get that perspective. And if that would be one of the main walkability or access points to the park, you know, for that and all other access would primarily be drive in, then that sounds like a core component probably. So thank you. Appreciate it.

Elizabeth, did you have a question?

I just wanted to say, if you zoom out, you can see on the other side of BellRed, there's a bunch of like, not on this. But if you go to Google Maps, there's a bunch of residential stuff on the other side. And if you know Mock's boarding house and the it's it's, like, right by there. So there's a ton of, like, walkability like, walkable areas and a train station, like, right there. Yeah. Yeah. Look at it. Yeah. It's fine.

Oh, Aileen?

Yeah. Thank you for the presentation, and welcome, Wyatt. I think last time you were in the audience, maybe it was, like, your day one on the

It was.

Michael introduced you, so thank you. I actually drive by that road all the time, and I see the change. Because before, like, the Coca Cola plant's always very industrial. There's a car dealership or car, like, shops, and then there's, like, a discount tire. But now I see more townhomes townhouses. There's quite a few projects. So I think so there will be residents there. How big is this gonna park gonna be?

This is a this it's an eight acre park as it stands right now. Eight

acre. Acre.

Yeah. But It's quite large. Yeah. But keep in mind, not all of that is gonna be

because Ashwood is, like, two acre. Yeah. So this is eight acre land. Okay.

Yeah. All combined. But but once we get, to the point of constructing this thing, it's not all gonna be dedicated to not all eight acres are gonna be dedicated to parkland because of the right of way that's gonna take two to three acres by itself.

But at least four acres you think the park end up being?

Somewhere in there. Yeah.

Sizable.

They were sizable.

Yes. Okay. Okay.

And then are we thinking there will be some kind of structure on it or just, like, park, walking path, and some picnic areas? Or are we looking at

We are considering, some structure, there. As I mentioned, we are thinking about seeing if it's possible to, repurpose that existing structure, first and foremost. But if not, you know, there could be considerations to other structures. Yes. Because we have we do have the space for it. So

Okay. I see. Yeah. One thing I think, some of my colleague mentioned that I think being in the heart of Bell Red Art District, I really would love to see this part just continuing the theme of that being in the Art District so people recognize that. And then I think it's kind of interesting area to develop a park because, you know, again, they're business.

There's industries, and I think there are gonna be increasing number of residents. I'm assuming that the people in the townhomes could potentially have needs for, like, off leash park kind of, for dog off leash. But I'd be curious in, like, the first community meeting, what kind of so how why do you can advertise the community, meeting and to to to have them join? How do you get the words out?

Well, we would at least do, a third of a mile outreach from the park site, yeah, from the Center Park site. But given this kinda unique neighborhood Yes. I'm going to expand that. I plan to expand that and, even pinpoint those apartment complexes that I mentioned that are kind of going around the border and and mess messaging them directly about it. And then also, the Spring District by itself, that's another, block of, of folks that we that I'll be reaching out to directly. So it'll be an expanded version of our normal outreach process just because of the unique nature of, BellRent.

Yeah. Yeah. I think there's also another, daycare, pretty large, used to call it, children house or something. Like, it's it's it's not that far from there as well. So I think some of the business might be you know, especially if they're serving the kids, that might be a good audience as well. But, yeah, I'm I'm really I think this is a quite unique location with, probably potentially various challenges Yeah. To how to best develop, this park. So thank you. Looking forward to it.

Paulie, you're next.

Hi. Thank you so much, Wyatt. This was, great to see the sort of burst of a network in Bellevue or sorry, Belle Red Park start to take shape. In regards to that, though, because I I believe the plan is and should be and has been documented in our comprehensive plan that there will be more parks in BellRed than this, I hope that as you are developing throughout this process, I'm gonna be term limited off the parks board in a few months, so I won't be able to to directly provide input. But, I hope that you are maintaining a sort of a sense of a I don't know.

What could be, part of a continued design language for future parks in the area such that there is a kind of a cohesive branding or a cohesive branding sounds too corporate, but this idea that when somebody is in one of the Bell Red Parks, there is an immediate, recognition visually that they are in the BellRed neighborhood. Don't know what form that takes. Certainly wouldn't wouldn't try to micromanage that. But, as you're going, going through the process, I I would ask that you sort of document as well as you can, what kind of, themes you're working with such that they can be reproduced, not carbon copied, but reproduced in in future parks. I definitely echo what, Michelle was saying about kind of the unique nature of the, again, corporate speak, customer base for this park because it it is reasonable to point out that most of the people using this park don't live in the area yet.

There's also this this it's it's it is important that we take into account what kind of light rail users, if if we could develop a persona for the, different types of light rail users that are going to be getting off at the the nearest stops, whether or not that's a worker in downtown or somewhere, along East Link that is for some reason deciding to, to jump off there, whether that's somebody within walking distance in the residential units that are either there now in the Spring District or are coming, whether that's folks in that sort of sort of that slender, triangular region of North Wilburton that are gonna be walking north to get there. It's a challenge. This is gonna be a much more interesting public feedback process, but I just, yeah, I'd urge you to take into account four, five, six different park user types because this park is is gonna be, I think, more complicated in that sense, and acquiring feedback will also be more challenging. Additionally, I had one question that and I'm I'm not an expert about underground streams, but that underground stream on the diagram sure takes a really sharp right angled turn.

Is there something unusual going on there that I mean, that seems odd for a natural, feature.

Yeah. It's, it's piped at that portion. I agree that that's a hard 90 degree angle for water. It it's at that point.

Okay. So this was intentionally piped at a right right angle?

Yes.

For whatever for whatever reason. Okay. Yeah. That's interesting. And and when it comes to daylighting, I mean, I do believe that the more we can lean into the natural streams in this area, the more we're gonna have a sort of a cohesive BellRed ARC network.

I understand there are limitations. You explained those limitations. I don't know the extent to which the private developer bordering that stream could be induced. This would get into planning and all sorts of other departments, but, certainly, we have we have precedent for, you know, working with developers to for FAR bonuses for amenities, and certainly, would think this would qualify. I would I would hope that if the development of that parcel is at a point where communications with the developer are possible, I would hope you'd at least see what could be done there.

I know that's a very complicated sort of set of talks, but, I think it could really bear fruit in terms of bringing about a unique, just a really unique natural set of features all throughout the Bell Red area. And it would be a shame if the very first part becomes sort of something different than that. But, again, I understand their constraints, and I I know that's not something that can be guaranteed at this point. And and I do echo the, the I think it was Elizabeth that said pointed out the the value of an off leash area here. I do think that this is a point where, as much as I talked about the stick earlier, the carrot does become much more, of a of a realistic thing.

And I'm not saying we need a massive, off leash area, but I think that when we were looking at Woodlawn Park way back when we were we were planning that, board member Hamilton Hamilton at the time actually pointed out that there's some pretty good research that a quarter acre is more than sufficient for most off leash areas. Not that more wouldn't be better if if the space were readily available, but that a significant amount of value can be had for that, especially with folks that are dog owners inside of the multifamily that's already there and is is coming there as well. So I think that was the sum of my comments, but this is this is definitely exciting. Looking forward to seeing this take shape. So, yeah, thanks again for coming.

Thanks, Paul. Any more comments? I'll share a few comments then. Thank you, Wyatt and Zarian. It looks like a fun project.

Lots of things to navigate, like, with the utilities and everything. Looking back at how some previous park community inputs have taken place, I really loved in past park designs that you all went to, like, neighborhood block parties to try to connect with people. I think in one instance, you had a table at a grocery store, I think. Was that one? I thought I thought that was really neat to see different creative ways to get in touch with the local community and to continue with that, I think, would be awesome.

I think with the last park, I don't think there was a an online Zoom meeting for one of the community meetings. So if possible, if we could have an online option for some of the community meetings, I think that would be really helpful to I think I heard, like, some parents who have, like, young kids, and they make dinner on Canna 10. So I think that would be really helpful. I'm looking at the space. So I know the area is pretty, like, calm creek area, so I think it'd be cool to get some more green, I guess, in the region.

So that's something I I'd be excited about. I'm really excited about, hearing how this feasibility study goes with the stream daylighting. I'm curious about the topography. Is it a pretty flat area, or is it hilly? Hard for me to tell from this picture.

It's relatively relatively flat. It kind of ridges up on the north end and and slopes towards the south, but relatively flat.

Okay. Cool. Would it be possible for us to tour? I don't know if that's asking too much. I know it's under construction, but that might be a fun field trip to see it in person if possible. Sorry. I'm just full of request. That's actually everyone else sort of asked similar questions I had. So, yeah, I think very excited about this. Any other final comments?

I can speak to the, you mentioned, about, with our last park with Eastgate. Mhmm. Participating in some of the tabling events. They do have, there is a, like, a, arts, celebration, in Bell Red that they had last year, and they're having that again this year. And I have reached out, to them, and, there is an opportunity in September, for, for tabling at that event.

So, yeah, I'm gonna, try to do something similar to, to get get the word out. And, at that point in the design, we might have, some, some alternatives to look at too. So that that I think that'll be a good opportunity. Awesome.

Great to hear. Does anyone oh, Paul, go for it.

Yeah. I I did wanna I know I was echoing a lot. I wanted to echo one more thing about pedestrian and bicycle access because we have a we have a challenge throughout the city, and Bike Belvieu struggles with this to to figure out how to make bike paths go from point a to point b in a city that's already been largely built up. In BellRed, we have a great opportunity, though, to provide bike access and pedestrian access in a way that isn't just a sidewalk. The most requested feature that we've seen over and over again in in in resident, feedback has been trails.

And so if we can, especially looking ahead to where future sites might be, if we can sort of rough map out where we might have egress from this park into trails, bicycle and or pedestrian, multiuse trails preferably, especially if they can if they can run along streams. That might be too much to ask, but that would be, certainly the the the best of all worlds, I would think. If if we can if we can, as much as possible, sort of preload that into any park design, I really do think that's important. So that was it. Thanks.

Any other final questions, comments? If we have any further questions about this, do we email you all? Or yeah. I guess we'll we'll email you both. And I guess we look forward to finding out when that first community meeting takes place. I'm sure all of us will wanna attend.

Okay.

Alright. Thank you so much. Thank you. Alright. With that, we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is new business, and we'll turn it over to Cameron.

Okay. So, looking forward to the March meeting. The agenda for that meeting has been a little dynamic lately, so I don't have much to share this evening. But we are working on continuing our presentations on different department programs and facilities and then have some lines out for some of the also the citywide planning projects that are underway that stop by as well. So nothing confirmed tonight, but we'll definitely have something for you to do.

March?

Yes.

Yeah. I guess Yeah. That's. Yeah. Thinks so.

Yeah. So okay. If anyone thinks they'll be remote, the March 18 meeting, speak up now or send staff and us an email, The calendar. Okay. We'll go to the next item, which is, we've completed all the items on tonight's agenda, and so all the meeting adjourned. Did I miss something? No. Okay. This is. Yeah. That was hilarious. Thanks, Paul.

Good to see you. See you, everyone. See you all next month. Thanks.

Bye. I mean, Hawaii. Right? Same.